A partition is a part of a hard drive and you have the choice to determine the number
of partition on your hard drive. After partitioning a hard drive, there are more
partitions. The computer will regard each partition as a separate disk and each of
them will be showed under "Windows Explorer" (Local Disk C:, Local Disk
D:, Local Disk E: and so on ).
Some partitions are available to operating system
while you can store data in the others partitions. Therefore, after installing a
hard drive in Windows 10, you need to partition it at first, and then format it
before it can be available to Windows 10.
Usually, there is only one partition on hard drive which is made by the computer
manufacturers. However, most Windows 10 users will create more partitions if there
is only one partition or C: drive on hard drive. Why do they need more
partitions?
As for most of users, there are two essential reasons. One reason is that your
computer can be attacked by virus someday, if this disaster happens on your
partition and you format the partition. What will happen? If there was only one
partition on hard drive that means all of your data will be wiped after formatting.
Nobody wants this exist in his life, so more partitions to store different things or
used to backup are
really necessary.
Another reason is that you can separate your operating system, programs and data. In
this way, it is more convenience for you to manage your different data. What’s more
important is that if one day your system is crashed, you just need to reinstall
system; the programs or data stored in other partitions are still safe.
Besides the two reasons mentioned above, some users partition hard drive due to they
want to have multiple operating systems on the same computer or they worry too many
things in the same partition will drop down the speed of computer. No matter which
reason makes them partition hard drive in Windows 10, there is no doubt that this is
a wise choice for them.
It sounds very difficult for users to partition hard drive, but don't worry, Windows 10 Disk Management tool
and third-party free partition software like AOMEI
Partition Assistant Standard will help you partition hard drive easily and
safely.
Before you do:
If the hard drive of your Windows 10 is MBR, please make sure how many partitions
have been on hard drive? Due to MBR disk only supports maximum 3 primary partitions
plus 1 extended partition or 4 primary partitions. If the number of partitions has
reached the limitation, please learn how to convert primary partition to
logical. However if your disk is GPT, there is
no limitation for the number of partitions.
Method 1: Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10 with Disk Management
Tool
Disk Management is a tool built in all Windows versions to manage hard disk
partitions, such as create, delete and format partitions, change drive letter,
shrink volume, extend volume and perform other disk-related tasks.
Step 1: To partition Windows 10 hard drive, let's get started
from opening Disk Management Tool in Windows 10. The easiest way is to right click
Start Menu and select "Disk Management".

Step 2: Select the hard drive you want to partition. Right click a
partition (here is D: drive) and select "Shrink Volume".

Step 3: In the pop-up window, you can modify the amount of space to
shrink. And then click "Shrink".

Step 4: After Step 3, you will find a unallocated space behind D
drive. Then, right click on it and select "New Simple Volume" and follow
the wizard to format and create a new partition.

Notes: The unallocated space created by shrinking a partition can be
only used to create new partitions. You cannot use it to extend volume. That's
why you may find "Disk
Management extend volume greyed out".
Method 2: Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10 with AOMEI Partition Assistant
(Recommended)
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a
free, complete and easy-to-use partition manager and disk utility to optimize disk
space usage, change disk partition type and perform other tasks based on disk
partitions. It offers two ways to create a
partition. One is to create partition with unallocated space; the other is
to create partition without unallocated space. You can choose the way that is
suitable for you.
Step1: Download, install and
launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Select the hard drive in your Windows 10 system
that you want to partition (here is Disk 1). Right click on a drive (here is D:
partition) and then choose "Resize Partition" (If there
is an unallocated disk space on hard drive, you can start from Step3).

Step2: Drag the slider bar leftwards to decide the size of
unallocated space, and then click "OK".

Step3: After Step2, you will see there is an unallocated space
behind D partition. Then, right click on the unallocated space and choose "Create
Partition".

Step4: You can drag the slider bar to decide the size, change drive
letter and file system. Besides, you also can click "Advanced>>" to
set other property. Click "OK" to continue.

Step5: You will preview there is a new drive (F: partition) on the
hard drive. If you want to perform the operation, please click "Apply".

Tips:
If you don't want to use the whole unallocated space to create new
partition, why not add some
unallocated space into a partition?
If there is no unallocated space on a hard drive, you also can use split partition to create new
partition.
If you partition on SSD disk, we suggest you to tick "SSD partition
alignment" to align the partition(s).
With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, you can partition hard drive in
Windows 10 easily and safely. Moreover, the other features of this powerful software
can help you manage partitions completely, such as extend partition, merge partitions, move partition and learn more features of AOMEI Partition Assistant.