Dividing the hard drive into partitions using Windows 7
Partitioning the C:/ drive in Win7
When purchasing a new computer or laptop with the Windows 7 operating system preinstalled, many users are faced with the problem of dividing the hard drive into several partitions.
Partitioning the hard drive into several partitions is important both from the point of view of ease of use of the system interface and the ability to save data on the disk after reinstalling or restoring the operating system. As you know, when you reinstall the operating system, all data located on the C:/ drive is lost, while the data on the remaining drives (hard drive partitions) remains intact. All important files can be easily used after the system has been restored to functionality.
Partitioning a hard drive is also convenient because it system disk C:/ programs and applications are installed. If the C:/ drive is the only one, then when all kinds of files and folders are added to the hard drive, confusion arises between system files and regular folders added by the user. In this case, it’s easy to get confused in the files and inadvertently delete some important system file. Therefore, partitioning the hard drive is necessary.
In order to split a hard drive in Windows 7 into several partitions (logical drives), many use specialized programs, like Partition Magic and the like. Using such programs, you can split a disk into several partitions. But Windows 7 provides the ability to partition the disk using system utilities. In this case, the need for third party programs disappears.
To partition a hard drive in Windows 7, you need to go to the computer control panel.
You can do this in two ways:
1 .Cry right click mouse on the “My Computer” icon, which is located on the desktop - select “Manage”. Next, the “Computer Management” window will open. In it we find a subsection - “ Disk management”.
2 .Click on the “Start” icon in the lower left corner, then select “Control Panel”. Next, follow the path: “System and Security” - “Administration”. Then select the submenu - “Creating and formatting hard disk partitions”. The window “ Disk management”.
It is clear that the first method is simpler.
In the “Disk Management” tab, you can view all information on the hard drive and its partitions. On the hard drive, in addition to the main partition C:/, there is hidden section recovery.
The recovery partition is used to store information for restoring the operating system if necessary. It is worth noting that the amount of memory occupied by recovery files can reach several gigabytes. This section is not identified by a letter. Also, in addition to the recovery partition, the disk has a section System Reserved , volume 100 megabytes. These sections are official, since they are not used by the user in any way and serve for the normal functioning of the operating system.
So, let's turn our attention to the C:/ drive, which is to be divided into sections - additional logical drives.
In order to split the C:/ drive, right-click on the conventional disk image. In the drop-down menu, select “ Shrink Volume…”.
After the request is completed, a window will appear in which the compression parameters will be indicated. If the disk has not been partitioned before, then by default the utility will offer to split the hard disk approximately in half. If the disk initially had a memory capacity of, for example, 1.8 Terabytes, then after division two partitions are formed with a capacity of approximately 900 Gigabytes each.
The window that appears indicates the size of the C:/ volume before compression (in megabytes) and the size of the compressed space. The size of the compressed space is the amount of memory of the new partition that will be created. The total size after compression is the size of the C:/ volume after compression. It will be slightly larger than the created disk partition. As already mentioned, the system will offer to divide the hard drive memory approximately in half.
|
|
|
Create Simple Volume Wizard |
The “Create a Simple Volume Wizard” will launch. Click “Next”. The “Specify volume size” window will appear - click “Next” again. In the next window, select the letter of the new volume in the “ Assign a drive letter" You can choose any drive letter you like.
After a few seconds, the new disk partition will be formatted, a letter will be assigned to it and in the field symbol The message “Good (Logical Disk)” will appear. Now the C:/ drive will be divided into two.
If desired, you can change the name of the new section, and instead of “ New volume”, give another. You can do this in several ways:
1 .In the computer control panel in the disk management window, select the disk whose name we want to change. Right-click and select " Properties". In the name field, enter a new name and confirm by clicking OK.
Without data loss, provided that there is one partition converted to the main volume with the letter (C:), the operating system is installed on it and nothing should happen to it, how do you like the problem?
- Note: If you have a new operating system installed, you can divide your hard drive into partitions using the operating system itself, without resorting to third-party programs, here is the article, if something doesn’t work, use the universal one and free program in Russian.
- If you are on Windows 7, read here. If you have new laptop then you need this article.
Such tasks are very easily solved with special disk management programs, for example: Acronis Disk Director, Paragon, I have to work with all of them. The fact is that when working with such programs, it is easy to damage the partition table of the hard drive, then the computer will not be able to determine the location of the main partition with the operating system among the new volumes created by you, what then? That's right, you simply won't be able to boot into Windows. Acronis, also working with boot disk, sometimes confuses the letters of sections.
- Therefore, before working with Acronis program Disk Director needs to insure itself as much as possible and create a backup of all partitions of your hard drive. Every user should be able to create a backup of the operating system and, if necessary, deploy it back.
I do not want to intimidate you in any way, but simply warn you to be very careful when working with software for working with computers. hard disk partitions. I remember in the old days, when everything was just beginning, I always had several floppy disks in my pocket with the Partition Magic program in bourgeois language, yes, floppy disks, it worked from them, you insert it into the floppy and you always don’t know how it will end, but I will say Honestly, I only let you down a few times. And then I met Acronis and have not left since then, although now I carry a large suitcase with me and there are always several boot disks with this program. Well, it's time to get down to business, otherwise you'll run away from the site and won't partition your hard drive.
As I said, we have the Windows XP operating system, but everything that will be said below can also be applied to Windows 7. The operating system has one system partition-disk (C:) with a capacity of 111.8 GB, which we will use divide into two sections, as a result we will have another drive (D:), don’t worry about your files on drive (C:) nothing will happen. Here it is our drive (C:), all alone.
Let's launch our program
In the main window of the program, our hard drive is visible as one partition-disk (C), with a capacity of 111.8 GB. Let's go with you to Actions and tools, and then Resize volume
change the size of a volume of 111.8 GB, for example, to 55.8 GB, so we will have a logical volume (D)
We have some unallocated space and we will convert it later into a logical volume (D)
Apply pending operations
Friends, now you can create the second partition you need, right in the operating system, go to Computer->Manage->Disk Management, right-click on the unallocated space and select Create Partition from the menu. Or you can use our program again.
We run our program again, select unallocated space with the mouse and click Create Volume
Select the type of volume to be created: Basic
Specify unallocated space
operating systems"data-essbishovercontainer="">After purchasing a computer or during installation of an operating system, users may break HDD into several sections or leave it unchanged.
Thanks to this, you can conveniently sort all information and files without the risk of losing them in the event of a virus attack or operating system failure.
Additionally, we will figure out how to do this on MAC OS X and Linux (using Ubuntu as an example).
Why do you need to partition your hard drive?
1 Open the System menu - "Administration"- "GParted".
2 After launching the application, you will see a list of disks and partitions available for work, and brief information about them.
3 Select the desired section that you plan to change. If there is a key icon next to it, then it is protected. To make it available for modification, right-click and in context menu select "Unmount". Now you can do whatever you want with it.
4 Click to the desired disk(for example, /dev/sda1/ or /dev/sda2/) and then select “Resize/Move” to resize or move it. Make all necessary changes and confirm changes made.
5 After closing the window, a free disk space(unallocated), which can be allocated to a new partition. To do this, right-click on it and select “New” from the menu that opens. Select "Extended partition". Specify the desired capacity for the new volume, then confirm the changes by pressing the “Add” key.
But don’t rush to close the program right away. To confirm the creation of the disk and any other actions in the GParted program, you must click on the green “checkmark” on the toolbar at the top (Apply All Operations) and only after that a new partition will be created.
conclusions
It's best to create multiple disks during OS installation.
But if for some reason this was not done or an error occurred during the operation, then the situation can be corrected later. Anytime.
You can partition a hard drive either using built-in tools in any operating system or using third-party programs.
Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Therefore, for those who are new to the computer and its features, we recommend using the basic tools of Windows or any other OS.
Advanced users can use third party software. With it, you can make additional changes, compress volumes more efficiently, and create partitions.
The computer hard drive is small device, located inside system unit or laptop case. But, despite its integrity, in the operating room Windows system it can be displayed as several disks, each of which is assigned its own letter of the English alphabet. This is convenient for the user, as it allows you to logically divide the information stored on the computer, quickly access it and search.
But when buying a computer or a new one hard drive You get a storage device that appears as one solid logical drive in Windows. At this point, the task often arises of splitting one disk partition into several partitions, usually two or three. For example, the first (disk C) is where the operating system is installed, and the second is where personal documents, photos, music and videos are stored. This is convenient from the point of view of safety of information and access to it in case of failure of the operating system, because you can reinstall Windows. Even if you format the C drive, your personal files stored on other logical drives (D, E, etc.) will remain intact.
Attention: before partitioning the disk, close all running programs!
Partitioning using Windows 7
Windows 7 has its own management capabilities sections of hard disk: creating a partition, compression (shrinking a partition), deleting a partition, changing a letter. In Windows XP you cannot do this.
Right-click the Computer icon on your desktop or Start menu and select Manage. You will need system administrator rights.
In the Computer Management window that opens, go to Disk Management. In the central part of the window you will see lists of physical disks, logical partitions and their parameters.
Let's consider the most popular task - breaking logical drive C into two sections. To do this, you first need to separate some of the free information from drive C, and then create a separate partition from the free space. Right-click on drive C and select “Shrink Volume...” from the context menu. So we will reduce the size of the C drive by freeing up free space.
You will have to wait a bit, Windows will analyze the C drive being partitioned and display a window with partition options. Set the size of the compressed space (i.e. the amount of free space that needs to be taken from the disk) and click on the “Compress” button.
Wait while Windows splits the specified disk into two parts. The process takes a few minutes.
After compression of drive C is completed, you will see another one appear among the partitions, marked as “Not distributed”. Next on this free space you need to create a new partition. Right-click on the unallocated partition and select “Create simple volume...” from the menu.
The Create Simple Volume (Share) Wizard window will open. Click "Next".
The wizard will ask you to specify the size of the partition to be created. The window will indicate the minimum and maximum sizes, and by default the created partition will be the largest possible size. In most cases, you won't need to change anything here, so click Next.
In the next step, you will be asked to assign a letter of the English alphabet to the new section, or skip this action. It is convenient to assign a letter right now. Leave Assign Drive Letter (A-Z) selected and you can change the default drive letter if you wish. Click "Next".
At the fourth step of the wizard, you need to specify formatting parameters for the new disk partition. This is necessary so that data can be saved to the newly created partition. Initially set parameters (File NTFS system and quick formatting) leave unchanged. Fill in only the “Volume Label” field, come up with a name for it, and click “Next”.
At the last step of the volume creation wizard, you can view all the selected parameters for creating a new disk partition and confirm them by clicking the “Finish” button.
Creating a partition will take a few seconds and a new one will appear among the list of volumes in the Computer Management window.
The new drive should also appear among the drives in the Computer window. You can use it.
Partitioning using MiniTool Partition Wizard
If you have another Windows version, other than Windows 7, such as Windows XP, then to partition your hard drive you will need special program. Well-known programs in this area are: Partition Magic and Acronis Disk Director. But you have to pay to use them. Therefore, below the text suggests a way to partition a hard drive based on free program MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.
The task remains the same - to split the C drive into two drives.
| Like |