How to partition hard drive – GuideSmartPhone.net

What is Hard Disk Partition?

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows means dissecting a part of it and making it available to the operating system. In other words, a hard drive isn’t useful for your operating system until it’s partitioned. Also, you can’t store files on it until it formats (another simple process).

Most of the time, this “part” of the hard drive is the entire usable space, but you can create partition on a hard drive so that you can store your backup files in one partition, movies in another, etc. .

How to partition a hard drive

Partitioning hard drive seems a little more complicated than I thought because it isn’t. Partitioning a hard drive in Windows is not difficult at all and usually only takes a few minutes. Here’s how to do it:

Open Disk Management, the tool included with all versions of Windows that allows you to partition drives, among a number of other things. In Windows 10 and Windows 8 / 8.1, the Power User menu is the easiest way to start Disk Management.

You can also start Disk Management via the command line in any version of Windows, but the Computer Management method is probably the best for most people. See what version of Windows I have? if you are not sure.

When Disk Management opens, a window should appear Initialize disk with the message “A disk must be initialized before Logical Disk Management can access it.”

In Windows XP, you’ll see a screen instead Initialize and Convert Drive Drive. Follow the wizard, making sure not to select the option to “convert” the disk, unless you are sure you need it. Don’t worry if this window doesn’t appear. There are a few reasons why you might not see it – we’ll know soon if there’s a problem or not.

On this screen, you are asked to choose a partition style for the new hard drive. Choose GPT if the new hard drive you installed is 2TB or larger. Choose MBR if it is less than 2TB. Choose OK after making your selection.

Locate the hard drive you want to partition from the drive map at the bottom of the Disk Management window. The window may need to be maximized Disk management O Management computer to view all units below.

An unpartitioned drive will not appear in the drive list at the top of the window. If the hard drive is new, it will probably be on a dedicated line labeled Disk 1 (or 2, etc.) and you will see written Not allocated.

If the space you want to partition is part of an existing drive, you will see Not allocated next to existing partitions on that drive. If you don’t see the drive you want to partition, you may have installed it incorrectly. Turn off the computer and double check that the hard drive is installed correctly.

Once you’ve found the space you want to partition, tap and hold or right-click anywhere and choose New simple volume. In Windows XP, the option is called New partition.

Choose Next> in the window Simple New Volume Wizard displayed. In Windows XP, the screen appears Select partition type, where you need to choose Primary partition. The option Extended partition it’s only useful if you’re creating five or more partitions on a single physical hard drive. To select Next> after making your selection.

Choose Next> in the passage Specify volume size to confirm the size of the drive you are creating. The default size displayed in the field Simple volume size in MB: must be equal to the quantity shown in the field Maximum disk space in MB. This means that you are creating a partition that equals the total available space on the physical hard drive.

You can create a partition, which will eventually become multiple independent drives in Windows. To do this, calculate how many and how large you want those drives to be and repeat these steps to create hard drive partition.

For example, if the drive is 61437MB and you want to partition, specify an initial size of 30718 to partition only half of the drive, then re-partition the rest of the space not allocated.

Select Next> in the passage Assign drive letter or path. Windows automatically assigns the first available drive letter, skipping A & B, which on most computers it will be D O E. You can set the option Assign the following drive letter to all that is available. You can also change the letter assigned to this hard drive later if you wish.

To choose Do not format this volume in the passage Format partition, then select Next>. If you know what you are doing, feel free to format the drive as part of this process. However, as this tutorial focuses on the partitioning of a hard drive in Windows, we left formatting to another tutorial, linked in the last step below.

Check your choices on the screen Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard, which should look like this:

• Volume Type: simple volume
• Selected disk: Disco 1
• Volume size: 61437 MB
• Drive letter or path: F:
• File system: nobody
• Allocation unit size: default

Expect the selected disk, the volume size and the letter or path of the unit are different from what you read here. File system: None it just means that you have decided not to format the drive as well at this time.

Choose Fine and Windows will perform hard drive partitioning, a process that will only take a few seconds on most computers. You may notice that your cursor is busy during this time. Once you see the new drive letter (F: in our example) in the list at the top of Disk Management, then you know that the partitioning process is complete.

After that, Windows will try to open the new drive automatically. However, since it is not yet formatted and cannot be used, you will see this message instead: “You must format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it? ”

This only happens in Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7. You won’t see it in Windows Vista or Windows XP and that’s fine. Go to the last step below if you’re using one of those versions of Windows.

Select Cancel. If you are familiar with the concepts of formatting a hard drive, feel free to choose instead Format disk.