Is it possible to partition the system disk into partitions? Partitioning the hard drive into partitions. What is a disk partition

Physical storage is displayed in the system as virtual volumes, also called local disks or partitions.

The drive can be represented by only one volume, which holds all the disk space and stores all your files. Or it can be divided into several volumes, between which all available space and files are distributed.

The first option is very common, but not the most practical. Keeping OS components in the same place as movies, games and other entertainment content is not a good idea. You or other computer users may accidentally touch important files. And if the system fails and it is needed, then the rest of the volume’s contents will be deleted along with the old OS.

Fortunately, you can always split your drive into two or more partitions. In general terms, the procedure goes like this: you take away some space from an existing volume and use this space to create a new one.

For example, you can leave about 40–50 GB for the one with the installed OS, and allocate the rest of the space for a new section reserved for programs and entertainment content. In this case, system and personal files will be stored separately. And if you have to reinstall the system, your content will remain on the computer.

Before partitioning the disk, be sure to copy important files to other media. Your personal data shouldn't be harmed, but it's better to be safe.

The listed separation methods are suitable for both types of drives: traditional (HDD) and solid-state (SSD).

1. How to partition a disk in Windows

By regular means

For partitioning and other operations with drives in Windows, the standard Disk Management utility is used. To open it, right-click on the “This PC” shortcut and select “Manage” → “Disk Management”. You can launch the utility even faster using a special command: press the Windows keys + R, paste into the field diskmgmt.msc and click OK.

In the Disk Management window, you will see a list of local volumes (partitions) into which your drive is already divided. Among them there may be hidden system partitions that are not displayed in Explorer. This is normal, don't pay attention to them.

In the lower half of the window, right-click on the volume you want to split and select the “Shrink Volume” option.

Then specify the amount of data you want to allocate to the new volume and confirm compression.

As a result, the screen next to the selected volume will display the specified amount of free space available for the new partition. Right-click on this area and select “Create Simple Volume”.

If you have Windows XP, the compression option will most likely not be available. Then just right-click on the one you want to split and select “New Partition”. Further steps will be approximately the same for all OS versions.

When the New Volume Wizard appears on the screen, follow its prompts.

In the process, you will need to select the letter and label (name) of the section. When the wizard prompts you for a disk, select the NTFS system and confirm your choice. After formatting, the created volume will appear in Explorer. If this does not happen, restart your computer.

In exactly the same way, you can partition the disk in the future, adding new volumes.

In a third party program

If for some reason you are unable to partition a disk using standard Windows tools, try doing it in one of the third-party programs. For example, in the utility. It's free, compatible with all versions of Windows from XP to 10, and quite simple.

To partition a disk in MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the appropriate volume in the program and click Move/Resize Partition in the left panel. In the window that appears, in the Unallocated Space After field, specify the amount of free space that will be taken from the current volume in favor of the new one. Click OK.

A new nameless section marked Unallocated will appear in the main menu of the program. Right-click on it and select the Create command. In the next window, fill in the Drive Letter and Partition Label fields, select NTFS as the file system and click OK.

Returning to the main menu of the MiniTool Partition Wizard, click Apply on the top panel to apply the changes. The computer will restart and white text will appear on the black screen. Wait and do not turn off the device. When Windows boots, the created volume will appear in Explorer.

2. How to partition a disk on macOS

If you have a Mac, you'll need the pre-installed Disk Utility program to partition your drive. It can be found in the Finder menu → Programs → Utilities.

After launching Disk Utility, in the left pane, select the disk you want to partition and click on the “Partition” button.

A window with further instructions will appear on the screen, in which you can select the number, size and other parameters of the new partitions.

When you have made all the necessary settings, click “Apply” and wait for the changes to take effect.

Often new PCs have a single system drive “C”. How to partition a Windows 7 hard drive yourself? The main thing is that all actions performed by the user are safe for the computer and the methods of partitioning the hard drive are easy to implement.

All these requirements are met by a method using the functionality of Windows 7 itself. Simplicity is ensured by using the standard operating system explorer.

What is this for?

The main argument in favor of dividing the hard drive into partitions is the security of the user's files stored on the computer.

For example, if it is necessary to install an OS, you will definitely have to resort to formatting the system partition “C” and if the computer owner does not have time, for a number of reasons, to copy all of his data to the memory of another hard drive, laser disk or flash drive, then all information important to the user will be irretrievably lost.

This often happens when a computer is infected with malware. Therefore, it is not recommended to keep important information on the system partition “C” of the PC. Partitioning your hard drive into several partitions in advance will help secure stored files in your PC memory.

Important note! It is advisable to proceed with the instructions below only if the hard drive memory in the user’s computer has enough free space for the normal functioning of the operating system.

Process of partitioning on working OS

The following steps are required:

How to create partitions during installation of Windows 7 on a computer?

This method is used during the operating system installation process. Mostly, the hard drive space is divided into 3 parts (although there are exceptions, depending on the personal preferences of the computer owner):

1. System:
2. For work;
3. For storing photos and media files.

The algorithm of actions is as follows:

How to create partitions using third party software?

First, you will need to download the necessary program from the Internet and install it on your computer, for example, “Partition Magic”, “Acronis”, etc. Next, let's look at an example using the Acronis application.

Partitioning a disk into several partitions is a very common procedure among users. Using such a HDD is much more convenient, since it allows you to separate system files from user files and manage them more conveniently.

You can partition your hard drive into parts in Windows 10 not only during system installation, but also after it, and for this you do not have to use third-party programs, since this function is available in Windows itself.

In this article we will look at how to divide a HDD into logical partitions. This can be done in an already installed operating system and when reinstalling the OS. At his discretion, the user can use the standard Windows utility or third-party programs.

Method 1: Using programs

One of the options for dividing the drive into partitions is to use third-party programs. Many of them can be used both when Windows is running and as a bootable flash drive when partitioning a disk while the OS is running is not possible.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

A popular free solution that works with different types of drives is . The main advantage of this program is the ability to download an image with an ISO file from the official website to create a bootable flash drive. Partitioning a disk here can be done in two ways at once, and we will look at the simplest and fastest one.

The letter of the new volume can later be changed manually via "Disk Management".

Acronis Disk Director

Unlike the previous program, this is a paid version, which also has a large number of functions and can partition the disk. The interface is not very different from MiniTool Partition Wizard, but it is in Russian. Acronis Disk Director can also be used as boot software if you cannot perform operations while running Windows.

EaseUS Partition Master

- a program with a trial period, like Acronis Disk Director. Its functionality includes various features, including disk partitioning. In general, it is similar to the two analogues listed above, and the difference mainly comes down to appearance. There is no Russian language, but you can download a language pack from the official website.

Method 2: Windows built-in tool

To perform this task you need to use the built-in utility "Disk Management".

1. Click on the button Start right click and select "Disk Management". Or press on your keyboard Win+R, enter diskmgmt.msc in the empty field and click "OK".

   

2. The main hard drive is usually called Disk 0 and is divided into several sections. If 2 or more disks are connected, then its name may be Disc 1 or others.

   The number of partitions themselves may vary, and usually there are 3 of them: two system and one user.

   

3. Right-click on the disk and select "Shrink Volume".

   

4. In the window that opens, you will be asked to compress the volume to all available space, that is, create a partition with the number of gigabytes that are free at the moment. We strongly do not recommend doing this: in the future, there may simply not be enough space for new Windows files - for example, when updating the system, creating backup copies (restore points) or installing programs without the ability to change their location.

   Be sure to leave for C: additional free space, at least 10-15 GB. In field "Size" compressible space in megabytes, enter the number you need for the new volume, minus the space for C:.

   

5. An unallocated area will appear, and the size of C: will be reduced by the amount that was allocated in favor of the new partition.

   

   By region "Not distributed" right click and select "Create Simple Volume".

   

6. Will open "Simple Volume Wizard", in which you will need to specify the size of the new volume. If you want to create only one logical disk from this space, then leave the full size. You can also split the empty space into multiple volumes - in this case, specify the desired size of the volume you are creating. The rest of the area will again remain as "Not distributed", and you will need to do steps 5-8 again.
7. You can then assign a letter to the drive.

   

8. Next, you will need to format the created partition with empty space; none of your files will be deleted.

   

9. The formatting options should be as follows:
   • File system: NTFS;
   • Cluster size: Default;
   • Volume Label: Enter the name you want to give to the disk;
   • Quick formatting.

   After this, exit the Wizard by clicking "OK" > "Ready". The newly created volume will appear in the list of other volumes and in Explorer, in the section "This computer".

   
   

Method 3: Partitioning the disk when installing Windows

It is always possible to divide the HDD when installing the system. This can be done using the Windows installer itself.

Now you know how to partition a HDD in different situations. This is not very difficult, and will ultimately make working with files and documents more convenient. The fundamental difference between using the built-in utility "Disk Management" and there are no third-party programs, since both options achieve the same result. However, other programs may have additional features, such as file transfer, that may be useful to some users.

A hard drive is designed to permanently store information used when operating a computer. They are also called hard drives or hard drives. The abbreviation HDD also stands for hard drive in computer terminology. A hard disk is one of the fastest devices for writing and reading information, not counting RAM.

Most often, it is not convenient to use a hard drive as a single storage of information, so most users of PCs and laptops split the hard drive into partitions for convenience.

The concept of a hard drive partition

A partition (often referred to as a volume) is an area of ​​a hard drive that can be formatted for a specific file system. A partition or volume is designated by a letter of the Latin alphabet, for example F, E, H, Z, or other letters that are not currently used on this hard drive.

Type of computer hard drive

Types of hard disk partitions

Experts in modern computer terminology related to hard drive partitions distinguish three main types of volumes on a hard drive:

• Primary (Primary partition);
• Extended partition;
• Logical partition.

The primary hard drive partition typically stores user data, programs, and operating system files. There can be more than one primary partition on a hard disk, but there cannot be more than four. It is impossible to install more than one operating system on one primary hard drive volume, so if you want to use several operating systems on one PC, split the hard drive into several partitions. And since there cannot be more than four primary partitions on one hard drive, there cannot be more than four installed operating systems either.

During each session of working with a computer, only one primary partition is active, the one from which the operating system was loaded. Many operating systems have the ability to boot only from the active volume on the hard drive.

An extended partition combines logical drives, which are also called logical partitions. You can create a huge number of logical disks in an extended partition. They can store various information, such as user data, applications, programs, personal photos, videos and documents, even operating system files that can be loaded not only from the primary partition.

Logical partitions are almost no different from extended partitions. Any logical drive is simply an area of ​​an extended partition.

Computer hard drive

Partitioning your hard drive

Many owners of laptops and personal computers, after purchasing, think about the problem of dividing the hard drive into partitions. The essence of this partition is to divide the computer's hard drive into two or more partitions. In most cases, they create a local drive C containing the operating system and system folders, as well as a local drive D on which they mainly store their favorite movies, music, photos, text documents, etc. But for storing personal data, not one, but several local drives can be used and They can be named by any letters of the Latin alphabet.

Hard disk division occurs only formally

Advantages of partitioning your hard drive

Splitting your hard drive into several partitions has many advantages. For example, the most significant advantage of this procedure is that personal files such as videos, photographs and documents will be stored on a separate disk. Because if the need arises to reinstall the operating system, and formatting the disk with the OS is simply inevitable in this case, then all your personal files and folders will be saved.

There is, of course, another solution to this problem. Before reinstalling the operating system, move all important data to removable media, but this is quite a labor-intensive task, especially if the amount of information that needs to be saved is tens or even hundreds of gigabytes. And if a situation arises when an emergency reinstallation of the operating system is necessary, access to personal files saved on a shared local drive along with the OS is no longer possible, important information will simply be lost.

This is what a computer's hard drive looks like when purchased in a store.

Storing system and personal files in different sections of the hard drive will be more convenient. It will be easier to find the information you are interested in, since each section will be less cluttered, and you will easily find the necessary files or folders. In addition, the obvious advantage of partitioning a hard drive is that it is easier for the operating system to work with a less loaded partition, that is, the performance of the OS increases significantly.

Another advantage of dividing a hard drive into partitions is the ability to use several operating systems on one computer. For example, Windows 7 and Windows 8 or Windows XP can be installed on one hard drive, but for this the hard drive must be partitioned. If a failure occurs in one of the operating systems, you will have another operating system installed and ready to use.

To summarize, it is worth highlighting the main advantages of dividing a hard drive into partitions. So, the advantages of this procedure include:

• ensuring the security of personal data even if failures occur in the OS;
• high efficiency of organizing information stored on the hard drive;
• increased OS performance due to less partition load;
• the ability to install and use several operating systems on a computer.

A hard drive is a very complex device that provides quick access to stored information.

Dividing a hard drive into partitions using built-in Windows OS tools

Since we have found out the main reasons why a hard drive is partitioned and become familiar with the main advantages that such a solution subsequently brings, we should consider in detail how to partition a hard drive into local disks in practice. Moreover, we will describe the algorithm for performing this procedure in relation to the most popular operating systems - Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 7

If your computer or laptop has the Windows 7 operating system installed, then to divide the hard drive into partitions, follow these steps:

Step 1. Right-click on the “Computer” icon on the desktop or in the “Start” panel, open the context menu, and click “Manage.”

Right-click on the Computer icon

Step 2. In the window that opens, select the “Disk Management” utility from the menu. After this, you will have to wait for a few seconds until a window with the hard drive structure opens.

Select Disk Management

Hard disk partitions

Step 3. To partition the hard drive, you need to select a volume that has a fairly large space, but it is worth remembering that it is better to compress a non-system partition if possible. Right-click on the selected volume and select “Shrink Volume” from the context menu. A small window will open and you will still need to wait some time.

Select Shrink disk and wait a few seconds

Step 4. The system will offer available compression options. Maximum values ​​will be indicated, but it is not recommended to use them, so reduce the size a little to the level required for you. This will be the size of the future logical disk. Enter the required values ​​in the boxes and click on the “Compress” button. Next, we wait again until the compression process is completed.

Maximum allowed values ​​for volume compression

Step 5: Once the process is complete, a new partition will appear in the Disk Management window. A black stripe and the inscription “Not distributed” will be visible on the top of it. To convert it into a hard disk volume, right-click, then select “Create simple volume”.

Unallocated space on your hard drive

Step 6. The “Simple Volume Creation Wizard” will open, click “Next” and select the maximum size.

Creating a Simple Volume

Step 7. Assign from the proposed letters of the Latin alphabet the letter that will later become the name of the new section and click “Next”.

Working with the Simple Volume Wizard

Select the name of the future partition in the Simple Volume Creation Wizard

Step 8. Check the box next to “Format this volume as follows”; select the NTFS file system; cluster size – default; Check the box next to “Quick Format” and click “Next”.

Manually setting formatting options

Step 9. When the “Completing the Create Simple Volume Wizard” window appears, check all the data and click the “Finish” button.

Completing the Create Simple Volume Wizard

Step 10. And the new hard drive partition is ready!

Ready new section

So, without the use of additional software, you can easily and simply partition the hard drive on a computer or laptop with the Windows 7 operating system installed.

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 8

Owners of Windows 8 OS can partition the hard disk also using the Disk Management utility, but to open this window you need to simultaneously hold down two Windows + R keys. As a result, the Run window will appear, enter “diskmgmt.msc” into the command line » only without quotes and press the Enter button on your computer keyboard.

Next, the “Management” window will open, similar to that in the operating system discussed earlier. In order to create a new partition on your hard drive, you need to sequentially perform the same steps as in the algorithm described in Windows 7. That is, you perform all the manipulations described in steps 2-10.

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 10

The hard drive on computers and laptops with the Windows 10 operating system installed can be divided into partitions using the same built-in Disk Management utility. You can open this utility in Windows 10 by opening the Start menu. We type “Control Panel”, left-click on it and select “System and Security”.

Finding Control Panel in Windows 10

Control Panel in Windows 10

Hard disk structure

In the window that opens, scroll down the scroll bar and find the “Administration” item. In this item you need to find “Creating and formatting a hard disk”, click on it and wait a couple of seconds, after which a window with the “Disk Management” utility opens in front of us. We carry out further steps in full accordance with the hard drive division algorithm in Windows 7, again we do steps 2-10.

Other ways to create a new volume on a hard drive

It is worth mentioning that the Disk Management utility also allows you to delete hard drive partitions. You will need this if, for example, there is no more free space left, and you simply need to create a new volume. To do this, you can right-click on the hard disk partition to be deleted and select “Delete Volume”. An unallocated volume will appear in place of the deleted partition, which can be formatted to the parameters you require.

Removing a volume using Disk Management

The steps described in the algorithm show how to create a new partition using the compression method. But there is a way to create a new volume from unallocated space, which may appear after deleting a partition, as described in the paragraph above, or after previous divisions, there could simply be unallocated space on the hard disk, from which you can create a new volume by following steps 5-10 of the above algorithm .

In addition, it is possible to expand another of the existing volumes into the free space after deleting the old volume, or the partition can be expanded into unused unallocated space. To do this, click on the “Extend volume” item in the context menu, select “Next” and “Finish”.

Partitioning a hard drive when installing Windows OS

After launching the operating system loader, select your language, accept the terms of the License Agreement, and select “Full installation”. The bootloader will prompt you to select a partition on which the operating system will subsequently be installed. Next, a window will open with a “Disk Settings” button. By clicking on this button, you will have access to all the tools that will allow you to work with disk space.

In this window, using the buttons, you can format the disk or disks, delete partitions, create new disks and select the desired size for them. Any changes you make will only take effect after you click the “Apply” button.

External hard drive

Dividing a hard drive with special programs

In addition to built-in tools, such as the Disk Management utility, special programs are also used to divide the hard drive into partitions, they are also called volume managers. At the moment there are a huge number of them. The functionality of these programs allows you to perform many functions, not only dividing a hard disk into partitions. Among the most popular programs that have received a large number of positive reviews, it is worth noting the following:

• Acronis Disc Director;
• Paragon Partition Manager;
• AOMEI Partition Assistant;
• Norton Partition Magic;
• EASEUS Partition Master
• Ranish etc.

Most of these programs can be downloaded for free on the Internet, in addition, many of them are available in Russian.

Acronis Disc Director hard drive management software

Paragon Partition Manager hard drive management program

Conclusion

The above describes in detail how to quickly and easily divide a hard drive into partitions using the built-in tools of Windows operating systems in versions 7, 8 and 10. The option of how to partition a hard drive initially when installing the operating system on a computer or laptop is also considered. Here is a list of the best programs for managing hard disk partitions according to user opinions.

The described benefits obtained from dividing a hard drive into partitions are simply undeniable. After all, this way you not only rationally use disk space, but also increase the performance of the operating system.

The question is quite relevant, since today almost any laptop and any ready-made computer are sold with a pre-installed Windows operating system. In 90% of cases, you will have an unbroken hard drive, that is, only a system local drive.

But everyone is accustomed to the fact that the hard drive is divided into several parts, most often there are two of them: one for the system and programs, the second for storing personal information. Let's look at splitting a disk into two parts using the built-in tools of Windows 7. Starting from this version, you can split a disk without third-party software. In my case, there is only one disk with a size of 60 GB.

Let's try to break it into two parts. To do this, right-click on the “Computer” icon and click on the “Management” section.

In the Computer Management window, go to the Disk Management tab. Our “drive C” will appear on the right side, which we will divide.

We do not touch what is “Reserved by the system”, since the boot area is located in this small area. Right-click on the “drive C” area and in the pop-up menu click on “Shrink Volume”.

And the volume will be polled to determine the available space for compression. Let's wait...

Total size before disk compression: 60938 MB. Space available for compression: 28370 MB. That is, this is the maximum size that can be cut off from “drive C”.

You will have much more, since my disk is small and the system also needs space to store it. After compression, 32568 MB will remain. I recommend leaving 100 GB for the system disk with Windows 7 if your disk is 500 GB. If your disk is larger, then leave 150 GB for the system.

For the sample, I will leave it as it is, that is, I will try to free up as much space as possible for “drive D” with personal information. After you click on the “Compress” button, the process of allocating space will begin. After minutes of waiting, a free space appeared.

Now, in place of the “Not allocated” section, we will right-click and select “Create simple volume” from the menu.

The Create Simple Volume Wizard opens.

At the next stage, we create the size of the future “drive D”. If you want to split the disk into two parts, then leave it as is. If we want, for example, to split it into three parts, then we write here the size of the second local partition, and on the remaining unallocated area we do the same and create a third volume.

In general, I leave it as is so that I get two disks and click “Next”.

At the next stage, select the letter of the future drive. In my case, this is the letter E, since the letter D is occupied by the CD drive.