Jump to content

Windows 7 Drive Partitioning


Recommended Posts

  • 4 years later...
  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Open Computer Management by selecting the Start button. The select Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
In the left pane, under Storage, select Disk Management.
Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then select New Simple Volume.
In the New Simple Volume Wizard, select Next.
Enter the size of the volume that you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then select Next.
Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the partition, and then select Next.
In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following:
If you do not want to format the volume right now, select Do not format this volume, and then select Next.
To format the volume with the default settings, select Next.
Review your choices, and then select Finish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/6/2010 at 2:22 AM, AlanHo said:

Creating a Separate Data Partition on a Computer With Only One Hard Drive.

Using Windows 7 Disc Management

 

Introduction

 

For a number of reasons it is good practice to store all your data on a separate drive or partition to the one used for your operating system and programs. The ideal is to have two hard drives – but on a laptop with space for only one hard drive - a second partition must be created.

 

Foreplay

 

Your computer is likely to have a hard drive and an optical (CD/DVD) drive. It may also have a built in card reader which Windows treats as another drive or drives.

 

Hence the hard drive will be labelled drive C

The optical drive may be drive D

Card readers will have subsequent letters.

 

It is better to have your drives labelled :

C : For the operating system and programs

D : For the partition to contain your documents, photos, and other data

E: for your optical drive

F : onwards for card readers and flash memory sticks etc

 

Hence it is necessary to change the drive letters for the optical drive 😧 and the following drives by moving them all up one place so that the letter D becomes available for your new partition.

 

To do this click on the Windows Start Orb and type “disc management” in the search box

Now click on “Create and format hard disc partitions”

The disc management window will open listing your drives, their sizes and other details and their drive letters.

 

If the drive letter 😧 is already in use it will be necessary to change the drive letter of the drive occupying D. To keep the drives in order – this may mean changing the drive letters of all the subsequent drives.

 

To change a drive letter – right click on the drive – click on “change drive letter…” – click “Change” – assign the required drive letter from the drop down choices, click “OK”.

 

Continue to do this to your drives until you are left with the original 😄 drive, 😧 will not exist and all other drives will have higher drive letters.

 

 

Preparing to Create a New Partition on the 😄 Drive

 

First, it is best to run CCleaner to remove all crap and then defrag the drive.

 

To defrag the drive, open Windows Explorer, right click on the drive, click on “Properties”, click on the “Tools” tab and then click on the defrag button.

 

YOU MUST TAKE A FULL BACK UP up of your 😄 drive onto another hard drive – I use Acronis. This is an absolute must in case things go wrong and you need to restore your system.

 

 

Creating the New partition

 

As before, click on the Windows Start Orb and type “disc management” in the search box

Now click on “Create and format hard disc partitions”

The disc management window will open listing your drives.

 

Right click on Drive 😄 and click on “Shrink volume” in the drop down menu.

 

A window will open telling you the size of the available shrink space and the total size of the 😄 drive after shrinking it. Here you can adjust the size of the shrink to ensure that there will be some unused space left on the 😄 drive for future programs.

 

Once satisfied – click “Shrink”

 

After a short while the bar diagram of drive 😄 will show a blue bar indicating its new size and a black bar to the right showing the unallocated space we created in the shrink process that we can convert to a new partition

 

To convert the unallocated space – right click on the black bar and click on “New simple volume” from the drop down menu. A wizard will open - click “Next” and click “Next” on the Specify Volume Size page. Now assign drive letter 😧 and click “Next”. Now set the format parameters, NTFS, Default and type in a new volume label of your choice – I use ‘Documents & Data’. The quick format box should be ticked – now click “Next” followed by “Finish”. A small window opens asking you to confirm the operation.

 

You are now done partitioning.

 

You have a 😄 drive for your operating system and programs and a 😧 drive for your data.

 

 

Moving Windows 7 Data Files to the 😧 Drive

 

Using Windows Explorer create the following folders on the 😧 partition.

Documents

Music

Pictures

Videos

Plus any other main folders you may have created on the 😄 drive for data

 

To relocate the system data files from Drive 😄 to drive D :-

Right click on Documents folder on 😄

Click Properties

Click Location tab

Click move

Browse to 😧 Documents

Click Select Folder

Click Apply - a window will open asking you to confirm the move

Click "Yes"

The files will be moved - when finished

Click OK

 

Now do the same for the Music, Pictures and Videos folders etc

 

CONGRATULATIONS – you got there

 

You now have a computer with all your data separated from your OS and programs which makes backing up data easier and allows you to reinstall Windows and programs without losing your data.

Thanks for a lot for this extra ordinary writing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy