Organize your disk optimally and make it work? With partitioning, you can organize the space on your PC as you want. What programs can you use for this, and how to choose the right file system? We explain how to partition a disk in Windows 10. Formatting will also be discussed.
Partitioning a disk divides it into several sections. This is referred to as partitions. For example, a partition can contain an operating system or be reserved for data storage. Often partitions are created when you first set up your computer, but it is also possible to create new partitions and change existing partitions at a later time. You can do this while preserving data that is already on the disk.
Different partitions can provide more overview and flexibility, for example when you decide to clean the computer and perform a clean installation of Windows. If you create a partition for the operating system and a separate partition for your files, all you have to do is partition the operating system. The data partition remains unchanged.
Before partitioning or formatting a disk, it is recommended to backup the files that are on it. For help with this we refer you to this Backup and recovery course. Eventually with 180-page practical book!
Use disk management
The Disk Management component allows you to perform many of the layout tasks in Windows. Open the Start menu and type Diskmgmt.mscfollowed by pressing Enter. Disk Management opens and shows you which physical disks and associated partitions are active on the system. In the top part of the window you will see the drives with disk letter, capacity and available space. Once the partition is usable thanks to a file system, it is referred to as volume in Windows.
About file systems
Each hard drive uses a specific file system. The file system determines the way your data is stored. On Windows computers, you often deal with fat and ntfs file systems. Especially in older versions of Windows (up to and including Windows Millennium Edition), the fat format was used. Memory cards also often use the fat file system.
Fat is short for File Allocation Table and comes in several variants. For example, the fat16 system is suitable for storage space up to 2 GB. Fat32 is suitable for a capacity of 4 to 32 GB. The exfat variant is intended for 64 GB and larger storage. Ntfs has its origins in Windows NT (the NT File System) and is used in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, among others. The file system is a more advanced file system than fat (in terms of security, among other things) and lends itself well to larger disks.
For more information about the disk or partition, right click on it and choose Characteristics. The properties panel is made up of several tabs. On the tab General you can see which file system is used and how the capacity of the volume is distributed. The tab Additional provides access to volume health utilities. So you can check the volume for errors here and optimize and defragment the disk.
The tab Hardware provides information about the make and model of the volume. The other tabs allow you to adjust settings regarding shared access, security, backups and setting a storage limit.
Modify existing partition
Are you using a disk that you want to divide into multiple partitions and you don’t want to delete the existing data? If the disk still has space, you can shrink the existing partition and use the freed space to create an additional partition.
Right click on the disk you want to divide into multiple partitions. Choose Decrease volume. Disk Management checks how much space is available and displays it in a new window Amount of available space for reduction (in MB). In the box below, specify the amount of MB to shrink the partition. In the box Total size after reduction (in MB) you read what is left. Satisfied? click on Reduce.
In the main Disk Management window, you will now see the loose space, designated as unallocated space. Now it is time to create the partition in this space. Right click on Nunallocated space and choose New simple volume. Disk Management now opens a wizard that helps create the new volume.
Specify how much space to allocate to the partition. If you want to create one partition, you specify the entire space. If you want to make several partitions of the free space, you specify how much space can be allocated to this partition. Also specify a disk letter.
The wizard asks if you want to format the new volume. Choose Format this volume according to the following settings. The desired file system is ntfs. Bee Volume label enter the desired name. Place a check mark next to it Fast formatting and click Next one. In the last window, click Complete. The new partition is created and ready to use.
Customize drive letter
If you are not satisfied with the drive letter, you can easily adjust it afterwards via Disk Management. Finally, we will look at that. Right-click on the volume and choose Change drive letter and paths. Click on the existing letter and choose Modify. You can then choose a new drive letter at Assign this drive letter. click on OK. The drive letter has now been adjusted.
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