How to Create and Manage Hard Drive Partitions on Windows 10

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Most of the new laptops nowadays come with the drive partitioned into only two sections, i.e., C: drive and the D: drive. Suppose the physical disk has a capacity of 1 TB, then most of the space will be given to the C: drive, close to 900 GB and the rest of the storage space will be for D: drive. The only way out is to learn how to create and manage Hard Drive Partitions on Windows 10.

Create and Manage Hard Drive Partitions

It wasn’t the case earlier. I still remember, when I got my first laptop back in 2007, it came with the drive divided into four sections, C: D:, E: and F: drive so I could store my games, movies and other things in separate computer drives.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter as it’s effortless to make hard d partitions. You can make use of apps like EaseUS Partition Master Free or can do it natively using Disk Management. Here I will be providing you step by step tutorial of how to make a partition on your Windows 10 PC.

Note: Before starting, it’s better to backup all your data to another storage device —  step by step tutorial for backup here.

How to Create and Manage Hard Drive Partitions on Windows 10

Here we will use the Disk Management tool to create, extend or shrink, create a new partition in Windows 10. Next, we will use software to do the same thing, and figure out which is more comfortable.

  • Disk Management
    • Extend or Shrink volume
    • Create a new partition
  • Partition Manager
    • Create
    • Manag Size

Note: Make sure to always back up data before using these tools. If you end up deleting partitions, the data cannot be retrieved.

Using Disk Management

1] Click on the search box, and then type partition or disk management. You should see the listing of Create and format hard disk partitions. Click on it.

2] It will open the Disk Management tool. In that, you should see all the connected drive(s), partition, space used, and the remaining space on your hard drive. Y

To increase of decrease hard drive space, you can either add a new hard drive, extend or shrink the storage capacity of the already existing drive. If possible, you can delete the partition, and recreate all required partition one by one.

Extend or Shrink volume hard drive partition

1] If you want to enlarge or shrink the volume of computer drives, you can right-click on the hard drive partition, and then select Extend or Shrink depending on what you want to do.

Manage Harddrive Partition in Windows 10

2] Suppose if you don’t have enough space to create a new drive. Then you will have to shrink an existing partition or volume from any of the drives to free up some space

To do that, right-click on any of the partition > Shrink Volume> Specify the number of Megabytes you want to shrink> and Click OK.

Shrink Haddrive space

Here is one thing you should know about shrinking. It takes a lot of time, and may not give you enough space if your drive is not properly fragmented. So unless you dont have a choice, take a backup of the files, delete the partition and created two partitions. It will be a lot faster.

3] You can also delete the Drive just by clicking on Delete volume.

How to Create a new partition and set up a new drive

Here I am going to tell you two things. First is setting a new drive, and creating a new partition in it. The later remains applicable anytime you want to create a new partition.

1] Right-click on the drive or unallocated area (will have a black bar above) of the hard disk drive in which you want to make partitions, and select New Simple Volume. It will open the Volume Wizard. Click on next.

Create New Partition in Windows 10

2] The Specify Volume Size window shows you the maximum space available in MB. If you want to create a new partition or volume, specify the amount of space you want to assign to this new partition. You can enter it under Simple volume size in MB field/

Make sure you calculate it in Megabytes, i.e., 1024 MB for 1GB. Use Bing for your conversion and click on Next.

3] On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, leave everything as it is, except for the name of the drive. You can select the name of the hard drive from the drop-down menu.

4] On the Format Partition page, choose the settings of your preference. If you’re confused about what to decide to leave it default and click on Next.

Set Drive letter and Format for New Drive in Windows 10

5] On the Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard page, click Finish to complete the process of creating a new partition in the hard disk drive.

We hope these methods were easy to follow, and you were able to learn to Create Manage Hard Drive Partitions on Windows 10.

Using EaseUS Partition Master:

It’s effortless to create a new partition, extend or shrink the size of the already existing partition, or delete the partition using EaseUS Partition Master.

Not just these, you can do a lot of stuff with the help of the app like Migrating OS to SSD, Merging partition, hiding a partition, and so on. Here I will be mainly focusing on creating a new hard disk drive partition.

  • In the main window where all your drives are displayed, you will also see your unallocated space, right-click on unallocated space and choose to Create Partition.
  • Create a partition window will pop up where you can give a name to your partition, label it, choose the File System.
  • Under Define size and Partition, specify the size you want to allocate to the drive (in Megabytes). Use bing for conversion.
  • Click on OK and done! Your new partition is ready.

Tell us in the comments which one do you prefer, Disk Management or EaseUS Partition Master.

Ashish Mohta
A die-hard fan of Windows, PC Gaming, and Xbox. He is a seasoned content writer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He is a specialist in writing about Windows, software reviews, troubleshooting Windows, and automation.

1 COMMENT

  1. im scared that i will break my computer if i shrink my main drive so i can make space for my stuff

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