A little theory

The hard disk can be divided into logical ones either by the FDISK program running under DOS, or when installing Windows 2000. But in this case, all the data that was on the disk is lost.
When you have a new computer, it's not scary. But what if the disk already has an operating system installed or contains important data?
This is why there are programs for changing partitions (without going into details, we can say that a “partition” is a logical disk) without deleting data.
I recommend using PQ Magic (Power Quest Partition Magic). With its help, you can split your hard drive into as many logical drives as you like, or change the size of logical drives as you like without damaging the data on them.

PQ Magic

The last version of the program I used was version 7. During installation, you can create emergency boot floppy disks. From the first floppy you can boot the DOS shell, and from the second you can run the PQMagic program.
I recommend having them on hand just in case.

However, the program also has a Windows interface. In fact, the program will still make most of the changes under DOS, but you can choose which operations you need in a colorful, convenient shell.

Program window

At the bottom of the screen there are large Change Wizard buttons. But I recommend using the standard menus.

To change the size of your hard drive, first click on the drive you want to change, and then go to the "Operations" menu, select "Resuze/Move".
In the "Resize / Move partition" window you see the disk structure. Gray indicates the space occupied by files - you cannot make the disk smaller than this size (if necessary, first transfer the files to another disk).
The arrows above and below indicate the 2 Gb and 8 Gb levels. 2 GB is the maximum disk size that FAT supports, 8 GB is the maximum disk size that the Windows NT operating system supports (we don't need to pay attention to them).

You can change the size of the hard drive either by using the visual representation - to do this, simply move the right arrow on the disk image to the left.
Or you can enter exact values ​​in the input fields:
Free Space Before - free space before the logical disk (leave "0").
New Size - new size (you must enter the size you want to make).
Free Space After - free space remaining after shrinking the logical disk (I recommend not changing this value - it will change itself after you set the new size).
Cluster Size - cluster size (do not change this value).

After you have resized the logical drive, you can create a new logical drive. To do this, click on the unallocated area and select the menu item "Operation | Create".

In the "Create Partition" window you must specify:
In the "Create As" list, select what you are creating: "Logical Patrition" or "Primary Partition".
Select "Primary Partition" if you want to use all the remaining space under one logical drive.
Or "Logical Partition" if you want to make several logical drives.
In the "Partition Type" list, select the file system type: "FAT" (limited to 2 GB), FAT 32 (recommended for Windows), NTFS (if you want to have an NTFS file system). We are not interested in other options.
Label is a mark (it can be added later).
Size - the size of the logical disk in megabytes or Percent of unallocated space - the size of the logical disk as a percentage of the remaining one (I recommend not changing this value).

If you want to create several logical disks, then you have selected the "Logical Partition" type, and now you have 2 new lines in the list:
"* - Extended...Primary" and "X: FAT 32...Logical".
Click the line with the created logical drive (Logical) and select the menu item "Operation | Resize / Move".

In the "Resize / Move Partition" window, you must reduce the size of the logical disk (just like in the previous paragraph).

And then, after the change, click on the remaining area of ​​the unallocated area, and create a new logical disk on it; using the "Operation | Create" menu.
You can create as many logical disks as you like on the Primary Partition.

How to cancel an incorrectly specified action?

You can undo the last specified action by clicking on the "Undo last" button, or using the "General | Undo Last Change" menu.
Moreover, you can cancel by any number of steps. It’s just that you won’t be able to return what was cancelled.

If you did something wrong, you do not need to try to change the parameters again, you need to use the undo command. For example, if you first set the action to change the size of a logical disk from 20 to 10 GB, and the next step you ask to change from 10 to 20 GB, then the program will do the two specified actions (this will bring nothing but an extra risk of losing data).

After you have finished setting all the parameters, click the "Apply changes" button or select the "General | Apply Changes" menu item.

If you change the boot disk parameters, the system will have to reboot - the message "Warning! One or more changes..." will be displayed.
Click "OK" and the system will reboot.

Precautions

After rebooting, while making changes, do not turn off the computer or try to interrupt the process in any way - this will most likely cause data loss on the disk on which the program is working.
If the system has already started to reboot, and you want to cancel the specified action, then when the message “Press any ley to abort …” is displayed before starting PQ Magic, press any key to cancel.
After restarting, Windows may display a message that new devices have been detected and require a restart. This is not critical (i.e. you can reboot later).

Checking new logical drives

In order to see which logical drives have been created and which areas remain unallocated, select "Administrative Tools" in the Control Panel (Start | Settings | Control Panel). And in it “Computer Management”.
In the Computer Management window, select Storage Devices | Disk Management.

You see a graphical representation of the physical disks (Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.) and the logical disks on them.

If you had a CD-ROM, then most likely now your first logical drive is called “C:”, the CD-ROM is designated as “D:”, other logical drives are “E:”, “F:”, etc. .
It is more convenient to set the last letter of the CD-ROM drive.
To do this, right-click on the "CD-ROM" field and select the "Change drive letter..." menu. In the "Change drive letter..." window, click the "Change..." button. And select the last letter from the list (for example, "Z").
After this change, right-click on the logical drive "E:" and select the menu "Change drive letter...", and select the letter "D:" for it (same as the previous point).
Do the same operation for the remaining logical drives (if you have them).

After redefining the letters for logical drives, you can define the letter for the CD-ROM (similar to how we redefined the letter the first time).

P.S. Currently there is a good Russian analogue - Acronis Disk Director Suite. This is a more modern product, and also entirely in Russian. It has a simpler interface, it does not allow the user to make such subtle settings as PQ Magic, but decides everything himself :-) But the user does not need to worry about technical issues.
I recommend trying it, especially since there is a demo version...

Greetings everyone. Today we'll talk about partitioning your hard drive.

Often, when installing Windows, many users are limited to one drive C, on which Windows, movies, games, music and much more are stored. This is wrong, want to know why? Read on.

Firstly, it is inconvenient for the user himself. Since storing all information on one partition leads to confusion and disorder on the hard drive. I wrote about how to eliminate clutter on the disk and the system as a whole.

Agree to search among a bunch of folders for a song, movie or any file, it is much more convenient when it is located on its own separate partition of the hard drive.

It is also much easier for the Windows operating system to operate with data when it is on different partitions, even if you physically have one hard drive. The load on the hard drive itself will be less, because we can place it somewhere other than the system drive.

By the way, regarding the hard drive, read this one, where I told you how to find out the condition of the hard drive, improve it and much more. The hard drive is partitioned before installing Windows. It is not possible to split an existing hard drive partition without losing data using standard means. But we shouldn’t have to reinstall the system just to increase the number of hard drive partitions. Of course not.

In this case, the Norton Partition Magic program will help us split the hard drive into partitions. You can download the program by typing in any search engine:

Norton Partition Magic download

How to partition a hard drive?

Install the program and run the program. Now click on the Create new partition button.

A window will open in which we click Next. Next, we will need to select the disk that we will partition. Select it by left-clicking and click Next.

Select the hard drive partition and click Next.

A window will open in which you will need to set the parameters of our new section. Select the size, leave the file system (NTFS) and select a letter for the new partition. As usual, click Next.

The next window lets us understand how everything specified above will look. If everything is satisfactory, click Finish. If you want to edit something, go back. In our case, everything is selected correctly, so click Finish.

Well, that's not all, the last step to create a new image. At the very bottom of all the buttons, there is an Apply button. Click on it to create a new partition on your hard drive.

After the process is completed (5-7 minutes), you will have another newly created empty partition. In which you can, for example, throw all the games and call it Games. Finally, I want to warn you that operations with hard drive partitions that contain important information can lead to data loss.

Read about how to protect your data in one of the following articles. Subscribe to updates so as not to miss. Also, do not forget about the recommendations for.

That's all for today, now you know how to partition your hard drive. Good luck to you :) Finally, watch the video about

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So you are faced with the question of how to partition your hard drive. The reasons may be different, for example, you purchased a new HDD to increase the permanent memory of an existing computer, or you bought a new laptop, but without a pre-installed system, and you yourself have to install the Windows shell, or you simply did not have enough space in the system partition of the disk for newly installed programs .

Basic ways to divide hard drive space

Regardless of the reasons that prompted you, you want to partition your hard drive yourself, but have little idea how this is done in practice. This is where we will try to help you by telling you not only about the basic ways to properly partition a hard drive, but also pointing out certain nuances and difficulties that you may encounter during this difficult work.

Let's look at how to divide a hard drive of any type (HDD or SSD) in three ways, namely using:

• standard utilities running Windows installed on your computer;
• special programs for working with various information storage devices;
• Windows PE boot shell.

So, let's get started and try to exactly follow the sequence of actions, otherwise, this may lead to either repeating operations for a new drive, or losing important data when working with existing storage media.

Partitioning a disk using a standard Windows utility

This method of working with drives is not very complicated and, most importantly, does not require third-party programs. It is suitable for dividing both the main “C” drive and for dividing an external HDD into partitions. This utility for working with storage media is available in all versions from Windows XP to Windows 10.

So, to work directly with hard drives, you need to open the standard Windows shell utility, and it can be called to the desktop in two ways:

In the window that opens " Disk management“All storage devices currently connected to your computer, including flash memory, should be displayed.

We move the mouse cursor over the desired partition and right-click the context menu for this disk. And here, depending on what we want to do, we decide on the team we need in the future.

Divide the disk into two

If this is one main drive “C”, then this is an easy way to divide the hard drive into two and with one hundred percent certainty not to lose system information. To do this, perform the following steps:

That's it, the main disk is divided into two partitions.

Partitioning the disk

But how to divide a hard drive into partitions, in the case of a new, just purchased drive, working with this standard utility, is also not difficult, but the algorithm of actions will be slightly changed. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

It is worth remembering here that the disk system MBR allows you to create no more than 4 partitions on one hard drive.

Working with disks using special utility programs

The following universal software utilities for working with various information storage devices have found the greatest popularity among users, namely:

• Acronis Disk Suite;
• Paragon Partition Manager Professional;
• AOMEI Partition Assistant Technician Edition.

These utilities are specially adapted to perform almost all basic operations with HDD, SSD and other storage media. They have a fairly clear interface designed to work with both specialists and ordinary users.

We will analyze how to split a disk into partitions using such universal utilities using the example program AOMEI Partition Assistant, which can be installed on your computer as a standard application, or used from portable mode.

And also for comparison, we will show the operation of the utility in two modes when dividing the main disk into two and dividing the new hard disk into several partitions.

We open the program and see a window with extensive information on all connected storage media and their sections.

Divide by two

The algorithm for partitioning the main hard drive “C” consists of a set of sequential commands:

After the reboot, having completed all the operations, the system will boot, but with the main disk divided into two parts.

Dividing a new disk

Typically, the new HDD will represent unallocated space and will only be visible in the program window.

First, be sure to clearly indicate the disk with which we will work by hovering the mouse cursor and obtaining the corresponding color gradation of the position. But in case of an error, you can lose all important information on a randomly selected existing storage medium.

The algorithm for working with other universal programs for resizing various storage media is very similar to the example above. The only significant difference will be the program interface and menu layout.

Partitioning the main disk using the Windows PE boot shell

If you decide to install a new operating system or completely update the old one, and the existing partition sizes of the main HDD do not suit you or do not meet the necessary requirements, then it is better and easier to reformat by logging into the computer from a special simplified shell.

If desired, various versions can be downloaded from the Internet, and they are freely available there and are equipped with a set of all the necessary portable programs for working not only with storage media, but also have a whole set of various useful utilities. For example, you can take the distribution kit from the site https://diakov.net/8305-adminpe-30.html, which does not require additional registration from the user.

Having loaded onto a USB or CD/DVD media, we boot the system using the key to call up the menu, in which there is a choice of boot device. As a rule, this is the function key F11, after pressing which we select our media.

After loading the portable desktop, a desktop will appear that almost completely replicates the familiar Windows shell, but with pre-installed software modules.

We open a universal program for working with various storage devices and work according to the example given earlier in the background and without unnecessary reboots.

The main advantage of the shell is that the software modules are in no way connected to the hard drives, which allows you to perform all possible operations to reformat them in any possible way without any restrictions.

Conclusion

In this article we learned how to partition a PC or laptop disk in different ways. Examples were considered: how to divide a hard drive into 2 parts, and how to create partitions on a hard drive. You can use similar methods to partition an external hard drive. Just connect it to your computer and do the same steps.

Video on the topic

Consider the option of resizing a disk partition using the Symantec Norton PartitionMagic program.
Partitioning your hard drive into multiple partitions allows you to efficiently manage operating systems, programs, and data. Norton PartitionMagic, the world's leading desktop partition management software, allows you to easily partition, resize, and divide and merge partitions without losing data. Norton PartitionMagic will host and protect your data, help you deal with multiple operating systems, convert file systems of different types to each other, and troubleshoot partition table errors.
We launch the PartitionMagic program, select the partition whose size we want to change and right-click on it and select an item from the list: Resize / Move...

Or select the menu item: Resize a partition.

In the Resize Partitions window, click on the Next > button.

In the next window, select the disk partition and click on the Next > button.

Now, in the Specify new partition size section, in the New size for partition field, enter the new size for the partition, and click on the Next > button.

And confirm changing the size of the disk partition by clicking on the Finish button.

Let's look at the result, changing the partitions of drives C: and D:

To complete 3 tasks from the list, click on the button: Apply.

In the Apply Changes window, click on the Yes button.

In the Progress window, you can monitor the status indicators for completing assigned tasks.

After completing the process of resizing partitions, click on the OK button in the Progress window.

Exit the PartitionMagic program: General > Exit. And look at changing the size of the partition on drive D:

If the program has stopped showing signs of life (does not respond to commands from the keyboard, the cursor does not move, the HDD light is on steadily) - this does not mean that it has frozen! Wait until the last minute and under no circumstances press Reset. It may take two minutes, it may take five or more, but you will see changes on the progress bar. The program works extremely slowly, so be patient.

Create and modify hard disk partitions

Every day we type text, read mail, go online. And we rarely do dividing the hard drive into partitions. Apparently that's why utilities like fdisk are not distinguished by the advanced interface. Although there are still exceptions...

When using a computer, the question of rational use of the hard drive as the main carrier and storage of information inevitably arises. And today there is so much of it! These include films, music, and graphics. And the operating system itself, especially when it comes to Windows XP, requires a lot of space.

So it turns out that for every hundred megabytes of free space, various applications persistently claim. When installing the system on a new It is often customary for a hard drive to split a physical disk into several logical ones. It's a good thing. You can store programs on one, and personal files on the other. And if you reinstall the OS, you can, without fear (albeit with some reservations), format the partition with programs, clean it, or perform other critical operations. The data will remain safe and sound on a specially designated section.

“That’s it, that’s exactly what I’ll do from now on!” - some user will exclaim. And he will immediately be faced with a problem: how much space should be allocated for program files, and how much for data? For example, we have a 30 GB hard drive (well, there are also such, in laptops, say) - how to divide: fifteen by fifteen, ten by twenty, or five by twenty-five? It’s also good if the computer is yours personally and you have an idea, what type of work will be performed on this machine. If the OS installation is carried out for someone else, it will be difficult to guess the breakdown. One person plays more with toys - and he needs a hard drive mainly for programs. The other is an artist, and each picture is 100-200 MB.

In general, it often turns out that there is still fifty percent of free space on one disk, but you can’t scrape together even a kilobyte on the other. It's a shame! It would be nice to take away free space from one disk and give it to another.

Partition Magic | Partition Magic free download | Hard disk partitions

And it's possible!
Actually, a truly excellent software tool was created for such purposes - PowerQuest PartitionMagic 8.0. This program will allow you not only to clean up your hard drive, but also to optimally distribute its space. Despite its belonging to the family of system utilities, this program has a very user-friendly interface, so learning to work with it is not a problem.

Installing Partition Magic on Windows happens according to the usual scenario. However, along the way, the installation program will require you to have two blank floppy disks in order to create a recovery tool. It will be possible to boot from it if Windows refuses to work and you have to bring this OS back to life.

Well, that's it, installed and launched.

Hard disk partitions at a glance
Because Partition Magic is designed to work with disk partitions, information about the latter is displayed in the main window. The user can immediately see the status of these resources - and this will help to correctly determine further actions.
Look at the picture - you can see that we have two sections. The first is reserved for the system, which fits perfectly into less than three gigabytes; the remaining five are not used. The solution comes immediately: reduce the System section and increase the Data section. The program can do this too. On the left side of the window, titled Pick a Task..., there is a list of all the tasks that can be performed. Partition Magic:
*creating new hard disk partitions of various (even incompatible with Windows) types;
*distributing free space and creating a partition there intended for data backup;
*creating a hard disk partition suitable for installing other operating systems (Windows or Linux);
*resizing hard disk partitions;
*redistribution of free space between hard disk partitions;
*merging hard disk partitions;
*creating a copy of a hard drive partition.

Partition Magic | Partition Magic free download | Hard disk partitions

All these tasks can be performed either through a simplified dialogue or with the help of the Assistant (Wizard). It probably makes sense to start studying this program with the most popular function - resizing partitions.

Redesigning sections
If you decide that the hard drive is not optimally partitioned and one of the partitions is not large enough, while the other, on the contrary, could not hurt to be smaller, call the Resize a partition function, highlighting the part of the disk that needs to be reduced (in our case, this is the disk C labeled System). A dialogue will appear (see figure). All that remains is to “grab” with the mouse the right edge of the pink rectangle indicating the section, and drag it to the left as much as necessary.
Next, you need to perform the opposite actions - with another part of the disk intended for storing data, increasing its size by the amount of freed up space.

Don't forget to confirm the changes later by clicking the Apply button on the left side of the window. True, such serious system operations will probably take effect only after rebooting the PC, which the program will warn you about. Also, keep in mind that most of the work when converting a drive will happen during the initial boot phase of the PC - so be patient!

Agree, it's not very difficult. But we haven’t even tried the Assistant mode yet! You can call it from the menu on the left side of the window, under the Tasks menu. In this case, you will have to go through a series of auxiliary dialogues. In the first of them (see the figure below), you will be required to specify the partition to be reduced. In the next window, indicate the final size of the partition and at the end, mark the partitions (we have one) to which the freed megabytes should be assigned.

As for me, the first option for performing this task is even simpler.

Partition Magic | Partition Magic free download | Hard disk partitions

Attraction to Unitarity
If the ideas of hard disk “federalism” do not meet your due approval, you can simply combine several logical disks into one, thus forever getting rid of the problems of irrational distribution of work space. Let's see how this happens in practice.

When you run the Merge partition task, you will see the following dialog asking you to select the first partition to be merged.

The next dialog box prompts you to select the next partition to merge with the first. In this case, its content will be saved in a separate folder located on a single disk. The user can specify a name for this folder. In this example, the Data folder is selected (by section name).

Well, the final window, as you can see (picture), shows the result of the work. Just remember to confirm your intentions by clicking the Apply button and rebooting the system.
Now, having opened drive C (drive D will no longer be there), you will also see a new Data folder on it. It will contain the file structure that previously belonged to partition D.

Not interesting with one disk
Still, many users prefer to have several logical drives, especially if the hard drive is large enough. On the other hand, sometimes circumstances arise in which it is simply necessary to break the hard drive into parts. For example, when reinstalling the OS or in case of organizing a backup process.

Well, let’s look again at the list of tasks and run Create a new partition. At the first stage (it is shown in the figure), you should indicate where - at the beginning or at the end of the disk space - you want to create a new partition. Recommended at the end.
The next window will require you to select the partition type (primary or extended) and file system. You cannot create more than four main partitions. This limitation was built into the IBM PC architecture many years ago. Actually, this is not a problem for Windows users. I have not yet met people who would like to have five or more sections (we get C, D, E, F, G, etc.). But there is also a disk drive and a CD. Yes, it's a bit much...

Working on Linux is another matter. Here it is simply recommended to have five partitions (/, usr, var, home, swap). Although personally I only use /, home and swap). And if you need to have another OS in parallel, say Windows, then the main partitions are clearly not enough. For such cases, extended sections are provided. When the partition limit ends, you can create an extended partition instead of the main one - and there are four more logical drives in it.

From the figure you can see that Partition Magic immediately suggests creating a logical partition. But I would recommend doing this only if you really need more than four disks (if you've ever recovered accidentally erased partitions, you'll probably agree with me). Also specify the size of the new size and the letter that the system should assign to the disk.

A few simple tricks
Another way to create a new partition is to organize a data backup scheme. In this case, the program will take away empty space from existing partitions and create a new disk in it. The sequence of user actions is as follows: indicate the logical location of the backup partition (before or after which partition), specify those partitions from which free space will be taken, agree to the changes and click Apply. The picture shows the result of the actions performed.
If, on the contrary, there is free space on the hard drive that is not included in any of the disks available in the system, then it is possible not only to create a new partition on it and thus provide the system with fresh disk resources, but also to evenly distribute the free space between existing ones disks. Such a task in Partition Magic is listed as Redistribute free space. The figure shows not only this situation, but also a method for solving it. The free space between drives C and D will be distributed between the marked partitions (the same).

As you know, Windows 2000 and XP prefer to use the NTFS file system and even have tools for converting FAT32 drives to this format. What about back? Well, what if you suddenly need to access files created by XP from Windows 98?

PartitionMagic has a solution for this situation too. A simple dialog box demonstrating its operation is shown below:
Another utility called DriveMapper does a fairly specific job. You've probably noticed that drive letters sometimes "jump" in Windows: we connect a new hard drive or delete/add a partition - and the E: drive becomes the F: drive. This would be fine if only some programs stored their shortcuts in values ​​tied to a drive letter. With the described changes, such programs may become inoperable.

You can correct the situation using Partition Magic and its DriveMapper module. The figure shows an example of its work:

Caution doesn't hurt

Partition Magic has long gained popularity among system administrators and advanced users. It is a flexible, powerful - and at the same time simple - hard drive partition maintenance tool. It allows you to solve problems that every user faces sooner or later. If you practice using Partition a little Magic, you can easily optimize your system, convert data, or simply receive detailed information about the state of the hard drive and its logical drives.

But don’t let the easy and intuitive interface of this program make you forget that manipulating system partitions is always unsafe. Ultimately, at the most critical moment of the operation, a power outage may occur. So try to reduce the use of Partition

Magic - as well as other system utilities - to a minimum.