Very often it becomes necessary to create an additional partition on your hard drive. This may be due, for example, to the need to protect certain data (you can encrypt the entire selected section). But it happens on the contrary, you do not have enough space on the divided into logical partitions physical medium and then you need to make one of the two and at the same time not lose the data that you store. Today it has already become clear that Microsoft has decided to unify all previous developments (Windows 7, windows 8 and Windows XP) into one Windows 10 system. Sooner or later, most users will switch to this operating system. Therefore, there is no need to schedule for previous versions, but I'll tell you how to break HDD on windows partitions 10.
Hard disk partitions - how they work
The main purpose in the allocation of logical partitions on the main physical disk is usability and separation of, for example, files operating system from user files. Sometimes it is necessary to be able to boot multiple operating systems from one hard disk... If there is only one disk or you do not want to mix storage files with operating system files, the logical disk system will help you. Each logical partition can have its own file system.
When a new section is created, information about it is recorded in a special section table (in English: partition table). The first sector of a physical hard disk contains the Master Boot Record (MBR). The partition table is part of the master boot record. In the MBR, 64 bytes are allocated for storing information about logical partitions, and each section occupies 16 bytes in this area. Accordingly, only 4 logical disks can be created on one hard disk. This limitation was at the very beginning when creating and developing the logical structure of disks, but it can be circumvented using special programs called the partition manager
For a better understanding of how to work with logical partitions on a hard disk, I will show you on Windows example 10 how to delete, create, compress and split into several.
Partition Manager in Windows 10
Step 1: To work with disks in Windows 10 there is special utility which is called "Disk Management". You can start it from the launch line by pressing the Win + R combination and in the "Open:" field specify diskmgmt.msc and click OK.
Step 2: More fast way you can run the utility through the "Start" button. Click on right click mouse on the "Start" button and select the "Disk Management" utility from the list.
How to remove and create a hard drive partition
Step 1: In the disk manager, you will see a list of all your physical disks and in each set of logical ones they are divided into. In my case, the physical disks are Disk 0, Disk 1, and Disk 2. The logical disks are C and G. to remove one of the virtual disks, right-click on it and select "Delete Volume ...".
Step 2: Make sure you are removing the exact drive you want. All data on it will be permanently deleted. Confirm the deletion.
Step 3: After deletion, the area that was previously allocated for the disk will be marked as "Not allocated".
Step 4: If you need to delete all partitions, do the same operation with all logical partitions until the entire disk area is marked as "Not Allocated". I have Disk 2 and the unallocated area are the same size.
Step 5: Create new volume you can only from a section that is marked as "Not Distributed". Right-click on the area to be created and select "Create Simple Volume ..." from the context menu list.
Step 6: In the wizard for creating simple volumes, specify the required volume size. If you need to create a disk from all available space, specify the maximum capacity. If you specify smaller size in MB, the manager will create a partition equal to the specified one, and leave the remaining area unallocated. Click Next.
Specify the required size
Step 7: Assign a letter to the section you are creating. The choice is possible only from the available ones. Click Next.
Select a letter for the section from those available in the list
Step 8: Formatting the created section. You can select without formatting, and then the partition will need to be formatted manually separately, or you can select the file system for formatting. From the drop-down list, select the type of formatting, the size of the cluster (it is better to leave the default if you do not know why you need it) and specify the volume label (this will be the name of your partition).
Step 9: After the partition has been created and formatted, the Volume Creation Wizard will provide a summary of the created hard disk partition.
Step 10: The created and formatted NTFS partition looks like this in the disk manager.
Compression - How to Partition a Hard Drive
Compression in Disk Management is the function of allocating a separate partition to create a new one. Using compression, you can create a new section logical drive from an existing and working section. In this case, the data will not be lost (unless, of course, the size of the remaining part is sufficient for storage).
Step 1: Start the Disk Management Manager as shown in the previous example. On the partition where you want to highlight the area for the new partition, right-click and select "Shrink Volume ...".
Step 2: In the "Size of space to compress (MB):" field, specify the amount of space you want. I listed 350,000 (that's roughly half the capacity of my entire hard drive. It will be 350 GB in size.
Specify the size to compress
Step 3: When the compression is complete, the new and old partitions will look like this. The new section will be marked as "Not allocated", and the old one will just be smaller.
Step 4: On an unallocated partition, right-click and create a simple volume. The previous section describes how to create a volume.
Expansion - how to merge hard disk partitions
In disk management, Expansion allows you to expand the capacity of an existing partition by using the unused area of another partition. Naturally, it is impossible to expand a section that occupies the entire area on a physical medium. Likewise, it is impossible to expand a partition without having free space on the disk that is marked as "Not allocated". If you have multiple physical disks, you can expand the volume of the partition by adding another partition on the second physical disk.
Step 1: First, you need to free up an area for expansion. There are two options for this:
- Shrink one of the volumes by biting off the required volume, which will then be expanded to a new volume.
- Completely remove one of the existing volumes for expansion to the new volume.
I have one unnecessary volume on my disk and I am deleting it. Right click on the volume and select "Delete Volume ...". The area of the deleted volume will be marked as "Not allocated" by the system. This is exactly what we need.
Step 2: On the unallocated area, right-click and select "Extend Volume ..."
Step 3: In the extension wizard, the section will automatically be added to the selected for extension window. You can add to the same window from those available on the left.
Step 4: When the extension wizard completes, click Finish.
Step 5: The new expanded volume will look like this.
Partitioning the hard drive when installing Windows 10
Now we will analyze the solution to one of the most frequent tasks of the user after buying a new laptop: the system has only one hard disk on which the operating system is installed, and the user needs to create another partition without losing data. This article describes a method for splitting a partition using Windows, i.e. how to partition a disk without using additional special software. The instruction is suitable for both classic hard drives and for SSD on a stationary PC or laptop. You can safely partition C drive into 2 disks (partitions) without the risk of losing data, formatting or reinstalling the OS.
How to partition C: drive into 2 partitions in Windows 10 / 8.1 / 7
Disabling system protection
Start explorer:
We called the window System... Click on the link System protection :
A window opens System properties in the tab System protection... Select the system disk with the left mouse button and press the button Tune :
We set the selector to position Disable and press OK:
Push Yes to confirm your intentions to disable protection on this disk:
Splitting a disc into 2 parts
We opened the window Computer management... We see two sections: boot without a letter and system under the letter C:.
Push right click on the system disk (largest) and select the item Shrink volume :
In the next window, we see a configurable parameter. In fact, this will be the size of the free space after the partition C:, which you can use for other sections. And the value Total size after compression Is the size to which you want to shrink the existing system disk C:
We advise you to take under system partition at least 80 GB. Don't overdo it with squeezing it. If you compress the system disk to 30-50 GB, then there is a high probability that it will eventually run out of free space and you will have to increase its volume.
So ask Compressible space size(to create new sections) with an eye on Total size after compression(drive C) and press Shrink:
(In our case, we free up about 239 Gigabytes and leave 80 Gigabytes under the C: drive)
After completing the compression procedure, you will see two partitions on the map and unallocated space after them. The system partition no longer takes up all of the hard disk space, but only a part. In our case - 80 GB:
Now we need to create additional partitions (or one partition) using the unallocated space. Push right click over the unallocated space to the right of the system partition and select in context menu Create Simple Volume ... :
The Create Simple Volumes Wizard starts. Push Further :
At the stage Specifying the size of the volume we have several options:
- leave the value unchanged - in this case, we will create one partition that will occupy all the available free space;
- decrease the value - in this case, we will have free space to create other partitions.
In our example, we want to create one partition that will take up all the remaining space on the hard drive. Therefore, just click Further :
Select a letter (it can be changed in the future) and press Further :
We ask volume label for a non-system partition, mark the checkbox quick format and press Further :
Push Ready to start creating a section and formatting it:
After a few seconds, we see a new section on the map:
Entering the area This computer, we also see that we now have two disks: C: and E:
... put the selector in position Enable system protection and press the button OK.
Greetings to all of you in the next issue! The conditional division of the hard disk into two partitions C and D is what almost every user is used to, and mostly experienced users. The first disk is intended primarily for recording the OS and programs with which the user works.
The second is primarily intended for storage various files... This partitioning of the device is very convenient, since if you need to reinstall the OS, only the data from the C drive is erased from the computer. improve their safety.
Features of partitioning a hard disk into partitions in Windows 10
So, in what cases do you need to partition a hard drive?
The first time you might need to partition the hard drive is when purchasing a new device. When buying a computer, usually the hard drive on it has one common partition. Writing an OS to one hard disk partition is not rational, and also unsafe, therefore it is recommended to divide the hard disk into partitions immediately after purchasing a computer.
The second case when you may need to partition your hard drive is the need to organize the files stored on your computer: music, documents, photos. If all this data is stored in certain partitions of the hard disk, and not in folders, then their security will increase.
It's important to know ! In the material, we will consider how to partition a hard disk into partitions. different ways... There are enough such methods, so we will analyze each option, after which we will choose the most optimal.
Partitioning a hard drive using Windows 10 tools
Initially, we will pay attention to the question of how to divide the hard drive into partitions when there is already a working OS with two drives C and D. Let's add another section to these drives, which will store important photos. To break the hard drive, you do not need to use third-party software, so the algorithm of actions will be as follows:
The process begins with the fact that the user needs to become on Windows icon on the desktop with the mouse arrow, then right-click, causing a pop-up window. In this window, select the item "Disk Management", as shown below.
This is the easiest way to call this option, but you can do this using the "Run" command, simultaneously holding down two "Win + R" buttons, and then, in the window that opens, enter the command to English language: diskmgmt.msc.
After that, information about all available partitions on the computer will appear in the window that opens. Here you can find out the volume of each section, type of system, workload. In the lower part, in the form of rectangles, you can estimate the ratio of the sizes of each section.
Before proceeding with partitioning, you need to free up some space. To do this, you can use partition D. It is this disk that we will divide into two partitions. In order to shrink disk D, you need to right-click on it, then select the Shrink Volume ... command, as shown below.
After choosing this command, a window will open, where you should carefully indicate the volume of the partition to be compressed. The information in this window is indicated in MB. V this case Let's compress up to 10 GB by writing 10,000 MB in the "Compressed space size" cell.
After that, the compression procedure begins, but no progress bar will appear. The compression procedure takes about 3-5 minutes, so you need to wait a little.
Let's start creating a new section. To do this, right-click on the space that appears and select "Create Simple Volume".
A window of the wizard for creating simple volumes will appear, where you need to agree with the system by clicking the "Next" button. The Volume Creation Wizard will ask you to specify the volume that will be allocated for the new partition. You can specify the entire volume, which is indicated above under the title " Maximum size". The main thing is that the specified value does not exceed this value.
Now the system will ask you to indicate the name of the future volume in the form of a letter. Alphabetically, this will be the letter F, but the user can specify any letter.
After that, you will need to specify the type of file system. Of course, the file system will be NTFS, and in the "Volume label" section you will simply need to write the name of the volume.
As you can see, the procedure is quite simple, but it is necessary to take into account the fact that you should not compress the disk to the limit. This will affect its functioning for the worse.
Partitioning a disk using special applications
To divide your hard drive into partitions, you can use special applications... These applications include:
Acronic Disk Director;
Minitool Partition Wizard Free;
Aomei Partition Assistant.
There are other applications, but it is better to choose one of the suggested ones. Some of them are paid, but you can use the application with a demo version, which is exactly Acronic Disk Director. Exactly by example of this application Let's look at how you can partition a disk into partitions.
Initially, you need to download the application by downloading it from the official website, and then install it on your computer. After installing the file, you will need to launch the application, after which a window of the following form will appear.
After starting the application, you need to right-click on the section, then select the "Split volume" item, as shown in the screenshot above.
Using the slider in the application, you can resize the two new sections.
In order for the changes to take effect, you will need to click the button with the name "Apply pending operations", which is highlighted in the screenshot below with a red frame.
The changes made will be applied, and the selected section is divided into two parts. If separation is carried out system disk, then for the changes made to take effect, you just need to restart the computer.
This application is quite easy to use, but its main advantage is due to the presence of the Russian-language version.
Partitioning a disk during Windows 10 installation
You can also partition a physical disk during a clean installation of Windows 10. This method suitable mainly for the category of users who have purchased a clean computer and are going to do the partitioning during the installation of the OS. If you carry out the separation in this way, when files are stored on the computer, then during the marking process all information will be erased. This is important to consider even before this option is given preference.
If the user has decided that this option is suitable for him, then the algorithm of actions will be as follows:
To begin with, the process of installing Windows 10 is launched. You can read more about how to do this on the website. We begin with the fact that during the installation process a window of the following form will appear.
It is in this window that you can add as many sections as necessary. To perform the partitioning, the existing disks must be removed. How this can be done is shown in the photo below.
After deleting all existing partitions, an entry will appear titled "Unallocated Disk Space". Such a record can also be seen during the installation of the OS, if it was purchased new computer... To create a section, select the "Create" item.
In the next window, you need to specify the size of the logical disk. Volumes should be indicated depending on the total size of the hard drive. Since we have selected a 60 GB hard drive for the example, we will create a C drive with a 40 GB volume, although at least 80 GB is required for normal operation of Windows 10.
After clicking the "Apply" button, a warning window will appear that additional sections must be created to ensure correct operation. You just need to agree. After that, a window will appear with our created 40 GB partition. Now it remains to use the unallocated space, for which we again use the "Create" button.
The cell with the volume of the future volume will be automatically filled. After creating the disc, you will need to format them. To do this, select the appropriate disk, and then click on the "Format" item. We agree that the system warns about the loss of all data. If you do not format the disks, then the system will have crashes and errors, therefore this procedure is required.
After formatting the disks, you can continue further installation OS. After finishing the installation and Windows startup you can see that the disks that were created during the installation phase actually appeared in the This PC folder.
In conclusion, it should be noted that breaking the hard drive into volumes is not so difficult as it might seem initially. All that is needed to achieve the ultimate goal is to determine the methodology, as well as study each step. The risk of errors is minimal, but it is better to train on a computer that does not store important information in one copy. It is believed that the most favorable way to partition a disk is to use third-party applications. At the same time, the specialist claims that the best way to separate the hard drive is to perform the procedure during the installation of the OS.
Operating room Windows system 10 allows you to create hard disk partitions using standard utilities or through third-party programs. This separation allows data, games, and other files to be kept separate from the system. As a result, you will be able to reinstall the OS without deleting all data stored on the second partition. Let's see how to create a D drive on Windows 10 different ways.
If a hard drive with sufficient memory is installed in the computer, you can divide it into several local drives and use it at your discretion.
Remember that to install OS Windows 10, you must leave at least 30GB of free space. Based on this rule, divide the space on the PC hard drive.
So, Microsoft offers users the following methods for dividing the hard drive into partitions:
- using a standard utility;
- on the command line;
- when installing the operating system on a PC;
- through third-party programs.
If you have not yet started installing the OS on a laptop or computer, then you have the opportunity to divide the disk into partitions before starting to work with the system. Let's analyze each of the methods separately.
Installation separation
After you have downloaded the installation menu from the USB stick with ISO image, you need to do the following:
- Click on the second button in the window.
- You will see a display of all connected hard drives. The list contains all created volumes. They can be merged, restored, formatted, divided or distributed as you like. Click on the "Create" button.
- Specify the desired size and click on the "Apply" button. It is important that the volume of the partition does not exceed the amount of unallocated disk space.
- Next, the installation application prompts you to allocate space for the backup area. If you have unallocated space, you can create another volume with the entire remaining space.
This is how the D drive is created when the operating system is installed.
This option will not work for everyone, as it can only be used once. Also, it does not have a visual display of volume in the form of bars or graphs.
Now we will consider all the methods that are relevant for dividing the hard drive from under the interface of the OS itself.
Standard utility available for Windows 10 Pro (x32-bit / x64-bit). You can open it in the following ways:
- Right-click on the "Start" icon on the taskbar and find the "Disk Management" item in the menu.
- Start the Run application and enter the command "diskmgmt.msc". To run with administrator rights, use the combination Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
This method is very simple and will not take you much time:
- In the main window of the program, you will see a list of all volumes (1) and all connected drives (2).
- If you do not have enough space to create the D partition, then you can delete the unnecessary network drive... Make sure it does not contain information that is important to you. Click on the RMB section and select "Delete volume".
- You can also reduce the volume. To do this, right-click on the disk with the OS and select "Shrink volume".
- Specify the size in MB and click on "Compress".
- The specified amount will be added to the unallocated space. It is this that can be added to the future section. Right-click the unallocated space and select Create Simple Volume.
- On the first screen of the wizard, simply click Next.
- Specify the desired size of the future volume D.
- Select the desired drive letter and click "Next". You can also leave the section unchecked by selecting the checked item.
- Now do the basic settings: choose the file system, cluster size and name.
To start the procedure, click on the "Finish" button.
In this way, you can join or split multiple volumes using the Disk Management utility. Consider several useful functions of this application.
Additional features
Using a standard utility from Microsoft, you can also rename an existing volume to drive D:
- Right-click on the required section and select the marked line from the menu.
- In the window, select the "Change ..." button.
- Select a letter from the list and click OK.
To change the drive letter you need to restart your computer.
The utility also allows you to format individual logical volumes:
- Right click on the right one and select "Format".
- Specify a new label, file system and cluster size, then select the type of formatting and start the procedure with the "OK" button.
- After that, you will see a completely free section. It can be divided into new volumes, connected to another partition, etc.
Creating a virtual volume:
- Click on the top Action bar and select the checked item.
- Specify the location of the future virtual hard drive. It is in the specified folder that you can find it and enable it. Next, enter the size and format. A description is attached to each format.
- Finally, click on "OK".
Command line
The operating system from Microsoft allows you to perform most of the procedures without using graphical interface... In order to mark up a new section via the command line, you must follow the instructions provided:
- Open a command prompt through the Run application. Enter the command "cmd" and run the program as administrator using the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys.
- Now enter the commands "diskpart", "list volume", "select volume N" (the letter N is the number of the volume from which the partition D will be created). Press Enter after entering each command.
- Next, type in “shrink desired = size in megabytes”.
- Now we enter the command "select disk M" (partition number). Then you must sequentially apply the commands "create partition primary", "format fs = ntfs quik", "assign letter = D", "exit".
By using command line merging or restoration of partitions is also carried out. However, this will require other commands.
Third party software
Let's take a look at one of the popular utilities that allow you to partition, reset and merge partitions - Aomei Partition Assistant Standard. It can be downloaded and installed from the official website of the developers.
After installation, the application will open through a shortcut on the desktop. In the main window, you will see an interface that closely resembles Disk Management:
To create a new partition D, follow these steps:
- Create an unallocated area first if you don't have one. To do this, click on the unnecessary volume and select "Delete section".
- Now right-click on the unallocated space and click on "Create Partition".
- Use the slider or a separate field to select the size of the future volume and click "OK".
You can also split one of the sections to create subsection D:
- Right click on the selected hard drive and select "Partition Partition".
- Use the slider to set the size of the new subsection and click OK.
Output
Using the methods described, you can create a separate volume for playing games or storing movies. Thus, you will separate the system partition and be able to reinstall the OS without losing personal files during formatting.
Video
Check out the video that clearly demonstrates all the steps described in the instructions from the article. If you have any difficulties, you can ask for help in the comments.
In this article, we will take a closer look at how to partition a disk in Windows 10, but before proceeding with the study of the main question, I suggest that you first familiarize yourself with the reasons for the partitioning, and with the preparation before splitting the HDD, SSD.
General information and reasons for disk division
A partitioned Winchester is a single physical disk, but in Explorer the user sees divided areas called volumes. There are two types of hard drive markup:
- One section. Some PCs contain one section, for example C, where Windows is installed, programs, and user files are stored.
- Several sections. Some computers have two or more partitions, where OS and applications are stored on one (C), on others (D, E and others) personal information user.
Reasons for which you may need to partition the disk:
- The hard drive has one section. Some laptops from the store come with one section. In such a situation, it is likely that you will want to split the disk into several to separate Windows from other files.
- Data organization. For many users, placing information on different volumes is the best way organizing data than on a single partition.
- Data backup and recovery. It takes less time and effort to back up specific information on one of the partitions than backup the entire disk.
- Multiple OS. Some users have several operating systems on their computer (Windows, Linux), for each of which the user must create his own partition.
- Protection against software failures. If the OS is installed on a separate volume and there is a severe failure, you may need to reformat the volume. At the same time, your data will remain safe on other sections.
- New HDD, SSD. The priority is to divide the volume of the new disk into partitions, while there is no information on it yet.
Preparation before partitioning a disc
If you have finally decided that you will perform the partitioning of the disk, you need to do some preparation before this procedure. Use these tips:
- Create backup before dividing the hard drive. Power outages or volume sector errors may occur, resulting in data loss.
- Create a bootable USB stick.
- Download software and drivers. If you plan to reinstall the OS after dividing it into volumes, then prepare a set of programs and drivers for the PC to work correctly.
- Download a program for working with disks. This type of application is much more functional than standard means... There are many such programs on the Internet; below we will consider them in more detail.
Now that you have read the preparatory information, you can start partitioning the disk in Windows 10. Consider the methods using OS tools and special software.
Partitioning the disk using regular means in the OS itself
The division procedure is done in two ways: through the component "Disk Management" and Cmd. Let's take a closer look at them.
Method 1: In Run (open methods) enter diskmgmt.msc by clicking OK. This will launch the disk management window. In the example, partition D is about 265 GB. Let's try to make two volumes out of it. Click on the shared disk (D) with RMB, choosing "Shrink Volume" from the menu. Wait for the compression location request to finish processing.
The second line shows how much space can be taken from partition D in MB. Let's assume you need a 30 GB volume. There is about 1024 MB in 1 GB, which means that in the third line we will enter the value 30720. In this case, in the very last line you can see how many MB will remain for partition D. After setting your values, click "Compress". 
Now you need to wait until the compression process is complete. The more MB you specify, the longer you have to wait. Then a free area is formed, right-click on it, selecting "Create Simple Volume". 
Next, we set the size of the partition. If you want to use all the cut off memory, leave the maximum value. Click "Next". 
In the next window, set the drive letter, for example, G. Click "Next". 
Now specify the formatting options. We left it as it is, only changed the volume label by clicking Next. 
Look again at the list of selected options. If everything is adequate, click "Finish". 
As a result, a new section you have created will appear in the "Disk Management" window. Also, the new volume will be available for work in the explorer. 
Method 2. Open Cmd as an admin (described). Press Enter after entering each command (construct). Enter the command diskpart. Then we print list volume. In Cmd you will see information for all volumes. There is a number opposite the letter of each volume. Remember the number for the shared disk. For example, for volume C, the number is 2.
Select a volume, use a command like select volume X, where X is the number of the volume. Next, write the shrink desired = XXXX volume size compression construct, where XXXX is the size in MB. Wait until you see a success message. 
Enter list disk, this will display a list of hard drives with numbers. Then enter select disk Y, where Y is the number of the hard drive from which the volume was compressed. Use the create partition primary construct to create a volume from free space. Specify format fs = ntfs quick, this will format the new partition into file system NTFS. After formatting, you need to assign a letter to the section, this is done with the command assign letter = G, where G is a free letter. Finally, use Exit, then you can close Cmd. Going to the explorer, you will see the created section. 
Partitioning the disk when installing the OS
Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 10 (applies to SSDs as well) is possible during installation, but this will result in data loss. This method is suitable if you have a new PC without information or you have made full copy disk, and do not mind losing this data.
Suppose that you have reached the stage of choosing an OS installation location. Select each section and click Delete. As a result, you will have unallocated space, and your data will be deleted. Select the unallocated space by clicking Create. Specify the volume for the system disk in MB (I recommend setting more than 70 GB) by clicking "Apply". 
The installer will ask for permission to create an additional partition for system files... Click OK. As a result, partitions are formed: an additional about 500 MB, the main one of your size, unallocated space (the remaining space). If you wish, you can continue to divide the unallocated space or create a second partition by specifying the entire remaining size and clicking "Create".
Format the created partitions. Select each section, and click "Format", when the warning appears, click OK. Specify the drive where the OS will be and click "Next" to continue the installation.
Disk partitioning software
Specialized software performs not only the partitioning function, but also many other operations for working with disks that are not available with standard tools. If possible, use these programs. There are even situations when standard tools do not work correctly, then they come to the rescue third party applications... These programs include:
- Acronis Disk Director;
- Aomei Partition Assistant;
- EaseUS Partition Master;
- MiniTool Partition Wizard;
- Other.
For example, let's partition the disk with Aomei Partition Assistant. This is a free product with wide functionality and Russian language. Do the following:
These are the ways you can partition your hard drive in Windows 10 (and SSD). Particularly the partitioning is relevant for a disk with a single volume. We advise you to carry out the procedure special programs, so more functional and safer.