Primary file after table partitioning - SQL Server 2014
This might not be a completed answer but I cannot put all these in comment section.  Once you edit your question with more information I will edit the answer if required.

I am sure you did not get the exact error message you mentioned in the question. Transaction log disappeared since there was no room due to ACTIVE_TRANSACTION --Did you mean you transaction could not be completed because log file ran out of space?


  the partition is successful and that this is an indexing issue.


Use below query to find out details about your partitions.

SELECT 
    OBJECT_NAME(SI.object_id) AS PartitionedTable
    , DS.name AS PartitionSchemeName
    , PF.name AS PartitionFunction
    , P.partition_number AS PartitionNumber
    , P.rows AS PartitionRows
    , FG.name AS FileGroupName
FROM sys.partitions AS P
JOIN sys.indexes AS SI
    ON P.object_id = SI.object_id AND P.index_id = SI.index_id 
JOIN sys.data_spaces AS DS
    ON DS.data_space_id = SI.data_space_id
JOIN sys.partition_schemes AS PS
    ON PS.data_space_id = SI.data_space_id
JOIN sys.partition_functions AS PF
    ON PF.function_id = PS.function_id 
JOIN sys.destination_data_spaces AS DDS
    ON DDS.partition_scheme_id = SI.data_space_id 
    AND DDS.destination_id = P.partition_number
JOIN sys.filegroups AS FG
    ON DDS.data_space_id = FG.data_space_id
WHERE DS.type = 'PS'
AND OBJECTPROPERTYEX(SI.object_id, 'BaseType') = 'U'
AND SI.type IN(0,1)
ORDER BY PartitionedTable, partitionnumber



  the Primary is still taking up the full 230GB or is it just allocated
  space that appears used on my drive. If so, can I safely shrink this
  without fragmentation?


Run below query to find out how much of 230GB is being used/free. 

SELECT  NAME = LEFT(a.NAME, 64) ,
    a.FILEID ,
    [FILE_SIZE_MB] = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ROUND(a.size / 128.000, 2)) ,
    [SPACE_USED_MB] = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ROUND(FILEPROPERTY(a.name,
                                                          'SpaceUsed')
                                                    / 128.000, 2)) ,
    [FREE_SPACE_MB] = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ROUND(( a.size
                                                      - FILEPROPERTY(a.name,
                                                          'SpaceUsed') )
                                                    / 128.000, 2)) ,
    [PERCENT_FREE] = CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ( CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ROUND(( a.size
                                                          - FILEPROPERTY(a.name,
                                                          'SpaceUsed') )
                                                          / 128.000, 2))
                                               * 100 )
    / CONVERT(DECIMAL(12, 2), ROUND(a.size / 128.000, 2))) ,
    FILENAME = LEFT(a.FILENAME, 66)
    FROM    dbo.sysfiles a



  there is an issue with the missing transaction log. If not, where is
  it going?


If your database is online (as you mentioned you are able to query the database) your transaction log file is not missing.