Windows 7 max 4 partitions?

[Ankur]

I am looking to have a partition for my 500GB HDD. it actually has 4 partions in which 350 GB is C main drive, 100 GB is gaming drive and 24 GB is back up and 12 MB i'm not sure what it is for. The problem is I want to have another drive for softwares. I shrinked C drive and used the unallocated space for the new partition but it says max number of partitions reached. What should I do?
I am new to Windows 7.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

You can have maximum 4 PRIMARY partitions.To create 5. partition of that unpartitioned space,create it as a secondary partition (extended partition).

 

[User0one]

I would just scrap the idea of installing software on another Partition. I always make the Windows Partition big enough for Windows, and the programs.

If you ever have to reinstall Windows you also have to reinstall the software, so no real point keeping it separated.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

I would just scrap the idea of installing software on another Partition. I always make the Windows Partition big enough for Windows, and the programs.

If you ever have to reinstall Windows you also have to reinstall the software, so no real point keeping it separated.

I completely agree with you.I know some people who make WINDOWS partition C: to be only 10 GB big and other D: partition 100 GB big and later they cant install programs on the C: partition because there is not enough room on it and the programs can ONLY be installed on the C: partition xD.This is one of the reasons why I create ONLY ONE partition C: which uses the ENTIRE hard disk drive.What's the point of having multiple partitions lol.I remember once when I bough a laptop.It had Windows XP Home already installed.It also had C: partition 9 GB big and D: partition 32 GB big.I installed Doom 3 game on C: and played the game normaly.I saved the game couple of times and then after I BARELY beated one enemy in hell I wanted to put the "precious" save game,BUT GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?I got the message that said:"There is not enough room on the C: drive.Please delete unneeded items and try again." My first reaction was:"FU.CKING MULTIPLE PARTITIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
Anyway...I got so pissed off that I backed up my PRECIOUS saved games and other data and completely formatted (killed ) the HDD with the Kill Disk DOS tool and then installed XP PRO OS by making ONLY ONE C: partition which uses my entire HDD.