How to Partition SSD Safely in 2021 | Complete Guide

SSD, also known as Solid-State Drive, uses flash memory to deliver vastly superior performance and durability. It's faster and more durable than normal HDDs. With these advantages, SSDs are excessing traditional HDDs, becoming computer manufacturers' love.

Thus, with more PCs shipped with SSD coming on the market, how to partition SSD, making full use of an SSD, becomes a new issue. And you can address it here with the complete guide below. 

Should I Partition SSD for Windows 10 or Gaming? Help!

"Recently, I bought a Kingston 1TB SSD. And I want to replace the old HDD with it. I was thinking about partitioning it into two partitions, one with about 250GB (250GB with windows boot partition and all) and then use the rest for gaming. Shall I partition my SSD? How to do it?"

Should I partition my SSD for windows 10? I want to use my SSD for gaming, is it a good idea to partition SSD? The answer is Yes.

Advantages of Partitioning SSD:

By partitioning SSD, you'll enjoy all the advantages listed below. So I recommend you to do it especially when you want to make additional partitions:

• Easier to Back Up and Restore System
• Better to Manage System and Personal Data
• Protect Data from System Crash or Failure Issue
• More Efficient to Use OS, Files

In a word, the best way to protect your OS and personal data is to install Windows and your various programs on the system partition and store your data such as games, documents, pictures, music, and video files to a new partition. 

For most users, SSD partitioning is not an easy task. To help you start with this task, follow the next two parts to make partitions on SSD now.

Part 1. Check The State of Your SSD

The ways to partition SSD may be different based on the state of your SSD disk. Let's check the state of your SSD first in Disk Management:

Step 1. Install SSD to your computer correctly via the connection cable.

Step 2. Restart PC, right-click "This PC/My Computer" > "Manage".

Step 3.  Click Disk Management and check the state of your SSD:

• Not Initialized: It means that you need to initialize SSD first before creating partitions on it.
• Unallocated: It means your SSD is initialized and you can directly create partitions on it.
• Partitioned: It means you have partitions on SSD, and you need to resize and repartition SSD.

And you can follow the complete guide in the next part to start partitioning your SSD now.

Part 2. How to Partition SSD Safely & Easily

It's not like making folders. You know, creating and resizing partitions is a hassle. Here you can follow the respective guide to partition SSD by using partition software or using Disk Management easily:

1. #Guide 1. SSD Shows Not Initialized - Initialize SSD
2. #Guide 2. SSD Shows Unallocated - Partition SSD & Create New Volumes
3. #Guide 3. SSD Shows Partitioned - Resize and Partition SSD

#Guide 1. SSD Shows Not Initialized - Initialize SSD

If your SSD shows Not Initialized in Disk Management, you'll need to initialize the disk first. And then follow #Guide 2 to create new partitions on it.

Here are the steps to initialize SSD in Disk Management:

Step 1. Right-click"This PC/My Computer", click "Manage" and click "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click the not initialized SSD and select "Initialize SSD".

Step 3. Set "MBR" or "GPT" for SSD, and click "OK" to confirm.

What partition style should I use for SSD? Basically, if you only want to create 1 or 2 partitions, MBR is good. But if you want to create multiple partitions or install the latest Windows 10 on SSD, choose GPT. For more information, learn MBR vs GPT. 

After initializing the SSD, you can follow #Guide 2 to create partitions on your SSD.

#Guide 2. SSD Shows Unallocated - One-Click to Partition SSD & Create New Volumes

If your SSD currently displays as unallocated in Disk Management, the computer will regard it as a brand new disk. To make use of it, you need to create partitions on the drive.

Here, we'd like to show you how to partition unallocated SSD in only one click with the help of EaseUS Partition Master. Its New Disk Guide makes partition SSD safe and easy:

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master. Insert your external hard drive in your computer. At the same time, EaseUS software will detect the drive and throw you a window asking you to choose "Partition the drive" from the drop-down list. 

Step 2. After choosing "Partition the drive", you can continue customizing how many partitions you want to create, and what partition style you want, MBR or GPT? Many more parameters are listed there for you to adjust.

Step 3. Once the customization is done, click "Proceed".

Step 4. Click "Execute 1 opertion" on the top menu and then "Apply" to finally partition an external HDD/SSD.

After this, you can install OS, applications, or personal files to the SSD partition flexibly. 

In addition to disk partitioning, you can use other features in EaseUS Partition Master to make use of your SSD disk:

• Migrate OS to SSD/HDD
• Convert Disk/Partitions
• merge SSD partitions
• Recover lost partitions
• ...

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#Guide 3. SSD Shows Partitioned - Resize and Partition SSD

Note that if you have already created partitions on SSD, and you want to re-allocate the disk space, you can turn to EaseUS Partition Master or Disk Management for help.

For an easier solution, the EaseUS partition tool is a better choice.

Way 1. Partition SSD with EaseUS Partition Tool 

With this tool, you can format SSD to the various file system. Partition SSD to multiple partitions with 4K alignment, clone SSD, etc.  Now you can directly download EaseUS Partition Master and follow the steps to partition it.

Video Tutorial to Partition SSD:

Step-by-Step Guide to Re-Partition SSD

Step 1. To Shrink a Partition

• Right-click on a partition that you want to shrink and select "Resize/Move".
• Drag the end of the partition rightward or leftward to adjust the space. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 2. To Extend a Partition

• To extend partition, you need to leave unallocated space. If not, shrink a partition as mentioned above.
• Then right-click on the target partition and select "Resize/Move".
• Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 3. To Create a Partition:

• On the main window, right-click on the unallocated space on your hard drive or external storage device and select "Create".
• Set the partition size, partition label, drive letter, file system, etc. for the new partition and click "OK" to continue.

Step 4. To Delete a Partition

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

Step 5. To Change Partition Drive Letter

• Right-click the partition, and choose "Change Drive Letter".
• Click the down arrow, choose a drive letter for the partition, then click "OK".

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

In order to ensure the best performance of an SSD, EaseUS Partition Master provides the 4K alignment function to align the 4K sectors on your SSD. You can optimize your SSD with this feature.

Way 2. Partition SSD with Disk Management 

This method is used to shrink the existing partition and then use the unallocated space to create a partition. If the SSD hasn’t been partitioned, you can create partitions on it directly. 

Step 1. Open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click one SSD partition and select "Shrink Volume".

Enter the amount of space you want to shrink then click on the "Shrink" button. (This would create unallocated space.)

Step 3. Right-click on the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume".

Step 4. On the New Simple Volume Wizard interface, click "Next", and click "Next' to continue.

The unallocated space will be added to the new SSD partition.

Step 5. Assign Drive Letter or Path, then set the file system as NTFS. Click "Finish".

Wait for the process to complete and this will create a new partition in your SSD.

Partitioning SSD Is Easy, Take Steps to Make Use of Your SSD Now

On this page, we explained the advantages and the necessities of partitioning SSD and offered a complete guide to help you fully partition SSD in Windows 10/8/7.

To do so, you need first check the SSD state in Disk Management. And then, follow the respective solution to partition SSD with ease. For the easiest SSD partitioning tool, EaseUS Partition Master is recommended for you to try.

Following this tutorial, you'll safely and easily partition SSD on your computer. Take steps to make use of your SSD now.