How Do I Partition My Hard Drive?

Right i need to partition my hard drive - currently its just one drive and i want to add 3 more : 1 x OS, 1 X Apps, 1 x Games and 1 for my documents, music and videos as well as other things - how would i go about doing this? i have not partitioned a hard drive before so i am not too sure how to do it

 

There are several programs that you can use to partition your hard drive. I'd recommend GParted, but my friend has used EASUS Partition Manager and he says that's quite good.

So run the program that you have downloaded, and just allocate the amount of space you want to each partition, whatever. I haven't really done it before, but it should be fairly easy to do.

 

okay thanks i will check them apps out

 

You should put the OS in a primary partition and put 3 others in 3 logical partitions. The reason is some OS only work in a primary partition and you can only have 4 primary partitions in a hard drive while you can have as many logical partitions as you like.

 

whats the difference between primary and logical partitions?
how do i make sure that i am setting them right?

 

A primary partition is normally assigned to an Operating System. It is where the computer boots from. A Logical Partition is normally assigned to everything else such as your applications or data.

A primary partition stands by itself while a logical partition must reside in an extended partition. An extended partition acts like an envelope or a container that stores logical partition. By itself, an extended partition can not store data.

I have never used GParted but I am sure the procedure is similar regardless of which utility you use.

If you are going to start from scratch with an empty hard drive, follow the following procedure. If you want to start from your existing OS and data, follow the procedure in the next paragraph.
1. Create a primary partiton. Specify the size of how big you want your primary partition to be.
2. Mark the primary partition active. Making it active means you want the computer to boot from that partition. This is not absolutely necessary but recommended.
3. Create an extended partition. The extended partition should be equal to the size of the whole drive minus the size of primary partition.
4. Create 3 logical partitions inside the extended partition.
5. Reboot the computer and reinstall the OS.

If you don't want to restart from scratch, you need to resize the existing partition first. Then follow step number 3 and 4 from above and reboot the computer.

Note: Before resizing an existing partition that contains an OS or data, you should back up anything you can't afford to lost. Software bugs, power cut, user error could make your data corrupted.

EDIT:
Here's a sample screen shot from Partition Magic. Other partitioning software should look similar:


Note that in this case Softpedia is the primary partition, the partition that contains the OS. Softnews and Softpedia Test are the logical partitions. They reside inside the extended partition.

 

I would go with GParted

Simply download, and burn to a CD, or make a bootable flash, there are guide for this on GParted's site.
Then follow the steps above, mentioned be hendra.

I used GParted to delete my recovery partition, make C smaller and extend D.
You simply apply all operations you want to do and then it does them at once. But be warned that it takes quite long, so its probably better to leave it overnight.

Also, there is always a chance of data loss/corruption, so you should ALWAYS backup your important data before re-partitioning

Hope this helps

 

i looked at the Gparted site but the warnings about possible data lose deterred me from using it.
is there any SAFE application that wont lead to possible data loss?

 

Under normal condition, you shouldn't lost any data. But it is better to be safe than sorry. Backup anything you can't afford to lost. There is no disk partitioning software that could guarantee 100% than nothing bad could ever happen.

 

whats the best app to use, if i already have my OS installed?
As i have my OS, some apps and alot of data on my hard drive

 

Could this Work? :



When you create partitions on a basic disk using Disk Management, the first three volumes you create will be formatted as primary partitions. Beginning with the fourth volume, each volume will be configured as a logical drive within an extended partition. For more information, see What are partitions and logical drives?

1.

Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2.

In the Navigation pane, under Storage, click Disk Management.
3.

Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then click New Simple Volume.
4.

In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next.
5.

Type the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then click Next.
6.

Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the partition, and then click Next.
7.

In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following:
*

If you don't want to format the volume right now, click Do not format this volume, and then click Next.
*

To format the volume with the default settings, click Next.
8.

Review your choices, and then click Finish.

 

I have used GParted twice, and thankfully both times didn't lose any data.

They always say that data can be lost, because there is always a possibility, and because without that disclaimer they can be held accountable data that users may lose as a result of using the program

I haven't really tried any other programs, so I guess we just have to wait for others to chime in

Also, as hendra mentioned the best thing to do is make a backup no matter which program you use

I tried using the windows tool but it didn't really work well, so I can't say much about the method you just posted

 

it seems my only drive is the full one, so i need to shrink it first, its currently using 97gb - so if i shrink it to 100gb that should be fine right? then i can go ahead and make the other partitions? its using 97 at the moment as that has ALL my data in that section, once i have created the other partitions most of the data will be moved to the correct locations

 

How do i go about making it so that the C drive is only 100gb?
in the windows thing i cant make the drive any less then 488gb (roughly)
would i shrink it all the way and the shrink it again until it is 100gb?

 

because there are files at the part of the drive, so it will not shrink any further. You could do a thorough defragmentation that puts all the files at the head of the disk, then it will be able to shrink further. And no need for any tools, the Windows Disk Management is by far the easiest and it works fine.

 

great thanks for the info i will defrag it then try.
might have to stop Steam downloading L4D missing files - i want to play it so bad

what damage could happen if i did the defrag while steam was downloading something?

 

Some parts of the file being downloaded by steam might be moved to another part of the drive by the defragmentation program
Steam wont know where this data is and that could cause an error, which (at worst) might require you to re-download everything.

 

thanks i thought something like that might happen so i decided to wait until its fully downloaded. with defrag will it cause any errors like games not loading or files being moved to different locations or anything?

 

It shouldn't cause problems, except slowing the defrag. I suspect you'll need a specialist (and potentially riskier) defrag program to shrink your partition much further. You could try switching off pagefile and hibernation and defragment again, but it may not yield much more shrinkage.

Gparted is the gold standard partitioner.

It might be easier to back up everything and reinstall Windows.

Do you really need to create these partitions?

 

once i have finished downloading the missing files (about 10mins left) i will use the defrag.
Yes i think that i do, i dont want everything installed in the same place it makes finding things harder and i like how it is on my laptop (3 hard drives) as i have one Hard drive for OS and apps, one for Games and movies/videos and 1 that currently isnt in use.

but i want to be able to quickly find what i am find and i prefer having things tidy, with 1 drive for OS, 1 for Games and 1 for Apps.

if i am forced to reinstall i might do make the required partitions, make one extra for the replacement OS and then uninstall the current one, does that sound possible?

 

Do you mean you want to install a second OS before deleting the original? sound messy if you end up with is at the end of the drive.

From a clean drive, I'd create any primaries I want and then have a big extended drive which I can partition logically as I want.

 

right, i defragged the drive but that still wont allow me to reduce the main C drive to anything less then 400gb(roughly) so i am not sure what to do, after all the time it took to move all the data over, maybe make a partition big enough to hold all my stuff and reinstall Win7, does that give option for Partitions? as i didnt see any when i installed it

 

I once tried to shrink my C drive, but it was so much hassle that I gave up and did a fresh install - never a bad idea, and if you regularly reinstall, you get good and quick at it.

I can't remember if Win7 gives you the option to create partitions. Try is and see? If not, use Gparted to create a partition and install into that. I always keep a Ubuntu LiveCD to hand which includes Gparted to hand.

And a double check - Make sure everything is backed up whichever course you decide to take.

 

i might do a fresh install
but just have 1 partition and make a folder in My Computer for games
just like it has one for applications

i will make a partition - move all data on that partition, do the fresh install and then move the stuff back and remove the partition

 

Yeah, you should move all data to this partition, so that you can format C during the re-install. You should be able to delete this new data partition after a clean install and create partitions using that empty space, but I'm not 100% sure

I would recommend you do this:

1) Backup all your data, that way even if something goes wrong your data is safe.

2) Try GParted out and use that to shrink/create new partitions as you need.

3)If you don't want to use GParted, you can re-install and change your partitions as you wish while re-installing
But bear in mind, the best re-install is when you format your C drive.
I also think that when you resize the drive during the re-install, you need to format it before shrinking.
I had to format my C drive so that I could shrink it from 110GB to 50GB.
That was with Vista, so I'm not sure how it works for Win 7, but I'm assuming that they are the same.

 

this is what i am doing :

1. moving all needed/wanted data to my new partition
2. reinstall Win7
2a : reformat C drive
2b : create partitions
Note : Maybe not in that order
3. reinstall Win7

 

That should work

Just make sure that your C drive has enough space to make all the partitions that you need.
Also, you might need to delete the partition after formatting, and create the partitions you need using the space from that.

Good Luck, tell us how it goes

 

right its done : C drive has 100gb and has the OS installed got a A drive (for apps) is around 370gb and G drive (for games) is around 350gb - i have 100gb left so i am either going to have that as back up for the OS or expand the apps and Games drives but so far everything is working okay

 

Nice one

Glad to see it worked for you.

If the free space is after the third partition, then you can only expand the partition next to it to use the space, or create a new partition which you can use as a backup.

I think the backup idea is quite good, especially if you don't back-up often to an external drive