Reasons to partition a hard drive
Partition, an independent part of disk, is used to do some specific aims. As we all
know, many computer users create new volumes to store their personal information,
for example, partition a hard drive for backups. Generally speaking, there are two
volumes in the disk: one for operating system applications, and the other for data
and files. Based on personal's needs, the more various files and data to keep,
the more volumes need to create. Why need to partition a disk? Here are several
reasons:
When there is something wrong in one partition, the other will not be
affected. Putting all the things in one volume will seem too disorganized and
undertake a great risk, because when the system crashes or virus attacks, all
the information in the disk will be lost.
For business workers, storing files and data with classification makes them
work fluently and easily.
If there are some files or data need to encrypt, it will save a lot of time
to lay them in single partition, rather than the whole disk. Meanwhile, the
system partition cannot be encrypted.
Partition a hard drive for dual boot. With the desire of using dual boot or
multiple boots, a series of volumes are necessary to put them apart in order to
make them work.
Partition a hard drive after installing Windows 7. After installing an OS,
the hard drive partition layout may become unreasonable.
How to partition a hard drive on Windows 7/8/10?
Partition a hard drive using Disk Management
Partition a hard drive has many meanings. It is important that you understand what
you want. Given that you have already existing partitions on the hard drive and just
want to resize some of the partitions or create a new partition to better manage
files. Disk Management can help you achieve the goal. If you have unallocated space
on the hard drive, you can partition a hard drive by creating a new volume. If you
don’t have an unallocated space, generate one by shrinking one of the existing
partitions. Steps are very simple.
Right click the “Computer” icon on the desktop and select “Manage”. Click
“Disk Management” under “Storage”.
Right click the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”. Follow the
wizard to complete creating. You can create a NTFS or FAT32 partition.
If you don’t have unallocated space on the hard drive, right click any
redundant partition and select “Shrink Volume” to generate one. Then repeat
above step to create a partition.
Partition a hard drive using CMD
Supposing that you have an empty hard drive needs to be partitioned. You can utilize
Diskpart in Windows Command Prompt to create several primary partitions or extended
partitions.
Press “Windows + R” key to open Run box. Type “cmd” to open “Command Prompt”.
Then input “diskpart” and hit Enter.
Type “list disk”.
Type “select disk 1”. Disk 1 stands for your empty hard drive.
Type one of these commands to create desire partition: “create partition
primary [size=n] [offset=n] [ID=byte | GUID] [noerr]” or “create partition
extended [size=n] [offset=n] [noerr]” or “create partition logical [size=n]
[offset=n] [noerr]”.
Type “assign letter=H”. Then partition H would be the one you just
created.
Tips: To create more partitions, please repeat above steps.
How to partition a hard drive and keep files?
In order to better manage the disk, it is essential to do some operations, like
resize, create and delete partition. To achieve all these goals, powerful software
to partition a hard drive in Windows 7, 8, 10, XP, Vista—AOMEI Partition Assistant
Professional Edition, is extremely helpful. Let's see how to partition a
hard drive without losing data respectively.
Tips: To partition a hard drive with no important data on, you can
right click the hard drive and select “Quick
Partition” to create multiple partitions at a time.
Resize Partition
on a hard disk
Supposing that the system drive C has a small space, while D: has a larger space and
most of space is not used. In this case, this magic tool can help to extend C by
freeing some space in D:. In fact, the built-in disk management in Windows 7/8/Vista
has the option "Extend Volume", but it is limited. Yet, it is apparent
that the previous Windows operating systems don't have the utility. Thus, the
third software is needed. Now, let's see the steps below.
Step 1: Download the partition software to begin, and
right click D: to choose "Resize Partition".
Step 2: Do as the following picture to free the unallocated space.
After that, click "OK".
Step 3: Right click C: to choose "Resize Partition". In
the following window, drag the double-headed arrow to right. After that, please
select "OK".
Step 4: Click "Apply" to commit the task.
Create a
new volume in Windows 7/8/10
It is so easy to create a new volume in Windows 7. AOMEI Partition Assistant can
create new partition even if there is no unallocated space. With the help of AOMEI
Partition Assistant Professional Edition:
Step 1: Start it and right click the unallocated space to
select "Create Partition".
Step 2: Specify the details of new volume. Move and resize can
be accessible in this step. By clicking "Advanced", more details will be
presented. After that, please click "OK".
Step 3: Remember to click "Apply" to execute.
Note: When there is no unallocated space in your disk, just click
the volume to choose "Create Partition". Then, follow the wizard to
continue. To learn more, please refer to create
partition in Windows 7 from C drive.
Is it easy? With this partition magic, all your partition problems can be solved
completely. You can even use this software to partition a hard drive on Windows 8 HP
laptop, either in GPT or MBR style. Partitioning external hard drive is also
available. Why not download it to experience more?