How to Partition Hard Drive(including C drive) in Windows 10 Without Formatting

"Hey guys, I've bought a new Asus laptop with Windows 10. But it comes with one single partition on the hard drive, yes, it's C drive. I want to shrink C drive and create new partitions on the hard disk drive. Can you show me how to partition a hard drive on Windows 10 without formatting? I don't want to see any data loss."

Partitioning or managing a hard drive or disk is an unavoidable operation for all Windows users, especially those who have a new computer or a new disk. And this is a challenge for inexperienced users. Here we'll introduce you three methods to partition hard drive in Windows 10 by using the Disk Management tool and Diskpart in Windows 10/8/7 or applying professional free partition software. 

How to Partition C Drive in Windows 10 Without Formatting

Have you received the message "You need to format the disk before you can use it"? 

The most common reason behind formatting message:

• The hard drive is full.

You can not solve it via Diskpart and Disk Management. Because these two tools only work for your hard drive has unallocated space. The Extend Volume in Disk Management is grayed out and your Diskpart will perform the wrong message.

Without the help of third-party software, you can only format the data, which means data loss or re-install the system. So, How to partition c drive in Windows 10 without formatting? If you happen to need to expand the C partition, but don't want to lose data by formatting; or if you need more complicated hard drive managements, like merging partitions, resizing partitions, converting FAT to NTFS, dynamic to basic, or MBR to GPT, you can turn to the professional software - EaseUS Partition Master. 

How to Partition C Drive Without Formatting - Extend C Drive

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master on your PC.

Step 2. Free up space to extend partition.

If the hard drive has enough unallocated space to extend the target partition, jump to Step 3, and continue. If not, free up space first:

• Right-click on a partition next to the target partition and select "Resize/Move".
• Drag the partition ends to free up space, leaving enough unallocated space behind the target partition, click "OK".

Step 3. Extend partition.

• Right-click on the target partition and select "Resize/Move".

• Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition.

Step 4. Keep all changes.

• Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to keep all changes.

How to Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10

If your HDD or SSD still have enough space for allocating. Then you can use Disk Management, Diskpart, and the third-party software. But these methods also have limitations. Please read carefully to choose the best solution.

Quick Navigation - How to Partition a Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Video Tutorial)

How to Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10 Using Disk Management 

The simplest way to partition your new or existing hard drive is to use Windows' built-in Disk Management tool. Disk Management is a Microsoft Windows utility first introduced in Windows XP as a replacement for the fdisk command.

If your hard drive has only one C partition as described by the user at the beginning of this article, you can use Disk Management to shrink the C drive and create new simple volumes on the unallocated space with the following guides. Although the following operations are based on Windows 10, they still apply to Windows 8 and Windows 7. 

Limitation: The volume size display in MB. For users, it is a boring step. 

1. Enter into the Windows 10 Disk Management interface.

Use the Windows search box to search for "Disk management" and select "Create and format hard disk partitions" from the results box. Alternatively, use the Windows "power user" menu (Win key + X) and click "Disk management".

2. Right-click the hard drive and select "Shrink Volume". Then, there will be unallocated space. 

3. Right-click on the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume". Enter the New Simple Volume Wizard interface by clicking "Next" and specify volume size.

4. Assign Drive Letter or Path, then format the partition into default file system NTFS. Click "Finish" to complete creating a new partition in Windows 10.

If your PC is well-partitioned, but the C drive is out of space, you can use Disk Management to delete partitions and extend the C drive.

How to Allocate disk space on Windows 10 with CMD

Another tool to partition hard drive in windows 10 is Diskpart. You can use the CMD to allocate hard drive space, including extend hard drive, delete partition, format disk, and more.

Limitation: High-level design tool for users. If you have never used this tool, please try other methods.

Extend partition Steps: List disk > select disk * > list partition > select partition * > extend size=* disk=*

How to Do Disk Partition in Windows 10 with a Free Partition Manager

EaseUS Partition Master enables you to partition a new hard drive or one you are using by creating, resizing, moving, and merging.

Considering the simplicity and flexibility of allocating space, this software does not have the disadvantages of the previous two parts.  

If there is unallocated space on your disk, you can directly create new partitions as you like. While if your computer has only one C partition, as mentioned above, you can adjust your C drive and then create a new partition on the free space.

 

Step 1: Install and launch EaseUS Partition Master

Step 2: Partition Hard Drive

Shrink partition:

1. Right-click on a partition that you want to shrink and select "Resize/Move".

2. Drag the end of the partition rightward or leftward or adjust the space by clicking the "Partition size" column. Click "OK" to continue.

Extend partition:

1. To extend partition, you need to leave unallocated space next to the target partition. If not, shrink a partition as mentioned above to leave enough unallocated space behind the target partition first.

2. Then right-click on the target partition and select "Resize/Move".

3. Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition. Click "OK" to continue.

Create partition:

1. On the main window, right-click on the unallocated space on your hard drive or external storage device and select "Create".

2. Set the partition size, partition label, drive letter, file system, etc. for the new partition and click "OK" to continue.

Delete partition:

1. On the main window, right-click on the hard drive partition which you want to delete and select "Delete".

2. Click "OK" to confirm.

Change partition drive letter:

1. Right-click the partition, and choose "Change Drive Letter".

2. Click the down arrow, choose a drive letter for the partition, then click "OK".

Step 3: Execute operations

Click the "Execute Operation" button at the top corner and keep all changes by clicking "Apply".