How to Partition A Hard Drive in Windows 10

Are you looking for a reliable solution to create a partition or make a partition in Windows 10/8/7? On this page, we collected two practical solutions to help you partition a hard drive in Windows 10 for free:

You can partition a hard drive in Windows 10 through Windows 10 Disk Management and third-party partition manager software. Both disk partitioning methods are free to use, so just choose one that suits you the best.

Applies to: Make, create or manage hard drive partitions for free in Windows 8.1/8/7/XP/Vista and even Windows Server computers.

How to Partition A Hard Drive in Windows 10

TIP: the coming solutions are also applicable to the question "how to partition C drive in Windows 10 without formatting". Just replace the target drive in the example with the C drive.

Method 1. Partition Hard Drive with Disk Management in Windows 10

Applies to: Partition hard drive, create a partition, shrink a volume, format a partition, do a partition in Windows 10/8/7, etc.

Tutorial 1: How to Create Partition (Volume) in Windows 10:

As long as you have unallocated space on your computer disk, you can use Disk Management to create a partition for free in Windows 10. Here are the steps:

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

Step 2. Right-click on an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then select "New Simple Volume".

Step 3. In the New Simple Volume Wizard interface, click "Next".

Step 4. Enter the size of the volume you want to create in MB or accept the maximum default size, and then select "Next".

Step 5. Accept the default drive letter or choose a different letter for the partition, and then select "Next".

Step 6. Set the default file system as NTFS and click "Next" to format the volume. Click "Finish" to complete creating a new partition in Windows 10.

Tutorial 2: To Shrink a Partition Volume in Windows 10:

Step 1. Type disk management in the search box, click the best match - "Create and format hard disk partitions".

Choose the result and enter in Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the hard disk partition that you want to shrink, and select "Shrink Volume".

Step 3. Enter the amount of space you want to shrink in MB, then click on the "Shrink" button.

Wait for the process to complete, you'll get a shrunk volume. You can also apply this method to free up unallocated space to enlarge another volume.

You can create more partitions by repeating the above steps in Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2, and manage those partitions for personal files and folders.

Tutorial 3: To Format an Existing Partition (Volume) in Windows 10:

If you need to format an existing partition or convert the volume format to a new file system, try the following steps:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys to bring up the Run box, type diskmgmt.msc, and hit Enter. (Also applies to Windows 10/8.1/8/7)

Step 2. Right-click the volume that you want to format, and then select "Format".

Step 3. To format the volume with the default settings (as NTFS), in the Format dialog box, select "OK", and then select "OK" again.

Now you're doing great in organizing your Windows 10 laptop or PC smoothly and efficiently.

Method 2. How to Make Partition, Partition Hard Drive Using EaseUS Partition Master Free

Applies to: partition a hard drive (HDD/SSD), make disk partition including to extend, shrink, delete volume in Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista for free.

Compared with Disk Management in Windows 10, it is more intelligent to use third-party partition management software to make hard drive partitions or create partition in Windows 10.

 EaseUS Partition Master Free is a powerful and user-friendly free partition manager for Windows users partition hard drive. This piece of free partition manager enables you to make partitions in Windows 10 for free without a hitch.

It has a graphical user interface and a visual mode of partition size information, which is for people to decide how much space they're going to allot to each partition. 

Video Tutorial to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10:

Step-by-Step Guide to Manage and Make Partitions in Windows 10

 

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".

What's Disk Partition in Windows 10?

Windows users, who purchased a new Windows 10 computer/laptop or installed a new HDD/SSD in the Windows 10 computer, should be very familiar with the number of local disks under This PC in Windows Explorer. Usually, there is only one partition labeled as Local Disk (C:) on a hard drive which is made by the computer manufacturer. However, we know very clearly that it's far from enough to have only one partition for running the operating system, installing programs, or saving personal data. The truth is, every user can divide one hard drive into two, three or even more. As for most people, they want to partition a hard drive in two scenarios.

One, to manage computer data in a clean and logical way. With one more partition on a hard drive, they can separate Windows OS, downloads, games, or personal documents/pictures/videos related to work or school in different drives with customized labels.

Two, for data safety. If the entire hard disk contains all your system files, personal data, and programs, it's much riskier than placing OS and non-OS files in different locations. Even you have to reinstall OS due to a sudden crash or computer death, the data on other drives like D, E, F, G won't be affected.

Thus, as long as you have such a demand to create a number of partitions, this post is for you. Before proceeding with the details, there are two useful tips for a successful Windows 10 disk partition.

• For MBR disk, you can create maximumly 4 partitions in total, which should consist of 3 primary partitions + 1 extended partition, or 4 primary partitions.
• For users who wish to make five partitions or more, you need to convert MBR to GPT first. Hard drive of GPT partition style has no limitation for the number of partitions.

To Sum Up

This page's topic is about how to partition a hard drive in Windows 10. Based on the needs, we described what disk partition means, gave a notice for people whose hard drive is MBR, and then introduced two commonly used disk partitioning tools for Windows 10 users, including Windows Disk Management and EaseUS Partition Master Free.

As you read through, both recommended tools are able to let users accomplish the task with ease. So you just need to choose the one you prefer. Windows Disk Management is the in-built Windows 10 program, while EaseUS Partition Master Free is an all-round disk partition management software that requires a download. However, if you have further demands such as format, delete, merger partitions, migrate OS to HDD/SSD, clone hard drive, disk surface test, convert file system, etc., the third-party software is definitely the unique choice over Disk Management.