If you lot want to resize the partitions that take been allocated by your laptop manufacturer or divide a big hard drive into multiple smaller drives, hither's how to do it in Windows.

Nosotros're using Windows 10 here, but the steps apply to older versions as well.

How tin I create a partition?

First, you lot'll need some empty infinite. If you lot've simply installed a brand new hard disk drive, the magician should popular up when you first launch Disk Management.

To do that, right click on This PC in File Explorer and click Manage. Then choose Disk Management from the left-mitt pane of the Figurer Direction screen.

How to partition Windows 10

Alternatively, type 'partition' in the search bar in Windows 10 and click on 'Create and format deejay partitions'.

Here we take a formatted 2TB hard drive that has a single partition. Nosotros want to split up this and then at that place are two separate 1TB partitions.

First, make sure there is at least 1TB of free space on the drive since you lot cannot compress the existing partitioning if the drive is total.

Now, right-click on the division and choose Shrink Book…

How to partition Windows 10

Enter the size to reduce the segmentation past (i.eastward. the size you want your new partition to be) and click Compress. Note that the number is in MB, which isn't platonic.

100GB in MB is 102,400. 1TB is one,024,000MB, but equally hard drives tend to say 1TB = 1000MB, and formatted (usable) infinite is less than that, you'll probably observe that it'due south easier to circular down to the nearest grand or fifty-fifty 10,000.

How to partition Windows 10

If all you lot run across is a spinning circle later a few minutes, you can shut down the Disk Management window and open information technology up again as described above.

Yous should now come across some unallocated space on the difficult drive. Right-click in the empty space and choose New Uncomplicated Volume…

How to partition Windows 10

The sorcerer will ask you to choose the size for the new division, but chances are you'll desire to apply all the available space. If not, enter the size in MB. Click Next and choose a bulldoze letter for the new partition or get out it ready to the default, which will be the next available letter in the alphabet.

Now you lot'll see the format settings. If yous don't know what you lot're doing, exit these alone – the defaults are the best choices in the vast majority of cases.

How to partition Windows 10

What you might want to exercise is type in a name for the drive adjacent to Volume Label. Otherwise information technology will be chosen 'New Volume'.

Leave 'Perform a quick format' checked and click Next.

After a few seconds your new partition will be created and it will be visible in File Explorer, ready to receive files.

How to partition Windows 10

If you demand to exercise anything more complicated than shrinking, deleting or creating new partitions, you might find that paid-for sectionalization or hard bulldoze management tools are what you need.

For example, you tin can't clone a difficult drive using Windows' own tools, simply with dedicated cloning software, it's an easy job.