How to Create a Partition || Sana Blog

Posted by on
Hard drive partitions allow the computer to treat one hard drive as multiple distinct volumes. This enables you to install multiple operating systems or create a second drive for storing specific files. You can easily create new partitions from your free space in Windows and Mac, though Windows XP users will need third-party tools to accomplish the same thing.



Creating a Partition in Windows Vista, 7, and 8


Create a Partition Step 1
1
Open the Disk Management utility. Open the Run dialog box from the Start menu or by pressing ⊞ Win+R. Type diskmgmt.msc and press ↵ Enter. This will open a window that allows you to manage all of the volumes and drives installed in your system
Create a Partition Step 2
2
Manage your unallocated space. Partitions are created from unallocated space or free space on your hard drive. You can create more unallocated space by shrinking an existing volume. This will remove the available storage space from that volume and turn it into unallocated space.
  • Right-click a volume and select "Shrink Volume..." to begin the volume shrinking process. You will be able to choose how much of the free space you want to remove from the volume to turn into unallocated space.
  • You won't be able to turn all of the available storage into unallocated space because some of that available storage is reserved for unmovable files. You can increase the space you can reclaim by defragmenting the drive first.
  • If you want to merge two blocks of unallocated space together, you will need to use a tool like GParted or Partition Manager.

Create a Partition Step 3
3
Create the new partition. Right-click on the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume". This will open a wizard that will walk you through the steps to create the new partition.
  • Set the size. The first thing you will be asked is how big you want the partition to be. By default, it will be set to the same size as the entire block of unallocated space, but you can choose to make it smaller if you wish. Any unused space will remain unallocated.
  • Assign a drive letter. All partitions need a drive letter, which allows them to have addresses for files located on the partition. You can choose any letter that you'd like as long as you don't already have a drive using that letter. Avoid using A: and B: as these are older drive letters reserved for floppy disk drives.

Create a Partition Step 4
4
Format the volume. Ensure that the volume is set to be formatted, otherwise you cannot use it to store files. If you are using the volume to store files for Windows, set the file system to NTFS. Enter a name for the volume in the "Volume label" field.[2]
  • Check the "Perform a quick format" box unless you are worried that the disk is damaged.
  • If you are going to be using the volume to install an operating system on, you don't have to worry about formatting it now.

Creating a Partition in Windows XP:

 

Create a Partition Step 12
1
Download a partition tool. There is no way to shrink a volume in Windows XP, which means that you can't create a partition out of the free space on your hard drive. You will need to use a partition utility like Partition Wizard or GParted to shrink your existing volume.[4]
 

Create a Partition Step 13
2
Resize your existing partition. Use the partition tool you downloaded to resize one of your existing partitions. The amount you can shrink the partition is based on the location of unmovable files, and this amount can be increased by defragmenting your hard drive.
  • See this guide for details on using GParted to change your partition size.
  • See this guide for details on using Partition Manager to change your partition size.
Create a Partition Step 14
3
Create a new partition. Once you've resized your old partition, you will have a chunk of unallocated space. You can use this to create your new partition. You can either use all of the available unallocated space or you can set it to a portion of it.
  • You can either create the partition using the partition tool that you downloaded, or you can use Windows Disk Management as described in the first section.
Create a Partition Step 15

4
Format the new partition. Before you can use your new partition, you will need to give it a file system and a label. 
Create a Partition Step 16
5
Repair your boot record. If you resized your operating system's partition, it could cause Windows to not be able to boot. In order to fix this you will need to perform a repair installation of Windows. You will need the Windows XP installation disc for this process.

Comments

Post a Comment