Careful partitioning provides you with a perfect opportunity to organize valuable data and utilize all available space with maximum efficiency.
Here is a detailed guide on performing this operation on Windows 10. Should you wish to know how to deal with a partition a hard drive on Windows 11, do not worry. The described methods work for both operating systems. Thanks to Windows 10, you can partition hard drives with no trouble.
Nonetheless, do not forget that all these operations, such as the creation of partition, shrinking, extending, and, obviously, formatting, may cause the loss of valuable data. Hence, remember to take backups of all valuable files and store them on external drives or/and in the cloud. Should the error occur during the formatting process, you can also try lost partition recovery with specialized software tools.
How to Create a Partition
You can easily create a new partition on Windows 10 by converting an unallocated disk space. Even though it may sound difficult, this process is rather easy. Follow these steps:
- Find an unallocated disk space.
- Right-click on it and choose the New Simple Volume option.
- Next, the system will launch a dedicated Wizard tool.
- Click Next. The system will ask you to specify the volume size. Enter a new one or accept the default size. Click Next.
- Name your new partition by choosing a letter from the submenu. Click Next.
- Select settings. You can opt for either NTFS or ReFS.
- Choose either the Quick Format option or the Default one.
- Click Finish.
Congratulations, you got a new disk partition.
How to Shrink a Partition
Sometimes when you need to partition a hard drive, you discover that you don’t have enough disks. You can shrink your partition from the end of the volume and make a new unallocated disk space. Next, you can transform it into a new partition, as shown above.
Follow these steps to shrink a partition:
- To open Disk Management press the Windows button and “R”.
- Type this command “diskmgmt.msc”. Press Enter.
- Find the disk you need.
- Right-click on it and select the “Shrink Volume” option from the submenu.
- Specify the space you need (in MB).
- Click Shrink.
Now that you have new unallocated disk space, you can convert it to a new partition.
How to Extend a Partition
You may also add storage volume to one of the already existing partitions, by extending its volume. This operation is available only when you have a free partition with no drive letter assigned to it.
To extend a partition follow these steps:
- Open Disk Management as an admin.
- Find the disk volume you need.
- Right-click on it and choose the “Extend Volume” option.
- Click Next. The system will ask you to specify the volume size. Enter a new one or accept the default size. Click Next.
- Confirm that you wish to proceed by clicking Ok.
Do not forget that before extending a partition, you need to format it with NTFS or ReFS file systems.
How to Format a Partition
Sometimes when creating new partitions or extending the existing ones, you may spot several types of error messages. Formatting a hard drive may be a great way to deal with them. However, remember that formatting will erase all data from the disk.
In case your experience troubles with an external hard drive, which you have chosen for creating a backup, you should use specialized software. For instance, you can recover Seagate external hard drive data loss with relative ease.
To successfully perform the formatting process follow this guideline:
- Start with Disk Management.
- Find the partition you need.
- Right-click on it and choose the “Format” option.
- Confirm that you wish to proceed by clicking Ok.