Create partitions on the hard. Creating a volume using special software

20.05.2019 Windows phone

09.04.2017

Despite the fact that I have switched Linux for several years, sometimes friends and relatives still have to install Windows.

You can use the DiskPart utility to partition a disk to work with the system.

DiskPart is a command-line console utility for working with disks (disk), partitions (partition) and volumes (volume). Developed by Microsoft for the Windows family of operating systems. Therefore, there should be much less problems, as, for example, when using software from Acronis, or Paragon. It has many more features than the Disk Management snap-in with a graphical interface. DiskPart can also be launched during the installation of Windows Vista/7/8, which will help in the future not to create an extra 100MB reserved partition that Windows creates automatically.

To open the console when you start the installation mechanism of the WIndows system, you must press the key combination Shift + F10.

Consider an example of partitioning a disk during the installation of Windows 7. If you do formatting using the Windows Setup Wizard itself, it creates a 100MB service partition that a simple user does not need! Therefore, it is better to use the utility and partition the disks yourself and install Windows on an already formatted active partition of the priority hard disk. If there is only one hard drive in the computer, then it will be a priority. If there are several of them, then it is recommended to disable extra disks during the installation of Windows. Or correctly prioritize in the BIOS (UEFI).

Consider a situation in which the disk is empty, there is no data on it, or it is not important and can be deleted.

So, to launch DiskPart during Windows installation, at the first stage, press Shift + F10 and get into the cmd shell. Run the disk utility diskpart.

There is a help command in diskpart to get general help, or use help commandname (for example, help clean) to get help on a specific command.

Let's create a main partition for the system, and an extended partition in which there will be two logical partitions for data and for documents.

We look at the list of disks in the system:

Sel disk=system

or you can select a disk by number:

Sel disk N

Let's check that the correct disk is selected:

or zeroing all sectors on the disk (the operation is very long - all sectors of the disk are written to zero)

Create part primary size=102400

Let's make it active (bootable):

Format fs=ntfs label=System quick

Let's create an extended (extended) partition for data and documents on the entire remaining disk space

Create part extended

Inside the extended partition, let's create a logical (logical) partition for data, 100 GB in size, for example, for storing documents:

Create part logical size=102400

Format the partition in NTFS, assign the label "Docs", apply a quick format:

Format fs=ntfs label=Docs quick

Connect this section to the system:

Let's create another logical drive, for example, to store media data on all the remaining free space:

Create part logical

Let's format (quickly) the partition to NTFS and give it the label "Media":

Format fs=ntfs label=Media quick

Connect this section to the system:

Let's see what happened. The system should show all created partitions on the disk:

Detail disk

If everything is successful, exit diskpart and exit the console:

If you encounter any difficulties while working with the diskpart utility, you can always use the help of this utility. Here are a few commands that might be helpful:

To view the list of partitions, you need to run the command:

List part

You can select the desired section with the command:

Sel part N

You can delete the selected partition with the command:

Del part

That's all! But, my many years of work on Linux systems shows that the era of Windows has already passed, although gamers can argue with me, because installing games is still very problematic here (I'm not into games, so this doesn't bother me at all)

Often, when buying a new computer, we encounter the problem that only one volume has been created on the hard disk, in other words, a local disk. To avoid such inconveniences, you can divide one volume into several, the main thing is to know what and where to do. Today, we will try to figure out how to make two, three or more local drives on a computer.

How to create an additional local disk?

Follow the following algorithm and you will definitely be able to create additional local disks.

Let's get started!

1. Open the "Control Panel", then go to the following items - "System and Security" - "Administrative Tools" - "Computer Management" - "Storage Devices" - "Disk Management".

2. Let's turn our attention to the lower part of the window that opens, we see a list of already created volumes, as well as those that can be created, they are indicated by a black bar.

3. To create a new local disk, select one of the empty disks and right-click on the black line. Then select "Create a simple volume".

4. Immediately we see how the "Create a Simple Volume Wizard" opens, click next and proceed to the next step.

5. In the new window, we see all the available memory, in the empty window we enter the amount of memory we need. The maximum and minimum size is indicated at the top, we need to select a number from this interval. We press "Next".

6. Now we need to select the letter that will be assigned to this drive. After selecting a letter, click "Next".

7. In this window, we need to specify the file system, as well as the cluster size. We recommend using the following data - NTFS file system and default cluster size. The volume label is its name, here we write whatever our heart desires. You should also click "Quick Format" to speed up the formatting process that will occur when creating a disk. We press "Next".

8. A window opens where we must check all the correctness of the entered information. If everything is written correctly, click "Finish".

Using the built-in Disk Management tool, you can add a new volume to the hard drive to create a new logical partition. In the article "" I talked about how to shrink an existing hard disk volume. On the freed space, you can create a new volume and a new logical partition for the operating system. Here's how it's done.

Disk Management

First you need to run the Disk Management tool with administrator rights. Open the Start menu, type "diskmgmt.msc" without quotes in the search bar, right-click on the "diskmgmt" link in the search results and select the "Run as Administrator" option from the context menu (Fig. A).

Figure A Run the Disk Management tool as an administrator.

The window shown in Fig. B. As you can see, after shrinking the volume, there is free unallocated space on the disk.

Figure B There is free space on the disk.

Right-click on the unallocated space and select the New Simple Volume option (Figure C) to launch the New Simple Volume Wizard.

Figure C Run the New Simple Volume Wizard.

Figure D. The first page of the New Simple Volume Wizard.

You can create multiple partitions on unallocated space at once, but I'm going to use all the available space to create a new simple volume (Figure E).

Figure E Specify the volume size.

The next page prompts you to assign a drive letter or path to the new volume (Figure F). Three options are available:

"Assign the following drive letter". By default, Windows suggests the first free character, and this is usually the best choice.

"Mount volume as an empty NTFS folder" (Mount in the following empty NTFS folder). Instead of assigning a drive letter, you can mount the volume as a folder - in this case, it will look and work like a simple Windows directory.

"Do not assign a drive letter or drive path" (Do not assign a drive letter or drive path). You will still need to specify a drive letter or path later on in order for the volume to be used for data storage.

For example, let's leave the option selected by default and assign the letter "E" to the disk.

Figure F Assign a drive letter or path to the volume.

The next step is to set the volume formatting options (Fig. G). As a rule, it is recommended to format volumes, but you can also choose FAT32. The other default option is best left untouched unless you have specific reasons for changing the cluster size.

You should assign a label to the volume to make it easier to distinguish it from other sections. When you select a quick format, the operation takes less time, but the system does not mark bad sectors on the hard disk in this case, which can lead to problems in the future.

NTFS has a built-in compression system that works invisibly to users and can come in handy if there is not enough free disk space.

Figure G. Setting formatting options.

The last page of the wizard lists the selected options, with the ability to go back and change them if necessary (Figure H). If you're happy with everything, click the Finished button.

It is not always possible to create the required number of local disks during the installation of the operating system. For some users, such a need arises during the operation of the computer - an overabundance of information requires order. In this case, the flexibility of the Windows 10 operating system allows you to configure the hard drive at any time.

How to allocate local drives on Windows 10

Why is this needed? Initially, when installing Windows on a new machine, there is only one media, known to most users as the letter "C". It stores the operating system itself, all system files and programs installed during operation. If you do not partition the hard drive, then all user files (movies, music, photos and documents) will be saved here. Then, if Windows crashes or reinstalls, these files will disappear along with the system files, unless they are transferred to some third-party media (which takes a lot of time and is rather inconvenient).

All these problems are solved simply - before you start using Windows, it is advisable to divide the hard disk into several partitions (maximum 4) and store user files on a partition separate from the system.

How to allocate a hard disk and create a partition on it

The distribution of hard disk drives into sections is possible both with the help of third-party programs and by means of the operating system itself. And as long as standard tools help in managing disk space, we see no reason to use other methods. Therefore, we will describe in stages how to create partitions using Windows 10 itself.

Right click on the start menu.
Select "Disk Management" from the list.
Now let's allocate free space to create a partition. Select the media with the signature (C:), press the right mouse button, select the "Compress Volume" item.
In the dialog box that appears, we see information about the total size of the hard drive before the start of compression and the space available for compression. In the "Size of compressible space" field, we enter the amount of memory that we want to free.
After we made sure that everything was entered correctly, we press the “Compress” button and wait. After compression, look at the lower band in the active window. On the right, a new sector with unallocated (that is, with free) memory has appeared. This is a place vacated as a result of our actions.
We right-click on the sector and select the first item - "Create a simple volume."
Further everything is simple - press the button next. If we decide to assign our own letter of the alphabet to the storage, then we do it in the third window (in the picture).
In the next window, in the "Volume label" field, we can also write the desired name for the disk space. We don't change anything else. At the end, click "Finish".
Now we open "Explorer" and in "My Computer" we see the disk we created.

Important! The size is specified in megabytes 1 gigabyte contains 1024 megabytes. So, if we want to free 10 GB, then it will be equal to 10240 MB. Keep this in mind when entering a number.

How to change the drive letter

In general, why all this walking in the English alphabet? Sometimes the reason is the desire to "bring beauty." Another reason is habit. For example, on the old computer there was a certain system in ordering partitions, and on the new one I want to transfer this order. But mostly it is necessary for order in Windows itself. The fact is that when installing Windows 10, letters are assigned automatically: the storage with system files receives the letter C, the DVD (CD) drive receives the letter D, and the remaining letters are “distributed” to local storages and USB devices.

Changing the name for the media occurs all in the same Disk Management utility in which we created a new partition (local). Select the desired media, right-click on it, select "Change drive letter ...". Further everything is simple. And, of course, you understand that just swapping letters will not work. First, we assign the letter F to drive D, for example. Then we change the carrier E to D. And only then we return to F (former D) and give it the letter E.

How to delete a local drive

Everything happens in the same Disk Management utility. Select the media to delete, right-click, select "Change drive letter ...". In the dialog box that opens, click the "Delete" button, agree with the question that appears. Ready. Now we see the freed space as a memory sector labeled "Unallocated".

Important! Before deleting, transfer all the necessary data from one medium to another, as deleting all data will be erased.

Why can't the volume be deleted?

There are several reasons for this:

It is not possible to delete a local drive that stores Windows system files, boot files, or the so-called "paging file".
Your account does not have System Administrator rights. Then try to enter the management utility through "Start" - "Control Panel" - "System and Security" - "Administrative Tools" - "Create and format hard disk partitions".
Well, sometimes they confuse the impossibility of deleting a volume with the impossibility of deleting a partition. If you cannot delete a partition, then first you need to delete all volumes from it (remember to copy the necessary information) and only then delete the partition.

"Reserved by Windows 10"

The section with such an inscription contains the service data necessary for the operation of Windows (Windows bootloader parameters and hard drive encryption data). The disk itself, as a rule, takes up little space - about 100–350 MB. Sometimes the user has a desire to delete it, despite its small size. However, removing this drive requires special skills, so we will describe how to hide this drive from Explorer.

Open the Disk Management utility, select the partition labeled "Reserved by the system", right-click and select "Change letter ...". Click the "Delete" button. In this case, we will confirm the deletion twice - as a warning about the use of this section will appear. Now you need to restart your computer. Done - the disk has disappeared from the explorer.

How to create a network drive

It is necessary for the possibility of simultaneous access to data over a local network (office work, schools, universities).

In File Explorer, right-click on the My Computer icon. Select "Map Network Drive". Choose a letter for the name. We select the path to the shared resource (the folder that will be shared) by clicking on the "Browse" button. Next, enter the login and password of the account with which we will connect to this media.

Ready. Now in Explorer there is a network drive we created.

The flexibility of the Windows 10 operating system allows you to use standard tools to configure local drives while working with the system: create, merge, rename, delete. The main rule of all manipulations is to save information before each serious action. Successful work!

In this guide for beginners, we will look at how to split (split) and merge hard drive partitions in Windows 10 using the built-in snap.

Sometimes you just need to create, delete or modify disk partitions in Windows 10. If you have one disk and would not like to keep operating system files and your files on the same disk, creating logical disks will help you. Each of the logical partitions of the disk can have its own file system and will allow loading several operating systems from one hard disk. In this guide, I'll show you how to manage disk partitions in Windows 10 simply by using a snap.

For the convenience of readers, this guide is divided into two parts. The first part will show you how to partition your hard drive into two partitions and assign a drive letter to the newly created volume.

In the second part, we will delete the new volume and merge the freed space, returning it back to the original volume of the C: drive. So let's get started...

How to split and merge disk partitions in Windows 10

Part 1 - partitioning and creating a new disk partition

In the first half of this guide, we will see how to split an existing disk space into two partitions. Suppose you bought a new Windows 10 PC and disk size C: is 500 GB. Obviously Windows will already be installed on the disk C:. But there comes a time when you need to move some of your data to some other drive. Or in another case, you want to create a new partition to boot another operating system. You need to create a new partition by partitioning the drive FROM into two parts. Here's what you need to do:

To open snap - Click Win+R and in the line of the window Run and enter . Click OK or Enter .

In the window, right-click on the disk partition you want to partition and select Shrink Volume. In my case, this is the disk FROM:

Then in the window that appears in the line Size of compressible space (MB) enter the desired size of the disk to be created. I entered 26000(MB) (that's about a sixth of my hard drive capacity) It will be about 25 GB in size. In other words, you will get this size from an already existing partition if there is free space on it, and then click Compress.

In a few seconds, and you will see the area you freed up for the future disk partition marked , the same space will be taken from the existing disk partition FROM:.

So the disk FROM: is divided into two volumes. Right-click on the unallocated space and in the context menu click Create a simple volume, will automatically start

In the window Volume Size Specifications you can change the size of the created size, click Further.

In the next window, set the letter of the new disk partition and click Further

Now you need to format the disk, there is no need to change the default settings.

If your plans include installing a new OS on this drive, make sure that Apply file and folder compression not enabled, otherwise you will encounter an error when installing the OS - Windows cannot be installed because this computer is using compressed....

The wizard ends after showing you the summary information. Press the button.

The created logical drive will appear in the snap-in window and Windows 10 Explorer ready to go.

Part 2 - Consolidating Disk Volumes

You may need to merge disk volumes by returning the disk FROM: previously selected space for disk Z:

Here's how to do it:

1. Open Select the disk partition you want to merge and right-click on it, selecting from the context menu Delete volume. This will remove the drive letter and partition.

Note:This will also delete all data on the disk partition (In my case, from disk Z:, I previously transferred all the necessary information to another disk).

Click Yes to confirm the deletion of the volume.

2. After the disk partition Z: is deleted, you will see a disk partition marked . Now right-click on the disk volume you want to merge the unallocated capacity with ( in this case it is a disk FROM: ) and select Extend Volume.