How to configure hard drive partitions. We divide the computer space into new sections and save the data

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.

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.

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.

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.

Storing system and personal files in different sections of your 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.

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 divide 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.”

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.

Step 3. To partition your 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.

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.

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”.

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

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”.

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”.

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

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

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 also partition a hard disk 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”.

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.

The steps described in the algorithm show how to create a new partition using compression. 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.

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.

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.

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 a 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 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 from a boot disk, sometimes confuses partition letters.

• Therefore, before working with Acronis Disk Director, you need to insure yourself 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

Modern computers and laptops have relatively large data storage facilities that contain all the files necessary for work and entertainment. Regardless of the type of media and how you use your computer, keeping one large partition on it is very inconvenient. This creates a lot of chaos in the file system, putting multimedia files and critical data at risk by disrupting the system and physically damaging hard drive sectors.

To maximize the optimization of free space on the computer, a mechanism was developed to divide all memory into separate parts. Moreover, the larger the volume of the carrier, the more relevant the separation will be. The first partition is usually prepared for the installation of the operating system itself and the programs in it, the remaining partitions are created based on the purpose of the computer and the stored data.

Due to the fact that this topic is quite relevant, the Windows 7 operating system itself has a fairly convenient tool for disk management. But with the modern development of the software industry, this tool has become quite outdated; it has been replaced by simpler and more functional third-party solutions that can show the true potential of the partition creation mechanism, while remaining understandable and accessible to ordinary users.

Method 1: AOMEI Partition Assistant

This program is considered one of the best in its field. First of all, AOMEI Partition Assistant is reliable and reliable - the developers have presented exactly the product that will satisfy the most demanding user, while the program is intuitive out of the box. It has a competent Russian translation, a stylish design, and the interface resembles a standard Windows tool, but in fact it is significantly superior to it.

The program has many paid versions created for different needs, but there is also a free option for home non-commercial use - we don’t need anything more to partition the disks.

1. From the official website of the developer, download the installation file, which after downloading needs to be launched by double-clicking. Follow the very simple Installation Wizard, launch the program either from the last Wizard window or from a shortcut on your desktop.
2. After a short splash screen and integrity check, the program immediately shows the main window in which all actions will take place.



3. The process of creating a new partition will be shown using the example of an existing one. For a new disk, which consists of one continuous piece, the methodology will be absolutely no different. On the free space that needs to be divided, right-click to open the context menu. In it we will be interested in the item called "Separating Partitions".



4. In the window that opens, you need to manually set the dimensions that we need. This can be done in two ways - either drag the slider, which provides quick but not precise setting of parameters, or immediately set specific values ​​in the field "New partition size". The old partition cannot have less space left than there are currently files there. Be aware of this right away, because an error may occur during the partitioning process that jeopardizes the data.



5. After the necessary parameters have been specified, you need to click on the button "OK". The tool will close. The main program window will be shown again, only now another, new one will appear in the list of sections. It will also be shown at the bottom of the program. But for now this is only a preliminary action, which allows only a theoretical assessment of the changes made. In order to start separation, you need to click on the button in the upper left corner of the program "Apply".

   

   Before doing this, you can also immediately set the name of the future section and the letter. To do this, right-click on the piece that appears, in the section "Advanced" select item "Changing Drive Letter". Set the name by right-clicking on the section again and selecting "Change Label".

6. A window will open in which the program will show the user the previously created division operation. We check all the numbers before starting. Although it is not written here, you should know: a new partition will be created, formatted in NTFS, after which it will be assigned a letter available in the system (or previously specified by the user). To start execution, click on the button "Go".



7. The program will check the correctness of the entered parameters. If everything is correct, she will offer several options for performing the operation we need. This is because the partition you want to "cut" is most likely currently in use. The program will prompt you to unmount this partition from the system to complete the action. However, this is not the best option for those who run many programs from there (for example, portable ones). The safest way would be to split partitions outside the system.

   Clicking the button "Reboot Now", the program will create a small module called PreOS and insert it into startup. After which Windows will reboot (save all important files before doing this). Thanks to this module, the separation will be done before the system boots, so nothing will interfere with it. The operation may take a long time, because... the program will check the disks and file system for integrity to avoid damage to partitions and data.



8. No user interaction is required until the operation is completed. During the separation process, the computer may reboot several times, displaying the same PreOS module on the screen. When the work is completed, the computer will turn on in the usual way, but only in the menu "My computer" Now a freshly formatted partition will hang, immediately ready for use.

Thus, all the user needs to do is just indicate the desired partition sizes, then the program will do everything itself, ultimately producing fully functional partitions. Please note that before pressing the button "Apply" The newly created partition can be divided into two more in the same way. Windows 7 is based on media with an MBR table that supports partitioning into a maximum of 4 partitions. This will be enough for a home computer.

Method 2: System Disk Management Tool

The same can be done without using third-party software. The disadvantage of this method is that the automation of the tasks performed is completely absent. Each operation is performed immediately after setting the parameters. The advantage is that the separation occurs directly in the current operating system session; there is no need to reboot. However, between performing various actions while following instructions, the system constantly collects current debugging data, so in the general case, no less time is spent than in the previous method.

1. On the label "My computer" right click, select "Control".



2. In the window that opens, select the item in the left menu "Disk Management". After a short pause, while the tool collects all the necessary system data, the user will see a familiar interface. In the lower area of ​​the window, select the section that needs to be divided into parts. Right-click on it and select "Shrink Volume" in the context menu that appears.



3. A new window will open with a single field available for editing. In it, indicate the size of the future partition. Please note that this number should not be greater than the value in the field "Space available for compression (MB)". Calculate the specified size based on the parameters 1 GB = 1024 MB (another inconvenience, in AOMEI Partition Assistant the size can be immediately set in GB). Click the button "Compress".



4. After a short separation, a list of sections will appear at the bottom of the window, where a black piece will be added. It is called “Not distributed” - future procurement. Right-click on this fragment and select "Create a simple volume..."



5. Will start "Simple Volume Wizard", in which you need to press a button "Next".
   
   

   In the next window, confirm the size of the partition to be created, then click again "Next".

   

   Now assign the required letter by selecting any one you like from the drop-down list, proceed to the next step.

   

   Select the file system format, set a name for the new partition (it is advisable to use the Latin alphabet, without spaces).

   

   In the last window, double-check all previously specified parameters, and then click the button "Ready".



This completes the operations; after a few seconds, a new partition will appear in the system, ready for use. There is no need to reboot at all; everything will be done in the current session.

The tool built into the system provides all the necessary settings for the partition being created; they are quite enough for the average user. But here you will have to perform each step manually, and between them you just sit and wait for a certain time while the system collects the necessary data. And data collection can take a very long time on weak computers. Therefore, using third-party software will be the best option for quickly and efficiently dividing your hard drive into the required number of pieces.

Be careful before performing any operations with data, be sure to make backup copies and double-check the manual settings. Creating multiple partitions on your computer will help you clearly organize your file system structure and separate your used files into different places for safe storage.

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.

In this article we will look at how to divide a Windows 7 hard drive into partitions using the capabilities included in the Windows 7 operating system. It will not be a secret to anyone that for this you can use programs that are usually paid, and this is a disadvantage for many users will probably be the most basic.

By the way, so you understand for the future, we will not use axes or other sharp objects to divide the hard drive into partitions. Partition means when you have one physical disk, for example, drive C:/, and in order to create another partition, for example, drive D:/, you need to split it/split it, or, more precisely, pinch it off. That is, when partitioning a disk, we will pinch off a part from it and make another partition of the hard disk from it. Thus, from one physical disk (which can be touched), we will create logical disks (virtual), but in fact, as you understand, this is one hard disk.

So, we're done with the theory, now we can start practicing.

First, open the “Computer Management” window by clicking “Start” - right-click on “Computer” - select “Management”.

Now select “Disk Management”.

This window provides all the information about the hard drives existing in the computer, what logical drives they are divided into and what their capacity is.

In general, this program presents a huge range of possibilities for managing disks; they can be compressed, deleted, formatted and changed drive letters. The only thing I would like to mention is that many of the features will require at least some technical knowledge about the peculiarities of the computer as a whole, so it is recommended that the average user use them as carefully as possible. So that you remember how to partition a disk in Windows 7, you need to perform this procedure a couple of times. This way you will absorb all the information.

On the monitor screen we will see that the program provided us with information about two hard drives (in my case) that are located inside the computer.

Disk 0 - 931.51 GB and Disk 1 - 465.76 GB. From a school computer science course, many probably remember that in computers the countdown starts not from “1”, but from “0”, which is why the first disk for us is represented as “0”.

Today’s entire article will concern only Disk 0 (the system denotes it with the Latin letter “E”). I would like to note that there is data on this disk at the moment, I will not copy or transfer it anywhere, I will leave everything on this disk, but I will also carry out the necessary operations with it. Let's see what happens with this data.

In order to divide our disk into two logical ones in Windows 7, right-click on it and select “Shrink Volume...” from the drop-down list.

After a few seconds, the system will collect data (“poll” the disk) and present the information to the user.

In my case, “Space available for compression” is 476786 MB, that’s 465.6 GB.

Manually change the “Compressible Space Size” to a value of 460,800 MB (450 GB). Since I want to split the hard drive into two equal sizes, so I specified 460800 MB (450 GB). Now we have indicated how much space we want to pinch off from the “Total Compression Size” (953859 MB).

If you have a 250 GB hard drive, then you must accordingly specify a different size. For example, make one disk 100 GB, and the other 150 GB.

The system will automatically calculate the “Total size after compression” (what remains of the disk) and display it in the corresponding field. In my case, it will be 493,059 MB (481.5 GB).

After such calculations and calculations, you can safely click on the “Compress” button. The process will not last long, but it will be clear, and as many of the readers will notice, this procedure is quite simple.

After some time, another disk will appear, and now one physical disk consists of two logical ones. Look at the screenshot below:

As you can see, the first drive with the letter (E:) remained in our computer, but another one appeared next to it. Now we need to make it visible to us in the “Computer”, and also assign a letter. By the way, go to “Computer” and make sure that this disk is not there. That's how it should be ;).

In order to turn this unallocated partition into a full-fledged logical disk, right-click on it and select “Create a simple volume...” from the menu that opens.

As a result, the “Simple Volume Creation Wizard” window will appear, in which we click the “Next” button.

In the next window, do not change anything in the “Simple Volume Size”, click “Next”.

The third dialog will ask you to specify the drive letter. After that, click “Next”.

You can assign a label to the disk, the same one that will then be displayed in Explorer. We also make sure to select the NTFS file system, check the “Quick Format” box and click “Next”.

In the last window, the system will provide the selected parameters and general information on the new logical drive. Once you have read it, you can click “Done”.

The window will present a new logical drive "G" next to logical drive "E" belonging to the hard drive "Disk 0".

What happened to the data that was on this computer? Everything is fine with them, let's go to the “Computer” and make sure of this.

All! As you understand, partitioning a disk in Windows 7 is not difficult and, at the same time, leaving all the data on this disk safe and sound. I hope that with the help of this article, you have understood how to partition a Windows 7 hard drive.