Today more than ever, partitioning a hard drive in Windows 10, 8 or 7 is an almost daily task, due to the need to save specific information such as documents, images, videos, music, even to have a backup of all your data. The operating systems of the Microsoft family allow you to perform the process, which is simple if you know the steps.
Doing this allows you to install an additional operating system , also create a space for data storage. Similarly, you can prepare a space for creating images Windows, since this operation requires another partition. Also, reduces your hard drive defragmentation time, which means you’ll have a faster computer.
In this tutorial we have prepared for you, we are going to teach you how to partition a hard drive in Windows 10, 8 and 7 through a step-by-step guide, thus avoiding having to pay A technician to do this job for you. In addition we explain in a simple language what disk partitions are and what they are for. In turn how to partition an external USB memory.
Index:
What are hard disk partitions and what is it for? Types
The term computer partition refers to the storage division present on a hard disk . That is to say, that you can have several in one, each of them fulfills a function, for example, one of system startup, one for storing documents and another for backup.
It should be noted that this is done after its physical formatting and before the logical formatting. The process consists of creating areas on the disk whose data will not be mixed. This is used, for example, to install different operating systems that do not use the same type of files.
Therefore, there will be as many partitions as operating systems that use different groups of files. In the case of a user with only one operating system, a single disk size partition may be sufficient, unless you want to create other Stakeholder whose data is separated.
The partition is classified into three fundamental categories and serves to:
Primary partition
It is the one that the computer detects when starting the loading process, the computerists call it primary disk divisions, the operating system is hosted there. It is important that you know that you can have several boot systems in a partition. That is, they can live the Mac, Linux and Windows software simultaneously installed on it.
Extended or secondary partition
This means that the use of this partition is exclusive for storing information. There is only one. It is important to keep in mind that, if you use this partition, the hard disk can only have three primary partitions and the extended one will act as fourth.
In the extended partition, the user can create logical drives (“simulate” several smaller hard drives).
Logical partition
This partition is to assign the size of the file system that the operating system will use. Windows usually supports (FAT32, NTFS) . We recommend that you use NTFS, because file management is more efficient.
Keep in mind, a logical drive is a separate partition with its own parameters and works independently.
Steps to make a disk partition in Windows
Many users want to create a partition on their hard drive, either because they need to free up space on the drive, create backup drives of data or create drives of storage.
Next we will show you the steps to make the partition of the hard drive yourself, let’s get into the subject:
- Go to “Start” and type in the search engine “Create and format disk partitions”.
- This will open the “Disk Management”.
It is divided into two areas. The first upper area shows the list of installed disks and the second lower area tells you the graphics of the disks and their size.
- Select the disk you want to partition. You must click on it to bring up a drop-down menu, there you will have to select «Reduce volume » to make it smaller. You can also choose, “Delete volume” or “Format”, this to clean it before performing the action.
- If you choose the first option, you a window will appear where you must place in the space “Size”, the amount you want to release. You have to express this in MB. First of all see the available space.
- Wait a few seconds while the procedure is finished, after this you will see an area called «Unassigned», this yields the available hard disk capacity to create new partitions. Right click to display the menu. Select “New simple volume”.
- A new window will appear “Assistant for new volume”, in this part you just have to press subsequentlyNextly.
- This will take you to a new window, there choose the size of the new partition.
- The next step will ask you to add a letter to the drive for extra storage. If you don’t want this, you can also “Do not assign a drive letter or path”, to create a partition without the system starting to use it as a storage drive.
- Then you have to choose if you want to format the partition. This is recommended that you do. You can similarly choose which file system you want to use in this or the size of the drive. In the “Volume label” section add a name to differentiate the action.
- Once this is done you will have finished the process and the following image will appear that will summarize the configuration of your partition.
You saw it was simple. Now you know the logical steps to partition your hard drive. Remember to select the file system “NFTS”.
Is it possible to create hard disk partitions without formatting?
The answer is yes. We just mentioned it before. You can also decide, if you want to reduce or enlarge the size of the drive, it’s the same in Windows 10, 8 and 7. You just have to go to disk management. Do not believe in nonsense that you must install software to create a partition since this is not true.
How to partition an external USB memory drive?
Sometimes it is important to have an unused partition on the USB drive , not to mix all the information in the same space. That way you don’t have the movies, videos, images or personal documents watered. The solution to this is to divide your removable drive, with this you will have a better organization of your data.
Next we’ll tell you how to partition your pendriver, it’s super simple with these tips:
- Connect the external USB Drive to the PC . Once he recognizes it, he must show you where it was mounted. After that right click on the USB and select “Quick format”.
- This will move you to the hard disk manager. It is in the first part of the tutorial. There you will locate the USB drive. You will repeat the previous steps. Choose the size you want to reduce. Then click on highlightedReduce underneath.
- It will take you to another window, you will select “New Volume”, this will start the wizard. As in the previous process you must choose a letter to assign the new drive.
- In this part you must format the new partition created. Select the items shown in the illustration. Then click on “Next”. The created drive will be formatted and that’s it. You already have an external USB with two partitions.