How to Create Partitions (with Pictures)

Table of contents:

How to Create Partitions (with Pictures)
How to Create Partitions (with Pictures)

Video: How to Create Partitions (with Pictures)

Video: How to Create Partitions (with Pictures)
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This wikiHow teaches you how to divide your computer's hard drive into two parts (or "partitions"). By partitioning, you can treat your hard drive like two separate disks. This is especially useful when you want to install multiple operating systems on one computer. You can create partitions on your existing hard drive on a Windows or Mac computer.

Step

Method 1 of 2: On Windows Computer

Create a Partition Step 1
Create a Partition Step 1

Step 1. Go to Start

Windowsstart
Windowsstart

Click the Windows logo in the lower left corner.

You can also press Win on your computer keyboard

Create a Partition Step 2
Create a Partition Step 2

Step 2. Type computer management into Start

The computer will search for the Computer Management program.

Create a Partition Step 3
Create a Partition Step 3

Step 3. Click Computer Management at the top of the Start window

Computer Management will open.

If you are not logged in as an administrator, you may not be able to access this program

Create a Partition Step 4
Create a Partition Step 4

Step 4. Click Disk Management

This tab is located in the sidebar on the left side of the Computer Management window.

If this option is not present, double click Storage first.

Create a Partition Step 5
Create a Partition Step 5

Step 5. Select the hard disk

In the window at the bottom of Computer Management, click your hard drive box. This box displays the hard drive letter (eg "(D:)") and the amount of usable storage capacity (in gigabytes or GB).

Create a Partition Step 6
Create a Partition Step 6

Step 6. Click Actions

This tab is in the upper-left side of the Computer Management window. A drop-down menu will be displayed.

Create a Partition Step 7
Create a Partition Step 7

Step 7. Select All Tasks

This option is at the bottom of the drop-down menu. A pop-out menu will be displayed.

Create a Partition Step 8
Create a Partition Step 8

Step 8. Click Shrink Volume… in the middle of the pop-out menu

By clicking Shrink Volume…, Windows will determine the amount of free space available on the hard disk. A new window will be opened once this process is complete.

Create a Partition Step 9
Create a Partition Step 9

Step 9. Set the partition size in megabytes

Type the desired number of megabytes for the partition into the "Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB" text field to the right of the page.

  • The maximum number of megabytes that can be allocated will be displayed just above the column you entered the number in.
  • One gigabyte (GB) is 1000 megabytes (MB). If you want to create a partition of 5 GB, you must type 5000 in the text field.
Create a Partition Step 10
Create a Partition Step 10

Step 10. Click Shrink located at the bottom of the page

The computer will start creating segments of the hard disk that will serve as partitions.

The process may take a few minutes

Create a Partition Step 11
Create a Partition Step 11

Step 11. Select the new partition

Click the new partition that says " Unallocated ", to the right of the hard disk space.

Create a Partition Step 12
Create a Partition Step 12

Step 12. Click Action again

This tab is in the upper-left side of the window.

Create a Partition Step 13
Create a Partition Step 13

Step 13. Select All Tasks, then click New Simple Volume….

This option is at the top of the pop-out window.

Create a Partition Step 14
Create a Partition Step 14

Step 14. Click Next at the bottom right of the window

The screen for the initial partition setup will be displayed.

Create a Partition Step 15
Create a Partition Step 15

Step 15. Click Next

Doing so will accept the partition size you specified, and the next page will be displayed.

Create a Partition Step 16
Create a Partition Step 16

Step 16. Select a drive letter (drive), then click Next

The partition's drive letter (eg "E") can be changed by clicking the drop-down box, then clicking the new letter.

This step is optional

Create a Partition Step 17
Create a Partition Step 17

Step 17. Check the box "Format this volume with the following settings"

The box is at the top of the page. This option will set the partition to Windows default settings, so it can be used on Windows like a normal hard disk.

  • If the "File system" box doesn't say "NTFS", click the box, then click NTFS. The partition will be formatted with the file system for Windows.
  • You can also rename the partition in the " Volume label " box.
Create a Partition Step 18
Create a Partition Step 18

Step 18. Click Next at the bottom of the page

Next, the last page will be displayed.

Create a Partition Step 19
Create a Partition Step 19

Step 19. Click Finish

Once you do that, the computer will start creating partitions on the drive. Once the process is complete, you can use the partition in the This PC program. The partition will appear next to the hard drive in the " Devices and drives " section.

The partitioning process can take a few minutes to several hours depending on the size of the hard disk and the size of the partition

Method 2 of 2: On Mac Computer

Create a Partition Step 20
Create a Partition Step 20

Step 1. Click Go

This tab is in your Mac's menu bar at the top of the screen.

If Go nothing, bring up this tab by clicking on the desktop or opening a new Finder window.

Create a Partition Step 21
Create a Partition Step 21

Step 2. Click Utilities

It's at the bottom of the drop-down menu Go.

Create a Partition Step 22
Create a Partition Step 22

Step 3. Double-click Disk Utility

The icon is a Mac hard disk with a stethoscope on it. The Disk Utility program will open.

Create a Partition Step 23
Create a Partition Step 23

Step 4. Select the hard disk

Click your Mac's hard drive in the upper-left side of the Disk Utility window, under the "Internal" heading.

Create a Partition Step 24
Create a Partition Step 24

Step 5. Click Partition

This tab is located at the top of the Disk Utility window.

Create a Partition Step 25
Create a Partition Step 25

Step 6. Click +

It's below the hard drive circle on the left side of the page.

Create a Partition Step 26
Create a Partition Step 26

Step 7. Set the partition size

Click and drag the button at the bottom of the hard disk circle counterclockwise to increase the size of the partition, or clockwise to decrease it.

You can also enter a number in gigabytes (GB) in the " Size: " field to specify the partition size

Create a Partition Step 27
Create a Partition Step 27

Step 8. Select the file format for the partition

Click the File Format drop-down box, and then select a format. The format you choose will be set as the file system on that partition.

  • If you want to use the partition on a Mac computer, select the option MacOS Extended in the drop-down menu.
  • You can also give the partition a name in the " Name: " field.
Create a Partition Step 28
Create a Partition Step 28

Step 9. Click Apply in the lower right corner

The Mac computer will start creating partitions.

The process can take some time, especially if the hard drive and partitions are larger than one terabyte

Create a Partition Step 29
Create a Partition Step 29

Step 10. Click Done when prompted

The partition for Mac computer has been created successfully.

Tips

Creating a partition on an external drive can be done in the same way you would do it on a computer hard disk. However, you must first format the external hard disk before partitioning. Once the external drive is formatted, select the drive name in Computer Management (Windows) or Disk Utility (for Mac) and partition it as you would on your computer's internal hard disk

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