How to Do Partition in Windows 11/10/8/7? [4 Guides to Partition Hard Drive]

How to partition in Windows 10?

What does it mean to partition a hard drive? Disk partitioning is the process of dividing the logical space of a hard disk into several independent sections. These sections are called volume or partition, and they are labelled as C:, D:, E: and so on. Once partitions are created, we can install operating system, run applications or store personal data on hard disk.

What's the point of partitioning a hard drive? Why do you want to partition a hard drive? There can be various reasons behind disk partitioning, for example, you want to keep things organized, separate personal files from operating system. So you can create multiple partitions to store games and other files that no one needs to know about and files that are just usually cluttering up OS. Thus, partitions can make this easier to keep everything well organized. Moreover, some users may want to dual boot computer, and thus multiple partitions should be created in order to install different operating systems. In addition, disk partitioning is also a kind of safety measure. When files are stored on different partitions and one of the partitions gets corrupted, files that are stored on other partitions should stay intact.

How many partitions should I have in Windows 10? The number and layout of partitions vary from one to another, because there are not regulations for how many partitions a hard disk must be divided into, and the number and size of partitions can be completely determined according to the actual needs.

How to divide hard disk space in Windows 10? A hard disk can be easily partitioned by tools like Disk Management, diskpart commands or third-party partition manager software. The rest content will demonstrate on how to partition using these tools in Windows 11/10/8/7.

• Guide #1: Create new partition with free partition manager
• Guide #2: Partition a hard drive into multiple partitions rapidly
• Guide #3: Create new volume in Disk Management
• Guide #4: Create new partition using Diskpart commands

Guide #1: How to do partition with DiskGenius Free Edition?

DiskGenius Free edition works well with all editions of Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2012 R2/2011/2008/2008R2/2003 and Windows PE. It provides you with more features than Disk Management, for example, merge unallocated space to non-adjacent partitions, resize EXT4 partition, format large partition to FAT32, wipe hard disk, etc. With DiskGenius Free Edition, you can create a new partition on hard disk no matter whether there is unallocated space.

Way #1: Create new partition on unallocated disk space.

Step 1. Install and launch DiskGenius Free Edition on your computer.

You will get presented with the disk and partition list on the left-hand side. These disks can be internal hard drives, USB hard drives, USB flash drives or virtual disks that are installed on the computer. Select the hard drive you want to partition, and you will see the partition diagram and detailed information on the right pane.

Step 2. Click on the unallocated disk space and choose "New Partition" button. Then a new window pops up. Choose partition type, file system, partition size, 4K alignment (Align to Integral Multiples of Sectors), and click "OK" button.

Step 3. Click "Save All" button to apply the operation. Then the software will format the partition automatically.

Way #2: Make a partition from an existing partition

This guide is going to creating a new partition on an existing partition by dividing it into two partitions. The process does not remove existing files.

Step 1. Launch DiskGenius, right-click on a large partition that has enough free space and choose "Create New Partition".

Step 2. Set partition size for original and new partitions and click "Start" button. Then let the partition process to finish on its own, do not interpret it.

Guide #2: How to partition a hard drive into multiple partitions rapidly in Windows 10?

This guide explains how to do partition on a hard drive via "Quick Partition" feature which is able to create multiple partitions on hard disk at one time. So it is usually used to repartition hard disks or USB drives.

Be aware all the data on the hard drive will be lost, so make sure you've moved anything that you want to keep to somewhere else.

Here are steps to partition a hard drive rapidly:

Step 1. Create a full backup for the hard drive beforehand if there are partitions and files already on the hard drive.

Step 2. Launch DiskGenius Free Edition, select the hard drive you want to partition and click "Quick Partition".

The hard disk might have been partitioned before, then there will be partitions on it. You should make sure all files on this hard disk have been backed up to another disk.

Step 3. On the pop-up window, you can specify partition table type, partition count, partition size, volume label, and so on. Click "OK" button, and partitions will be created and formatted right away.

Guide #3: How to create new volume in Disk Management?

Note:

• You should log in computer account as an administrator.
• The word "partition" and "volume" here means the same thing, and these two terms are often used interchangeable.

Step 1. Access Disk Management: Right-click on the "Start" button and click "Disk Management".

Step 2. Find/prepare unallocated disk space for the new partition.

In the new window, you'll see two panes: the top one shows a list of disk partitions refer to as volume. Here you can view information like Status, Total capacity, how much free space are available, file system, and so forth. In the bottom pane, you can see physical hard drives connected to your computer and it provides a better picture of which partition is located on which drive.

There should be unallocated disk space on the hard disk in order to make a new partition on it. If there is not unallocated disk space, you should get some by shrinking or deleting an existing partition. Since deleting partition brings about data loss issue, here we choose to shrink a partition: right-click the partition you want to decrease its size and choose "Shrink Volume".

Enter the amount of space to decrease and click "Shrink". The volume shrinking process cannot shrink the volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located. Then the amount of space will appear as unallocated.

Step 3. Make a new partition on unallocated disk space.

Now there is unallocated disk space, you can right-click it and select "New Simple Volume".

The wizard of creating new simple volume will open. Click "Next" button.

Enter the size for the new partition and click "Next" button.

Assign a drive letter for the new partition and click "Next" button.

On the format window, choose a file system and volume label, and click "Next" button. After formatting, the new partition will be ready to be utilized to store data.

Guide #4: How to do partition using diskpart? (for experienced users)

Diskpart is another useful tool built-in Windows, and it is used in Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell to create partition, format partition, clear hard disk, delete partition, resize partition, etc. Please note that this method requires users should be familiar with diskpart commands, for improper execution of incorrect command will surely result in data loss. Hence, if you are not an experienced user, try the first three guides.

Step 1. Right-click on the Start menu and choose "Windows PowerShell (Admin)" from the appeared menu.

Step 2. Type diskpart in Windows PowerShell and hit Enter key.

Step 3. Type following command one by one and hit Enter key after each command.

List disk
Select disk # (replace # with the number of the disk you want to partition)
Clean (this command will delete all partitions and files from the selected disk)
Create partition primary
Format fs=ntfs quick (this command is going to format the newly created partition as NTFS format)
Assign (this command will assign a drive letter for the partition)

People Also Ask:

1. How to delete drive in Windows 10?

There are three methods available to delete partitions in Windows 10, but you should make sure files have been backed up before deletion, because files will be deleted at the same time when the partition gets deleted.

Method 1. Delete partition using DiskGenius Free Edition.

Method 2. Delete partition in Disk Management.

Method 3. Delete partition with Diskpart command.

2. How to create new partition in Windows 10?

You can easily create a perfect partition or partition a drive without deleting data in Windows 10, and what you need is to download a free disk partition manager and follow steps here:

Step 1. Install and launch DiskGenius Free Edition.

Step 2. Select unallocated disk space and Click "New Partition".

Step 3. Set partition type, file system, size and so forth, and click "OK".

3. How to partition C drive in Windows 10 without formatting?

When it comes to partitioning C drive, you may also questions, like "How do I partition my C and D drive?" "Can we make partition of C drive in Windows 10?". Disk Management can help us partition C drive without formatting. If this tool does not work on your computer, then try DiskGenius Free Edition.

Step 1. Head down to searching box and type in "Disk Management". Then click "Create and format hard disk partitions".

Step 2. Right-click C drive and choose "Shrink Partition" or "Extend Partition" based on the actual situation of disk space.

Step 3. Follow the onscreen wizard to complete the partition process.

4. How to partition laptop hard drive in Windows 11?

To partition a laptop hard drive, you should first make sure there is enough free space for new partitions. It's simple to check that with the help of Disk Management. Then start the partition.

Step 1. In Disk Management, locate and right-click on the drive to be partitioned and choose "Shrink Volume".

Step 2. Configure disk space to be decreased and click "Shrink" button.

Step 3. Right-click the unallocated space and choose "New Simple Volume".

5. How do I split a 1TB hard drive?

There are two tools you can try to split a 1TB hard drive without losing data, Disk Management and DiskGenius Free Edition. Here is how to splits a hard disk using free disk partition manager:

Step 1. Launch DiskGenius Free Edition.

Step 2. Right-click the hard drive you want to split and select "Split Partition" option.

Step 3. Specify partition size and click "Start" button.

Conclusion

We've gone into details on how to do partition in Windows 10. As you can see, the third-party disk partitioning software such as DiskGenius is much more powerful than Windows built-in tools, for it provides more features free of charge. If you have any questions or need more help regarding partitioning a hard disk, feel free to contact us through email. The email address can be found on the Contact Us page.

You may fine the following articles useful in managing disk partitions:

• How To Resize Partition in Windows 10/8/7 Without Data Loss? [3 Ways]
• How to Make Partition in Windows 7/8/10/11? | 3 Methods to Partition a Hard drive
• How to partition a hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7?
• How To Extend C Drive without Formatting in Windows 11/10/8/7?