Sometime you may create single partition during the installation of Window 7 leaving the remaining space of hard disk for further use. Or sometime you may need to resize the existing partition. In this article we will
- Create new partition in Window 7 after installation
- Resize the partition in Window 7
- Format the partition in Window 7
- Change drive letter of partition in Window 7
- Remove partition in Window 7
For this tutorial we will use built in functionality of window 7. It is always worthy to use in built functionality whenever possible despite of using any third party utilities.
- To create new partition you must be logged in as an administrator.
- There must be either unallocated or free disk space with an extended partition on the hard disk.
- If there is no unallocated disk space, you can create some by shrinking an existing partition, deleting a partition.
Create new partition in Window 7 after installation
To create the new partition we need to access the Disk Management console.
Click the Start menu button and type diskmgmt.msc into the search box and then right-click the diskmgmt.msc entry and click Run as Administrator item from context menu
You can also open disk management console from computer management
Click the Start menu button and right click on Computer from sub menu and click Manage
From computer management console Click Storage in right pane to launch Disk management tool
To create new partition select free space and Right click, from sub menu options click new simple volume
Click Next on the Welcome screen
Wizard will show all available space, you can take the empty space and divide it into several drives or you can use the remaining space for single simple volume
wizard will ask you to assign a drive letter or path for this volume
On next screen, You can format or skip this partition.
- You should format this volume under NTFS to take advantage of NTFS file system.
- You should not change allocation unit size setting, unless you have a specific reason to change the allocation size.
- You should assign a label to help you distinguish the new partition from other partition on your system.
- You could choose quick format that will take less time, but it will not find and mark bad sectors on partition. So if have time uncheck this option for complete format.
- NTFS file system have built-in compression that is good choice if storage space is top priority.
On Last screen of wizard you have a summary of your choices. If you need to change any option, you have last opportunity to step back and make changes. When you are satisfied with your choices, click the Finished button.
Depending on size of partition wizard will take few minutes to create and format it.
Congratulations you have successfully created new partition, you can also check it in my computer.
Resize partition in Window 7
Sometime you may have large space unused in partition. Or may have small disk space available in partition. In both condition you need to resize the partition. In above practice we have created new partition. Now let's extend this partition.
Extend a Partition
In the Disk Management console, right-click on the partition that you want to extend, and click Extend Volume from the menu
Click Next on Welcome screen
For demonstration purpose we will extended 500 MB, You could extended as per your requirement from available space.
Click finish
We have successfully extended the partition size
Shrink a Partition
In above practice we extended the size of partition, now we will revert the process.
In the Disk Management console, right-click on the partition that you want to shrink, and click "Shrink Volume" from the menu
In opened Shrink dialog enter the amount you want to shrink and click Shrink. For demonstration purpose we will reduce size by 1000MB.
You can verify the new partition size
Format the partition in Window 7
You can format a partition during the creation of it, as we did in above practice. If you have skipped it during the creation process, you need to do it before use.
If you try to use it before format, Window explorer will give you the following alert
"You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it. Do you want to format it?"
While you format a partition, it will delete any information on the partition and setup a file system so Windows 7 can read from it and write data to it.
To format a partition Select the partition from disk management console and Right click, from open context menu click format option
In opened popup box you can set format options. All options are same which you have seen in above practice.
- Volume label :- Specify a name to this drive, default will be New Volume
- File system:- Choose NTFS for better performance, Fat32 only available as options on drives 2GB and smaller
- Allocation unit size :- This is the basic unit in which disk space is allocated. The default allocation unit size is based on the size of the volume and, by default, is set dynamically prior to formatting. Keep default.
- Perform A Quick Format:- If checked window will format without checking the partition for errors. With large partitions, this option can save you a few minutes. However, it is recommended to uncheck this option and perform full format which will check for errors, mark bad sectors on the disk and lock them out.
- Enable File And Folder Compression :- Built-in compression , only for NTFS file system. Usually not necessary in today's world of incredibly large hard drives.
Click OK at the bottom of the window
Click OK to alert message
The hard drive format will begin. Status filed display the progress of formatting in %.
Depending on size and format type (quick or standard) it may take long time. The format is complete when the Status changes to Healthy.
Congratulation you have just formatted a partition in Window 7.
Change drive letter of partition in Window 7
Windows typically assigns a letter of the alphabet to most drives. If you want to organize your drives in your preferred way, you can change the drive letter. To change drive letter
In Disk management console select the partition and Right click, from context menu click Change drive letter or path
In open box we have three options
- Add :- To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned
- Change :- To change already assigned drive latter
- Remove :- To remove a drive latter
Before you make any change be aware that
- Some applications make references to specific drive letters, if you change a drive letter these program might not work properly.
- Make sure drive is not in use while changing drive latter. Close any program or window that is using the drive to avoid error.
- You cannot change drive letter of system or boot partition.
To change drive letter select the partition and Click change
Click on drop down menu, it will list all available letters
Select the drive letter you want and click OK
Click Yes to alert message
We have successfully changed drive latter.
Remove partition in Window 7
In the end of this article we will delete a partition. Before you delete please note that
- If you have single partition, then you can't delete it.
- All data on a partition will be lost when you delete it.
- You cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or any partition that contains the virtual memory paging file, because Windows needs this information to start correctly.
To delete a partition
In Disk management console select the partition Right click, from context menu Click Delete
Click Yes to warning message
If you delete a primary partition, the resulting empty space is called unallocated disk space.
If you delete a logical drive within an extended partition, the resulting empty space is called free space.
You can now use the empty space to create additional volumes.
