Last Updated on December 24, 2021 by Rick Darlinton
It brings lots of benefits after you partition a hard drive in Windows. For example, it helps you manage your files conveniently, and most importantly If you put all of the files on your computer in one disk, it may also pose a risk of losing the files if one disk is corrupted. So you may want to know how to partition a hard drive in Windows 11,10 or 8. You come to the right place as we will bring some detailed instructions about how to partition a hard drive in Windows just within several steps.
Benefits of splitting a hard disk
There are different reasons why you need to create some new drives in Windows. Briefly, you can find some more details below.
1. Manage the files easily.
If you have a very large disk of more than 1TB, it is necessary to split the hard disk into several ones for managing the files such as programs, system files, documents, media files, and more conveniently. Usually, you can have a C drive to add the operating and system files. For the C drive, you can keep the space of your C drive around 120GB so that the computer can run normally. For the rest of the space, you can have 2-3 different drives to store games, media files, work files, and more. When you add different files in different drives, it is also easier to locate the files when you need them.
2. Easy backup and recovery
Another reason why many people want to split a hard drive in Windows is that it helps back up your date. If you want to format your drive C, it is easier to back up the files on the partitioned drives. For example, when you need to re-install the windows system, you may need to format the drive C. At this time, it will save you lots of time to back up the files on other drives. Similarly, data recovery can be done easier if you have different partitioned drives.
3. Run different operating systems
Sometimes, you may hope to run more than one operating system on your computers such as Windows and Linux. After partitioning a hard drive in Windows, you are able to run both Windows and Linux operating systems on one PC.
How to partition a hard drive in Windows
Splitting a hard drive in Windows is simple as the Windows system comes with the built-in feature to split a hard disk within several steps.
- First off, Right-click This PC icon on your computer screen and then tap on Manage
- Click on Disk Management
- Right-click the partition you want to shrink. For example, if you have one hard drive and it is called C, you can right-click it
- Now select Shrink Volume and then enter the total of the size you want your new hard drive to be. Please note the number represents MB here and usually 100GB is 100,000MB. You can enter the size according to the available shrink space in MB.
- Click on Shrink after you enter the space size.
- Next, you will be able to see the unallocated space in the disk management. Right-click in the empty space and then select New Simple Volume.
- Follow the instructions of the Wizard to split the hard disk and select the drive letter, label and file format. You should select NTFS for the windows system.
- If you want to create more hard drives, just repeat the steps above.
Should you partition a hard drive in Windows?
Whether you need to partition the hard disk or not depends on your own requirements as well as the total size of the hard drive you have. In general, there are no big differences in terms of the device performance after you split a hard disk. If you want to split the hard drive and when the hard drive size is less than 256G, we do not suggest you split the hard drive. For the hard drive of 256G-500G, you may split the hard drive to 2-3 partitioned drives. If the hard drive size is larger than 500G, you can have more partitioned drives according to the specific requirements.
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