How to Partition Hard Disk Drive Without Formatting

We create a hard drive partition to resourcefully manage our data and keep the Windows drive free from clutter. Geeks always recommend having multiple hard drive partitions to ensure that you do not compromise on your data if in case a partition gets corrupt. In case of a system crash or a virus attack, you can always safeguard your data that’s on a different hard drive partition. Even if you had to format and reinstall the operating system, you can always keep the rest of the data safe that’s on a different hard drive partition.

After disk partition, you can better organize your data and keep the operating system on 1 drive and photos, movies important documents on other drives. You can install and use different operating systems at the same time on one computer and partition always reduces the threat of entire data loss in case of a system crash. There are different processes of how to partition a hard drive without formatting, deleting, or compromising the data. Here in this article, you’ll find the best method of how to partition a hard drive on Windows 10.

How to Partition Hard Drive Using Disk Management

Windows operating system comes with an inbuilt utility to manage disk partitions and organize your data. You can easily create a partition, shrink partition, extend partition, or format partition with the help of this utility. Here is a step-by-step process of how to partition a hard disk.

How to Open Disk Management Utility

Method 1:

• Click on the Start button and type Control Panel in the search bar and select Control Panel App from the search results. You can also press (Win + R) to open the Run command window, type Control and hit the Enter key. The Control Panel window will open.
• Click on the System and Security option in Windows 10, 8, 7, go for System and Maintenance in Windows Vista, or Performance and Management in Windows XP.

• Click on Administrative Tools and double click on the Computer Management shortcut to open the Computer Management console. In the left-hand side panel, click on the Disk Management tool under the Storage section.

Method 2:

• Click on the Start button and type Computer Management in the search bar and click on the Run as Administrator under the Computer Management App in the search results. The Computer Management window will open where you need to click on the Disk Management tool under the Storage section in the left-hand side panel.

Method 3:

• Click on the Start button and type Disk Management in the search bar and click on the Run as Administrator under the Disk Management App in the search results. Disk Management window will open.

Method 4:

• Press (Win + R) to open the Run command window, type diskmgmt.msc and hit the Enter key. Disk Management Utility will open.

How to Partition Hard Disk

Once you enter the Disk Management window you get a glance at all the current disk partitions and volumes. You can customize the view by entering the View menu and selecting top/bottom visualizations. Follow these steps to create a new partition using Disk Management.

Step 1. If there is NO Unallocated Space, right-click on the last disk partition and click on the Shrink Volume option. This step needs to be performed on the drive that doesn’t have the operating system installed on it.

Step 2. Right-click on the Unallocated space on the Basic disk where you have created space for a new partition, and click on the New Partition option.

Alternatively, you can also create a logical drive from an Extended partition. All you need to do is right-click on the free space on the Extended partition, and click on New Logical Drive.

Step 3. Follow the new partition wizard and select between Primary partition, Extended partition, or Logical drive and click on the Next button.

Step 4. Allocate a partition size in MB and go next.

Step 5. Select a Drive letter or let Windows automatically choose the drive letter.

Step 6. Select the formatting options to format or not to format the drive and then go next.

Step 7. Click on Finish to finish creating a new hard drive partition. You should be able to see the newly created hard drive partition under This PC.

Automated Process of How to Partition Hard Disk

If you don’t wish to go through this hurdle of going through multiple windows and options, there is a quick method of how to partition a hard drive on Windows 10.

Use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to manage your hard drive partitions, create a partition, split partition, merge partition, resize/move partition, copy or wipe partitions. AOMEI Partition Assistant can also help you Convert MBR to GPT Without Data Loss in Windows 10 and earlier versions.

This user-friendly console allows you to split partition from an existing hard drive partition or allocate a new hard drive partition on a free space. You can also make use of the Quick Partition option and no need to remember how to create a partition on a hard drive on Windows 10.

Summing Up

Making the right use of the total disk space or the available hard drive space is the best practice that you can follow to manage your hard drive partitions. If you don’t know how to partition a hard drive, you can make use of the automated process and use AOMEI Partition Assistant to automatically manage your Hard Drive partitions. Keep it simplified and make the most out of your PC!