How to partition a hard drive without reinstalling Windows. How to partition a hard drive - detailed instructions

Often the standard tools offered by the system are not enough to work with the hard drive. And therefore we have to resort to more effective solutions that allow us to obtain detailed information about the HDD and its partitions. The solutions discussed in this article will allow you to familiarize yourself with the operations applied to the drive and its volumes.

Thanks to its tools, AOMEI Partition Assistant is one of the best programs of its kind. Wide functionality will allow you to effectively configure hard disk volumes. In addition, the program makes it possible to check a specific section for errors. One of the interesting features is the transfer of the OS with all installed software to another HDD or SSD.

Writing an image file to a USB device is also supported. The interface is endowed with a pleasant graphical shell. Despite the large number useful functions, the program is available for free use, which makes it even more in demand. At the same time, it is possible to download the Russian version.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

This software has powerful functionality that allows you to merge, split, copy partitions, and a number of other functions. MiniTool Partition Wizard is completely free and available for non-commercial use only. The program provides the ability to change the disk label, and when creating a partition, the cluster size.

The surface test operation allows you to detect bad sectors on the HDD. The ability to convert is limited to only two formats: FAT and NTFS. All tools for working with disk volumes are placed in a very convenient way, so even an inexperienced user will not get confused.

EaseUS Partition Master

A program that opens up many possibilities when working with a hard drive. Among the main ones: disk cloning and importing the OS from HDD to SSD or vice versa. Partition Master allows you to copy an entire partition - this function is suitable if you need to create a backup copy of one partition to another.

The program has a convenient interface in which all operations are located in the left block - this allows you to quickly find the function you need. The peculiarity of EaseUS Partition Master is that it can be used to hide a specific volume by deleting a letter on it. Creating a bootable OS is another interesting and useful tool.

Eassos PartitionGuru

Convenience of working with Eassos PartitionGuru is achieved primarily due to its simple design. All tools are located on the top panel. A distinctive feature is the ability to build a virtual RAID array. To do this, the user just needs to connect drives to the PC, from which the program itself will construct a RAID.

The available sector editor allows you to search for the desired sectors, and hexadecimal values ​​are displayed in the right block of the panel. Unfortunately, the software is supplied in an English trial version.

Macrorit Disk Partition Expert

A pleasant interface displays functionality, which is divided into sections. The program allows you to scan your PC for bad sectors, and you can configure the disk space to be scanned. Conversion of NTFS and FAT formats is available.

Macrorit Disk Partition Expert is free to use, but only in the English version. The software is suitable for people who need to quickly set up a hard drive, but for more efficient work it is recommended to use analogues.

WonderShare Disk Manager

Program for implementation various operations with a hard drive, allowing high-quality data recovery. Compared to other similar software, Macrorit Disk Partition Expert allows you to deeply scan partitions for lost information.

You can trim and merge hard disk volumes without losing files stored on it. Other tools will allow you to hide the partition if necessary or convert the file system.

Acronis Disk Director

Acronis Disk Director is one of the most powerful programs with a set of functions and operations for managing hard disk partitions and more. Thanks to the capabilities of this software from Acronis, users can recover lost or deleted data. Among other things, it is possible to defragment the volume and also check it for file system errors.

The use of mirror technology allows you to save backup copy section selected by the user. Acronis Disk Director offers the use of a disk editor, which makes it possible to find a lost cluster, taking into account the fact that the execution environment for this operation displays hexadecimal values. The program can be safely used to carry out the most efficient work with the HDD.

Partition Magic

A program that allows you to perform basic operations with a hard drive. The interface is largely reminiscent of the standard Windows Explorer application. At the same time, among the tools located in the graphical shell, it is easy to find what you need. The advantageous feature of Partition Magic is that it allows you to select multiple active partitions, each of which has its own separate OS.

You can also use file system conversion services, two of which are supported: NTFS and FAT. You can resize the volume and merge partitions without losing data.

Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager pleases users with an interesting set of functions and purposes for their use. One of them is connecting a virtual disk image. Among them, image files of VirtualBox, VMware and other virtual machines are supported.

A noteworthy feature is that it allows you to convert HFS+ file system formats to NTFS and vice versa. Other operations are basic for partitions: trimming and expanding. A large number of settings provided by the program will allow you to customize all the functionality to your liking.

The software solutions considered have unique potential, each in its own way. The powerful tools of the developed software make it possible to save disk space and prolong the life of the hard drive. And the function of checking the HDD for errors allows you to prevent critical errors in the operation of the drive.

How to partition a hard drive yourself in Windows? Basic requirements: it must be simple, fast and secure.

The simplest, so to speak, standard method is to partition the hard drive using the most operating system. The main advantage is that everything is done in Windows Explorer. Below I will demonstrate how to do this using Windows 7 as an example.

I believe that most users are familiar with the situation when, when buying a new laptop or computer, there is only one drive C in the system. And now we will analyze all the questions that arise in this situation, having first laughed at ourselves a little with the help of artificial intelligence technology.

Why do you need to divide (partition) your hard drive?

In fact, there are enough reasons: from banal convenience to safety. Imagine that you will have an operating system, which means that your Drive C will be completely formatted.

Of course, it’s good if you have time to transfer important files to another medium in advance, but what if not? For example, after a virus attack. In other words, is it worth the risk of storing all your data in one place?

It would be correct to divide your hard drive in advance into several partitions (two or more), where the operating system and other software will be stored on one drive (Drive C:), and most important information, such as photos, videos, documents - on another drive (for example, let it be drive F:).

How to split (split) a hard drive into two partitions

Let's get started: Start → Computer → Management, or right-click on the My Computer icon → Management → Disk Management.

We have a typical picture that is typical for most new computers and laptops - there is only one drive C. The second partition is System Reserved. It is hidden and its main purpose is to store Windows boot files. You don't need to touch this section

Also, here you will see all the information about the hard drive that is connected to your computer. Using Windows 7's built-in disk management capabilities, you can perform a number of tasks:

– divide the hard drive in Windows 7 into two (or more) partitions;
– increase the size of existing volumes;
– compress Volumes, attach and delete.

As you can see, the built-in disk management functionality in Windows is comparable to the capabilities of a number of paid programs.

In the below picture you can see that I have one hard drive which is 250 GB in size → Disk 0. The drive has two partitions.

Let me remind you that you can create only four partitions on a disk with MBR recording. Three main ones (they are marked in dark blue) and the fourth is additional, also logical. This is especially true for laptops, which often have hidden partitions for storing an image of the operating system, special utilities, drivers, etc.

Using Disk 0 (i.e., the main hard drive) as an example, we will carry out all operations. By the way, before partitioning your hard drive, I strongly recommend defragmenting it. Let's see how to do this.

Let's start dividing a volume (Disk C) with a size of 249.9 GB into two parts. Right-click the volume and select the “Shrink volume” item in the drop-down menu.

We get the answer: Available space for compression → 200449 MB. Be very careful as performing this operation again may cause some difficulties.

We indicate how much we will compress: The size of the compressed space. I indicate the size as 150,000 MB (of course, you will have your own numbers), which equals 146 GB. The size of the compressed space is the size that you take from Drive C for the new partition.

Of course, a lot depends on the overall size of your hard drive and how much software and games you will install in the future, but the approximate size of Drive C after compression should not be less than 60 GB. Usually 60 - 150 GB are left for Disk C.

Note that "Total size after compression" automatically changed the setting to 105,898 MB, or almost 103 GB.

As I said above, “Size of compressed space” is the size of your future drive (F:), and “Total size after compression” is the size of drive C after compression. For example, if your hard drive is 500 GB in size, then 100–150 GB is enough for drive C, and the rest (400–350 GB) can be allocated to drive (F:).

Now all we have to do is click “Compress”. After a short process, unallocated space appeared, which is what we will convert into a simple volume. Hover your mouse over the unallocated space, then right-click and select “Create simple volume” from the drop-down menu.

The wizard for creating a simple volume will start, just click “Next” and agree.

Now you can assign any letter to your future drive (take, for example, the letter F:).

But here I strongly advise you to choose the NTFS file system. Despite the terrible inscription: “Formatting the partition”, your data that is now on Drive C is not in danger, since we create and format new volume.

As promised, our new volume F:

Hard drive partitioning is the process of dividing one drive into several logical drives. In this article we will look at popular programs for partitioning a hard drive.

The Windows 7 operating system is equipped with a built-in utility for partitioning disks. To launch it, follow the path: Start - Control Panel - System - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.

By launching the Disk Management utility, you will have access to all the necessary functions. For existing disks, you can perform: delete, format, change letter, compress and delete the disk. If you have a new, unpartitioned hard drive connected to your computer, you can partition the drive.

If the capabilities of the built-in disk partitioning utility are not enough for you, you can use third-party programs.

Wondershare Disk Manager Free

There are not many high-quality free disk partitioning programs. One such program is Wondershare Disk Manager Free. This program allows you to create, delete, copy, and convert partitions. The program has a very simple and intuitive interface. Thanks to this, even the absence of the Russian language will not complicate the process of working with the program, even for not very experienced users. To install this program, you will have to go through a free and extremely simple registration on the manufacturer’s website.

Paid programs for disk partitioning

One of the most popular and well-known programs of this kind is Partition Magic from Symantec. This program can run from a boot disk, which greatly simplifies the partitioning before installing the operating system. Partition Magic supports NTFS and FAT file systems. In addition to basic operations such as creating and formatting, Partition Magic allows you to convert file systems, resize partitions, and merge partitions.

Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager is a powerful program for hard disk partitioning, backup, and operating system management. Unlike previous program,Paragon Partition Manager has a wider range of features and functions. Thus, this program is one of the few that allows you to work with disks for virtual machines (MS Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion and Sun VirtualBox).

Acronis Disk Director

Acronis Disk Director is another advanced program for hard disk partitioning and disk management. Acronis Disk Director consists of three parts: the disk management module, the Acronis Recovery Expert module for recovering lost data, and the Acronis OS Selector module for managing multiple operating systems. Acronis Disk Director is equipped with all the necessary functions for disk management, and the program supports all modern file operating systems.

The computer hard drive is a means of storing system and user data in particular. Sometimes, it is necessary to divide information into some large sections to avoid confusion. It is recommended to install the system on one partition, and user files, programs, etc. save to others. When purchasing a new PC, most often the hard drive is not divided into local disks (partitions), so you need to carry out this operation yourself. Let's look at how to properly partition a hard drive. For example, we will use Windows 7, which is the most stable among current versions (Windows 8, 10).

Before you begin the process of partitioning your disk, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the following tips:

1. For the OS, allocate at least 50-60 GB of free space, otherwise normal operation you won't see the system. Of course, if you have a hard drive of 100-200 GB, then allocating that much space is too troublesome, but for systems starting from the “seven” you need enough memory.
2. It is also better to take care of the path for saving files for the browser and torrent client; it is better to set the path for uploading files for them not on the system drive (by default), but on another more capacious partition. You should also understand that desktop content takes up space on the system disk.
3. If you have a hard drive up to 1 TB, divide it into 3 partitions, if from 1 TB to 2 TB, divide it into 4 partitions, and more than 4 TB into 5 partitions. This is explained by the fact that when downloading large files to the hard drive, optimal division will allow it to be written correctly.
4. Do not use all available memory on your hard drive. It is necessary to leave some space “in reserve” to restore damaged clusters.

If you follow these tips, you can set up hard drive partitioning once and not worry about it again until you decide to expand the memory on your computer.

How to partition a hard drive in Windows 7?

To partition the hard drive, we will use a standard tool in the Windows operating system. It's called "Disk Management". To open this utility, you need to do the following:

Now let's move on to how to partition a hard drive in Windows 7. The instructions are as follows:

How to partition a hard drive in Windows 8, 10

Using Windows 7 as an example, we looked at the partitioning process. There will be nothing fundamentally new in the “eight” and “ten”, so you can use this procedure for this system as well. The only exception is that we will slightly adjust the tips to complete the task correctly:

1. For the system disk, leave (add) at least 70-80 GB of information. Starting with “seven”, the system writes information about the current state to the local disk so that you can use system recovery if necessary. In addition, after many updates (including up to 8.1, 10), large files are formed that are protected by the system;
2. Divide the disk into several partitions, do not leave 2 partitions. This will make it more convenient for you to handle files that are recorded on your hard drive, logically structuring them into sections.

How to partition a hard drive in Windows 7, 8, 10 using third-party programs

What to do if you don’t trust the standard tool for working with local disks? We suggest using third party application Partition Wizard. This application is free, does not require much space and is stable. Of course, its functionality is far from Acronis Disk Director, but it will be just right for partitioning a hard drive.

So, first download it and then install it in comfortable spot on your computer. When the program is installed, run it and wait until it loads the necessary information about your system and hard drive.

An unallocated partition will be designated as "Unallocated". Right-click on it and click "Create".

When you run this command, you will need to provide the following information in the next window:

• Section title;
• Partition type (for example, logical);
• Drive letter;
• File system type;
• Volume.

Please note that in the case of the program that is built into the system - “Disk Management”, these operations are performed in different windows, but here, for convenience, everything happens in one window. For example, we created a new “Test” section with 400 GB on board. Once created, the file system looks like this:

This process can be repeated as many times as you like until you run out of free unallocated space. Please note that it is very important to leave very little free space so as not to damage the hard drive. To create another new partition, simply repeat the instructions. Don't forget to save your progress using the Apply button.

As you can see, the process of dividing a disk into partitions is not complicated, but very simple if you approach the issue with instructions from our website.

At Windows installation a hard drive is traditionally divided into at least two partitions - a smaller system partition with the letter C and a larger user partition with the letter D. This division was not just invented because of someone’s whim, it has important practical value. Firstly, partitioning the hard drive in Windows 7/10 allows you to save the user’s personal files when reinstalling the system, otherwise they would be destroyed during formatting; secondly, it’s just more convenient to work with data, not to mention the fact that This significantly reduces the risk of accidentally deleting system files.

However, some computers and laptops with pre-installed installed system have only one partition - the system one, not counting the “System Reserved” area. In such cases, the user has to create additional volumes on the disk himself. This procedure is very simple, however, for beginners it can still cause certain difficulties, especially when it comes to partitioning the partition with the installed system. So how to properly partition a hard drive without losing data?

There are three main ways to partition a hard drive into volumes: using the standard disk management snap-in, using a command line utility Diskpart and with the help third party programs, specially created for these purposes. The first method has a number of limitations, the second may seem complicated, the most convenient is the third, using third-party software, but not all such programs are free. Let's consider all three options.

Using Disk Management

So, you have a computer that has only one volume on its disk, not counting the reserved area. First, let's look at how to split a hard drive into two partitions using the built-in Disk Management snap-in. By pressing Win + X Call the context menu of the Start button and select “Disk Management” from it.

In the window that opens, right-click on the area of ​​the system partition with the letter C and select the “Shrink Volume” option from the menu.

After the volume is polled for allocated space, specify the size of the new partition in megabytes in the “Size of compressed space” field and click “Compress”.

As a result, you will get unallocated space highlighted in black. Right-click on it, select “Create simple volume” and follow the wizard’s instructions.

During the creation of the partition, you will be asked to specify the volume size, assign a letter, select a file system (NTFS is needed) and assign a label, that is, the name of the volume displayed in Explorer.

After clicking the “Finish” button, the section will be created.

Partitioning a hard drive in Diskpart

Now let's look at how to divide a hard drive into 2 parts in Windows 7/10 using another standard tool - a console utility Diskpart. Unlike Disk Management, which has a graphical interface, it has a large set of functionality, in addition, you can partition a disk into partitions in Diskpart from under bootable media even on a non-working system. So, open a command prompt or PowerShell console as an administrator and run the following commands:

diskpart
list volume
select volume 1
shrink desired=102600
list disk
select disk 0

The first command launches the Diskpart utility itself, the second command displays a list of partitions available on the physical disk, the third selects the partition number corresponding to drive C, the fourth compresses it to the specified size in megabytes. The fifth command displays a list of all physical disks, the sixth command selects the disk to be partitioned (if there is only one on the PC, its ID will be 0).

Let's continue.

create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=G
exit

The seventh command creates a new partition, the eighth command formats it into the NTFS file system, the ninth command assigns the specified letter to the new volume, and the tenth command terminates Diskpart.

As you can see, the algorithm of actions has much in common with how the partition was created through the built-in Disk Management snap-in. Now, if you go to the “This PC” section, you will see a new logical partition there.

Dividing a disk into parts in Acronis Disk Director

You can also use third-party tools to create custom disk volumes. One of them is Acronis Disk Director– a powerful program for partitioning your hard drive and more. The procedure for partitioning a hard drive in this program is very simple. After launching the application, select the disk to be shared with the mouse and select “Split Volume” from the operations menu on the left.

A dialog box will open in which, using the slider, set the size of the new partition.

If there are user files on the source disk, you can transfer them to the new volume being created, however, this can be done later in Explorer. But system files cannot be transferred, otherwise Windows may not boot. After setting the procedure parameters, click first “OK” and then “Apply pending operations”.

If the system asks you to reboot, give it permission. The program will do the rest itself, you just need to wait for the operation to complete.

How to partition a hard drive in Paragon Hard Disk Manager

Another powerful program for working with disks and partitions. It also has its own wizard for disk partitioning. After launching the application, switch to the “Partition Operations” tab in the main menu and click on the “Partition Wizard” link.

At the next stage, the program will ask you to decide on the size of the new partition. Use the marking slider or enter the desired size manually. Assign a letter to the volume, click Next and confirm the operation.

Clicking “Finish” completes the wizard.

Now, to apply the planned action, click on the button of the same name on the left side of the Paragon Hard Disk Manager window and once again confirm your intentions to partition the disk.

After this, the re-partitioning procedure will start. If the disk is a system disk, you will need to restart the computer.

Disk partitioning in AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition

And finally, let's see how to partition a hard drive into free program AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition. There is no separate partitioning wizard in this program; repartitioning is performed in two stages. First you need to get some free space. Right-click on the shared disk and select “Change partition size” from the menu.

Drag the slider to set the new partition size and click OK.

As a result, unoccupied space will be created. Select it with the mouse and select the “Create section” option in the menu on the left.

In the window that opens, if necessary, adjust the layout parameters (you can change the size, letter, file system type and partition type) and click “OK”.

Now, to start the staking procedure, click the “Apply” button.

Since you are working with the system disk, you will need to restart the computer.

All of the above methods allow you to partition a hard drive without losing data, however, when performing this procedure, especially with the use of third-party software, you should be careful, since the risk of losing information, although very small, is still present.