Create and format a hard disk partition

To create a partition or volume (the two terms are often used interchangeably) on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended partition on the hard disk.

If there is no unallocated disk space, you can create some by shrinking an existing partition, deleting a partition, or by using a third-party partitioning program.

Open Computer Management by selecting the Start button. The select Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

In the left pane, under Storage, select Disk Management.

Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then select New Simple Volume.

In the New Simple Volume Wizard, select Next.

Enter the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then select Next.

Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the partition, and then select Next.

In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following:

If you don’t want to format the volume right now, select Do not format this volume, and then select Next.

To format the volume with the default settings, select Next.

Review your choices, and then select Finish.

Note: When you create new partitions on a basic disk, the first three will be formatted as primary partitions. Beginning with the fourth, each one will be configured as a logical drive within an extended partition.

Free Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10 to Organize Hard Disk Partitions

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 10 to resize, create and format partitions is necessary to install operating system and store data separately. Third-party free partition software like AOMEI Partition Assistant makes the task much easier for you.

By AOMEI / Last Updated September 6, 2019

What is Partition?

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.

Why Need to Partition Hard Drive in 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.

How to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10?

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.

How to Partition A Hard Drive in Windows 10 [2021 New]

Applies to: Make, create or manage hard drive partitions for free in Windows 8.1/8/7/XP/Vista and even Windows Server computers.

2 Reliable Ways toВ Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10

Are you looking for a reliable solution to create a partition or make a partition in Windows 10/8/7? On this page, we collected two practical solutions to help you partition a hard drive in Windows 10 for free.В

Method 1.В Partition a Hard Drive with Disk Management

TIP: the coming solutions are also applicable to the question «how to partition C drive in Windows 10 without formatting». Just replace the target drive in the example with the C drive.

Step 1.В Right-clickВ theВ WindowsВ icon,В thenВ clickВ DiskВ Management.

Please check if you have unallocated space on your computer disk. If you don’t,В follow our guide step-by-step. If you do, you can directly jump to Step 4 and continue.

Step 2. Right-click the hard disk partition that you want to shrink, and select «Shrink Volume».

Step 3. Enter the amount of space you want to shrink in MB, then click on the «Shrink» button.

Wait for the process to complete, you’ll get an unallocatedВ volume.В

Step 4. Right-click on the unallocated space on your hard disk, and then select «New Simple Volume».

Step 5. In the New Simple Volume Wizard interface, click «Next».

Step 6. Enter the size of the volume you want to create in MB or accept the default size, and then select «Next».

Step 7.В Accept the default drive letter or choose a different letter for the partition, and then select «Next».

Step 8. Set the default file system as NTFS and click «Next» to format the volume.

Step 9.В Click «Finish» to complete creating a new partition in Windows 10.

Method 2. CreateВ PartitionВ in Windows 10 viaВ EaseUSВ Free Partition Manager

To some beginners, partition hard drive using Disk Management in Windows 10 is a bit complex. AВ more intelligent solution is to turn to third-partyВ free partition manager software likeВ EaseUS Partition Master Free for help.

Download EaseUS partition manager and apply it toВ create partitions in Windows 10 now:

EaseUS Partition Master Free

• Support creating, shrinking, extending, merging, moving partitions for free.В
• Support disk surface test, converting file system, formatting/deleting volumes.
• Support cloningВ hard drive,В migratingВ OS to HDD/SSD, partition recovery. (Advanced Features)

Steps toВ Partition Hard Drive (and Make Partitions)В in Windows 10 with EaseUS Partition Master:В

Step 1. Check for free space

To devide a disk partition into multiple ones, you must ensure that there is adequate free space to be allotted.

Step 2. Shrink a disk partition to create unallocated space

By doing so, start with the «Resize/Move» feature. Right-click on a partition with a lot free space and select «Resize/Move»

Drag either end of the partition rightwards or leftwards so you can shrink its size as the red arrow does, in order to get ample unallocated space. You can visually know how much space you’ve decreased in the «Partition size» area. Click «OK».

At last, you need to click the «Execute xx Operation» on the top menu and then «Apply» to save all the changes. Go back on the main window, there should be unallocated space appearing under the same disk of the shrinked one.

Step 3. Create a new partition on unallocated space

The last step is to turn the unallocated space into a usable partition drive with a recognized file system. Right-click on the unallocated space and choose «Create. «.

Customize the partition information by choosing a drive letter, partition label, file system (NTFS, FAT32, EXT2. )В and many more settings in the Advanced Settings. Click «OK».

Finally, cick «Apply» to confirm that you want to create a partition on the unallocated space. Repeat the whole steps to partition a hard drive in many more partitions.

Video Tutorial: More TipsВ to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10:

For more disk partition tips,В follow this video tutorial and useВ EaseUS free partition manager to partition a hard drive in Windows 10, including extending, shirking, creating, deleting, etc.В on your own.В

BonusВ Tips: HowВ To FormatВ Partition (Volume) in Windows 10

If you need to format an existing partition or changeВ the volume format to a new file system, try the following steps:В

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys to open the Run box, typeВ diskmgmt.msc, and hit Enter.

Step 2. Right-click the volume that you want to format, and then select «Format».

Step 3. To format the volume with the default settings (as NTFS), in the Format dialog box, select «OK», and then select «OK» again.

Advantages of Disk Partition in Windows 10

To most Windows users, only very few of them know the necessity and advantages of makingВ disk partitions in Windows 10/8/7. Check out the advantages of partition a hard drive on your computer.В

Advantages of Partition a Hard Drive vs. Disadvantages of Not PartitionВ Hard Drive

Advantages	Disadvantages
ManageВ data in a clean and logical way: create disk partitions as OS partition, personal data volume, and media drive, etc. GuaranteeВ data safety: isolate system files from personal data, protect dataВ fromВ OS crashingВ or system failure error.В	Endanger data easily with only one drive due toВ OS failure or reinstallation, virus infection error.В Way too complex to find and manage files with everything saved inВ one drive.

How Many Partitions Can You Make On a Hard Drive:В

• On MBR disk, you can create maximumly 4 partitions in total — 3 primary partitions + 1 extended partition, or 4 primary partitions.
• On GPT disk, you can create as many partitions withВ no limitation for the number of partitions.
• For MBR users who wish to make five partitions or more, you need to convert MBR to GPT.В

Go andВ Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10, MakeВ Use Of Your Drive NowВ

On this page, we discussedВ how to partition a hard drive in Windows 10. Based on the needs, we introduced two commonly used disk partitioning tools for Windows 10 users, including Windows Disk Management and EaseUS Partition Master Free.

As for beginners, free partition manager software — EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition is more flexible and advisable for partitioning hard drive in Windows 10/8/7.

In the end, we also talked about the necessity of disk partition. WeВ suggest that all of you Windows users take steps to make partitions on your computer so as to manage your OS data, personal documents, and other programs in a safe and sound manner.В В