I have a new HP laptop, model dv6-6c85la, with 1TB hard drive, and it has 4 primary partitions, like this:

|<- system [199 MB] ->|<- c: [899.8 GB] ->|<- d:(recovery) [27.5 GB] ->|<- e:(hp_tools) [4 GB] ->|

I wanted to make another partition, splitting "C" which is the main partition, into TWO partitions, and leave the rest as it is. but it doesn't let me because they are already 4 primary partitions (the ones in the diagram).

I read somewhere, that i could in fact split C into 2 partitions, but only if the adjacent partition (in this case d:(recovery) is converted into a "logical" partition. That way, the new unallocated part taken from C, and the recovery partition, would each be logical, "inside" an extended partition (right???)

As i understand, the resulting partitions would be:

1. primary (system, no letter),
2. primary (c:),
3. extended [ logical (x:) | logical(d:recovery) ],
4. primary (e: hp_tools)

"x" being the new one. am i correct?

My question is, if i do convert the recovery partition to logical (and thus, it is inside an extended partition adjacent to the new "x:" one), would i have any problems when in case of a disaster i would like to restore the system using the now logical instead of primary RECOVERY partition?

Or it is completely safe to change it to logical? My main concern is because i think i may need to be primary so the recovery can proceed in boot time? Or i am completely wrong? how does the recovery process happens?

I also understand that i can simply create recovery media, in DVDs, and then even i would be able to delete that recovery partition completely, but as of now, i don't want to do that. I may create the disks, but i don't want to delete the partition, simply because it would be a lot faster and easier to recover from a hard drive than disks.

Wrapping up: if i change a recovery partition from primary to logical, will the system still be capable of using it to recover? or it NEEDS to be primary to work?

The whole point is that i want to split C:, but as things are, i cant directly, i'd need to change the recovery partition to logical. Or is there another way?

thanks.