Creating a simple volume on a disk. How to create a new partition on your hard drive

Hello. Today I decided to write about how to create a partition on a hard drive already under Windows 7. Simply put, how to partition HDD after installing Windows. First, I’ll write a few words about why you should partition your hard drive and create additional partitions. If, for example, you bought a new computer or laptop, then most likely there is no operating system installed on it, and if it does have DOS, then you will most likely want to change it to Windows. I wrote about how to install Windows 7 in the article Installing Windows 7, you can read.

So, most likely your hard drive will not be divided into partitions, but it will either have one partition, or there will simply be an unallocated area. In principle, the hard drive can be partitioned when installing the operating system, there is a very clear editor, but if you did not do this and installed Windows 7 in one single partition, then you can create additional partitions after installing the operating system.

You don't even need special programs for this; Windows 7 has an excellent utility called Disk Management. I've used it to create partitions more than once ( local disks) and there were no problems. You can also take some space from an existing local disk and create another one. This will be useful if, for example, you want to install another operating system, but there is no free memory on your hard drive.

As for the question of whether it is necessary to divide the hard drive into partitions at all, the answer is a clear yes. It is very inconvenient when installed in one section operating system, all your files and everything. Firstly, this will slow down the operation of your system, and secondly, it will be very difficult to find something among this pile of folders. Well, in general, why do this, because you can split a disk very easily. Moreover, hard drives are now larger.

Create a partition on your hard drive for Windows 7

Let's get started with the process of creating new partitions, also known as local disks on Windows 7.

Open "Start" and right-click on "Computer". Then select Manage.

A window will open in which we select on the left and wait a little while information about the partitions on the hard drive is loaded.

Let's look at the structure of our hard drive. As you can see, I have already created sections. And you most likely will have only one section and an unmarked area. In order to take memory from one partition, right-click on a specific partition and select "Shrink volume...", follow the instructions.

After this, you will have a memory in the “Free” status (mine is light green). It is from this area that we will create our sections. And one more thing, if you compressed the system partition with Windows, then I advise you to leave at least 50 GB of memory for it, and if the network is from something, then more is possible.

So, right-click on the “Free” area and select "Create Simple Volume".

The Create Volumes (Local Disks) Wizard will open. In the first window, click "Next".

We indicate the size of the partition we are creating. If you want to create a partition from the entire free area, then simply click "Next".

In the next window, I advise you to leave the formatting of the new partition, and if you wish, you can set the volume label. This is the text instead of the inscription "Local disk". Click "Next".

We check all the information and click "Finish".

Well, that's all. As you can see, nothing complicated. Believe me, it is better to immediately divide the hard drive into partitions than to keep all the information in one section. By the way, you can go to “My Computer”, the new section has already appeared and is ready to work.

Most users know that somewhere in the depths of the system unit of their computer there is a “winchester”, or hard drive. For us, it appears simply as a small box-shaped device. However, the inside of a hard drive is much more complex than it seems; it consists of many platters. This is, so to speak, the physical component of the disk. But at the logical level, the hard drive can be divided into several more disks. There are several types of disks and partitions, which we will try to understand.

First of all, let's clarify the concept of partition. This is an area of ​​the hard drive that is assigned a drive letter after formatting. When creating a partition, a special record is created (master boot record), it points to clusters, the space between which will be considered a separate disk. When a partition is created, a specific file system is created on it. The section is sometimes referred to as volume.

Basic ( systemic) chapter contains system Windows files. The system partition is usually assigned the letter C. In Windows, the first three partitions created are the primary partitions. A computer may contain several main partitions with their own operating system. In this case, loading occurs precisely from the main partition that is currently active.

Active section- This is the main partition from which the computer boots.

Additional section does not contain system files, Windows does not boot from it. The main purpose of such a section is to store the user’s personal files, music, graphics, texts, videos, games, etc. The advantage of storing data on different partitions is that if the main partition fails, reinstalling Windows will be enough, while the rest of the user information recorded on the additional partition will remain intact.

You can create an additional partition only if there is unallocated space on the disk (unformatted space that is not part of an existing partition or volume). You can shrink an existing volume or use a third-party partitioning utility to create unallocated space.

Creating additional partitions is a way to bypass the limit on the number of primary partitions on a basic disk. A secondary partition is a container containing one or more logical drives. Logical drives work the same way as primary partitions, except that they cannot start the operating system.

Logical drive– this is not actually the same thing as a partition. A logical disk is part of an additional partition, identical to it only if it occupies the entire additional partition. Logical disks are created in an additional partition and have their own logical structure, which allows them to be used as independent physical ones (with the only limitation that they cannot be removed from the computer). The presence of a logical disk is required to operate an additional partition.

Basic disk uses primary partitions, additional partitions, and logical drives to organize information. In Windows Vista, basic disks can contain four primary partitions, or three primary and one secondary partition. An additional partition can contain multiple logical drives (up to 128 logical drives are supported). Basic disk partitions cannot share or share information with other partitions. Each basic disk partition is a separate physical disk object.

Dynamic disk can contain about 2000 dynamic volumes that have the same functionality as primary partitions on basic disks. In some Windows versions You can combine individual dynamic hard drives into a single dynamic volume (striping) or split data across multiple hard drives (striping) to improve performance, or duplicate data across multiple hard drives (mirroring) to improve reliability. Dynamic disks are supported only in Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate.

Both basic and dynamic disk are types of hard disk configuration in the Windows operating system. Most users have their drives configured as basic drives because they are easy to manage. For experienced users, to quickly and reliably save data, it is more convenient to use dynamic disks, which use several hard drives.

Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise versions support distribution and striping, but do not support mirroring. (Windows Server 2008 supports mirroring.)

External drive ( pluggable) usually presented in the form of a flash drive or mobile hard drive. Both connect via USB port and when connected they immediately receive a letter. If the connected disk is formatted in FAT32b, then it can be used as a boot disk.

Virtual disk created by CD emulator programs. One such program can create several virtual disks. The letter for each drive is selected by the user from the list of available (unused) letter designations. Let's name the most popular virtual disk emulator programs: , Alcohol, VirtualCD.

All operations for creating partitions, assigning a drive letter, and formatting are performed in the window Computer management. It opens in the menu Start – Control Panel – Administrative Tools. In chapter Disk management All disks defined by the system are displayed. Right-clicking on the selected drive opens a menu with available functions.

In this article I will tell you how to create a partition on a hard drive in windows 7.
Hard drive partition- This is part of the hard drive on which information can be stored. Partitions can be created, compressed, formatted, deleted. A partition is created to separate user files from operating system files. Typically, it is enough to have two hard drive partitions on your computer: Local Disk C and Local Disk D.

On Local Drive CWindows operating system files are stored, as well as installed programs. On another partition of the hard drive (it may be called differently for you) you can store your important documents, programs, photos, videos, music. If the operating system fails, the data on this local drive will be saved, since the system will be reinstalled on Local Drive C.

Earlier partition the hard drive It was only possible using third party programs. For example Partition Magic, Acronis Disc Director. Now, with the advent of new operating systems, this procedure can be done using built-in windows tools 7.

So let's get started creating a partition on your hard drive in windows 7. To do this, you need to follow the following instructions.

Step 1 . Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Manage from the context menu.

Step 2. In the snap Computer management In chapter Storage devices select Disk management.

Step 3. Next, click on Local drive C or another drive that you want to compress (If you have only one hard drive C, then you have no choice, you will have to compress it; if there are other partitions, then the choice is yours from which drive you want to “take away” the memory). Compressing the disk is necessary to provide free space for creating a new partition. In the context menu window that appears, click Shrink Volume...

Step 4. The process will begin to determine the available space for compression. You'll have to wait a little... After a few seconds, a dialog box will appear in which you need to configure drive C for compression.

In field Compressible space size (MB) indicate the size by how much you need to compress the disk. (The compressed size is the size of the future partition being created). After you calculate what size you need, click the button Compress.

Step 5. After the compression process is completed, an unallocated black section will appear. Right-click on it and click Create a simple volume...
Next a window will appear Create Simple Volume Wizard, which will help you create a simple disk volume.

A simple volume can only reside on one disk.

To continue, click the button Further.

Step 6. Next you need specify the size of the partition to be created. In line Simple volume size enter the maximum size in M.B. or leave it as is (by default, the maximum size is indicated in the simple volume size field).
Click to continue Further.

Step 7. In the next window Simple Volume Wizards assign a drive letter to the partition from A-Z by clicking on the drop-down list (indicated by the arrow), and then click Further.

Step 8. In a new window you have to perform. Formatting is the process of creating a file system. It is also necessary to save data on this partition.

Select the radio button in the section Format this volume as follows and select:

- File system - FAT or NTFS. Choose NTFS.
- Cluster size- the choice of cluster size depends on what files you will store on disk, if the files are not big size, then select a small cluster; if the files are large, for example photos, videos, music, then select a larger cluster.
- Volume Label- enter the name of the disc (for example: music, video, photos, programs, documents, etc.).

Uncheck the boxes Quick formatting And Compress folders and files. Click to continue Further.

Step 9. The Create Simple Volume Wizard completed successfully. This window displays all selected options. If you want to change something, click Back, if everything suits you, then click Ready.

Step 10. Once the formatting process is complete, a new primary partition will be created, highlighted in blue.

That's all, new section in the operating room windows system 7 created. Go to My computer. In chapter Hard disks you will see the created partition. You can start filling it with information.

When buying a new computer (), it often happens that when you go to My Computer you see only one unpartitioned hard (local) drive.
For example, if the volume is 500 GB, then there will be one local disk C with a capacity of 465 GB.

By the way, for those who don’t know why this happens:
From your computer science course at school, you should know that 1 byte contains 8 bits (the minimum unit of information), 1 KB contains 1024 bytes, 1 MB contains 1024 KB, 1 GB contains 1024 MB, etc.
But marketers and manufacturers “decided for everyone” and they have not 1024, but 1000. As if it were easier to count, but in fact you are paying for more space than you have.
Moreover, the file system immediately takes a certain amount for its needs.
So it turns out that on a hard drive that even says 500 GB, you get an actual space of 465 GB.

And here there are 2 situations: when the operating system is already installed on the disk, and when it is empty.
But in any case, it is inconvenient when there is only one local disk on the computer.

For information:
HDD- device. You can touch it and see it
Local disk- what you see in My Computer in the OS.

It is much better when the system is installed on one local disk (with a capacity of about 100 GB), and the remaining space is divided as you wish and used in the same way.
For example, you can create 3 local disks, one of which will have the OS, another with multimedia (movies, music, photos, etc.), and the third one can be used for your documents, or you can also install the Operating System.
This will make it more convenient and prevent you from accidentally deleting files needed by the system.

So, how to split a hard drive into several local ones using standard Windows tools?

1) The easiest way to “get” to what you need is to right-click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop or in the Start menu and select from the context menu Control:

2) The "Computer Management" dialog box will open in which we need the item Disk management

3) A picture similar to this will appear. I have everything divided as needed, so it may differ.

4) Here you need to select a local disk (look at Status) either from above or from below (the principle is the same, they are just shown differently). Right-click on it and select Shrink Volume

5) We wait until the system determines the amount of free space and calculates it

6) A window will appear with the calculated amount of available space. In it, only the field is available for editing Compressible space size (MB). In principle, you don’t need to edit anything else. But here you should be careful how much you are willing to take from the disk to create another one in Megabytes.
Once you decide to do this, click Compress.

7) We wait a few minutes for Windows to compress the disk. Then the same disk management window will appear again, but a new partition will appear - Free and in the table below it will have a green stripe. Here we right-click on it and select from the menu Create a simple volume

8) Will open Create Simple Volume Wizard. In which we agree with the greeting by first clicking Further.
You will then be prompted to resize the volume. But you don’t need to change anything here, because you can’t do the above, and the size indicated is the one you specified when compressing. So let's click Further

9) Select a letter for the new drive from the proposed drop-down list and click Further

10) What follows is probably the most important part. You need to format the disk and prepare it to turn on. It is recommended to do as shown in the screenshot below. Only in the Volume Label field: you can specify your own. This will be the name of the disk, you can even write it in Russian letters.

11) The last window will list all the parameters that you specified in the Wizard. Press Ready and the section is created.

Most users create partitions on their hard drive for their convenience. They are usually called C, D, etc., and their usefulness cannot be denied in any way. Let's say you have the operating system on one volume, and all other user files (music, photos, movies) on the second. When you reinstall the OS, the partition with your files will not even be touched, which will allow you to save your data and continue to use it in the new Windows.

One of the extremely common problems that users often encounter is that the computer does not see hard drive partitions and cannot find them. This problem occurs unexpectedly and can be caused by a number of reasons that affect the operation of the hard drive. Let's figure out what to do in this situation and how to solve the problem that has arisen.

Assigning a letter

If your PC or laptop does not see one of the hard drive partitions, then the first thing you need to do is go to the special control menu and check whether it is displayed in the corresponding list. If it is there, then it needs to be assigned a letter.

Let's look at the process in order:

The requested information will be instantly displayed on the screen. It is necessary to look through the local drives, and if there is one that has disappeared, then you need to set the letter.

To do this you need:

To changes made successfully applied, you need to restart your computer. As soon as the operating system boots, check whether the partition is visible, it should appear under the letter you specified.

Creating a new volume

It is likely that when you go to the control menu you will not find the missing area, instead there will be an unallocated part that cannot be assigned a letter, you can only create new volume:

But at the same time, you will completely lose the files stored on it. Therefore, if you do not value them, then feel free to use this method; in other cases, I recommend using the method discussed below.

All processes are analyzed using Windows 7 as an example, but in other versions, Windows XP/8/10, they will be similar.

Creating a new partition

If the first method did not help and the computer still does not see the hard drive partitions, then the problem may be that the OS itself cannot see it due to the loss of the file system, as often happens, but the data on it will still be saved.

In this case, to correct the situation, we will use one very effective tool, namely the Acronis Disk Director program. With its help, we will recognize the disappeared local partition of the hard drive, separate a small part from it, from which we will make a new area with file system NTFS and then just merge them.

This may seem very difficult to some, but if you follow the following instructions, which detail what to do in this situation, you will easily cope with this task:

After you create a partition, all that remains is to merge the problematic and new partitions using the “Merge” function.

Now you need to save the changes and reboot the system. To do this, you need to enter the BIOS again and return the boot to its original location - from the Hard Disk. After exiting the BIOS, the system will automatically boot into Windows OS. We check the disk partition again, now it should definitely be displayed correctly.

Partition recovery

In almost all cases when a logical partition of a hard drive disappears, it can be returned. For recovery we will use the same Acronis Disk Director.
So here's how to do it:

The procedure for restoring information from a partition that the PC has stopped seeing can take a significant amount of time. The duration of the process depends on the amount and volume of data available on the disk. Therefore, you should be prepared for the fact that the computer may work for quite a long time.

We hope that the methods we have listed for solving the problem are easy to implement, and you can use them to fix the problems that have arisen.

Video: how to solve the problem of unallocated space in Windows 10