How to partition a drive on Windows 7

Most articles on how to partition a disk, offer either preformat your hard drive, or install and use to divide it into segments, various programs that may not be trustworthy. Format the disk, which contains a lot of necessary data, accumulated, perhaps, not for one year, the more inexpedient. But to share space on it nevertheless follows.

Why divide the disk into parts

Use a one-piece, not broken, disk is not as convenient as it may seem.
On the one hand, if you do not partition a disk, its root partition will gradually "overgrow" with myriad folders and become cluttered with small files, or the folder system becomes so branchy that the path to the required files will be too long and therefore inconvenient.

On the other hand, if you divide the computer's memory into segments, then data backup and recovery of the operating system after the "fall" becomes much easier. Knowing how to partition a disk, you can restrict access to only certain files on the computer: to do this, just password protect only the section where they are stored.

Where it is better to create a new section

It is better to allocate a new partition on the D drive, since the C drive in the standard situation is occupied by the operating system, and you should not take away from it the free space that the computer needs for normal operation. From this article you will learn how to partition a disk without formatting it and without using third-party programs.

How to partition a disk: a sequence of actions

1. Open the "Start" menu and enter "Computer Management" in the search bar. Open the "Computer Management" tab. A window appears where you want to select the "Disk Management" line.
2. In the window that appears, right-click the name of the disk that you want to split. In the opened menu select the item "Compress volume". After that, the free space on the disk will be scanned. It shows how much space you can take away from the hard drive.
3. When the scan is complete, the settings window appears. In it, you can set the maximum values within those that the computer offered.
4. Click on the "Compress" button.
5. After the compression occurs, the computer will show that there is free space. You need to right-click on its designation and select the line "Create a simple volume" in the menu.
6. The "Create Simple Volume Wizard" appears. In it, set the selected maximum amount of disk space.
7. Select the letter that will be used for the new section.
8. Format the created partition and click on the "Finish" button.
9. Restart the computer.

How to rename a new section

By default, the created partition will be called "New volume". You can rename it the same way as a normal file: open the menu with the right mouse button, select the "Rename" line and delete the name "New volume". After that, the computer will automatically assign the name "Local disk" to the new partition and add the letter chosen earlier to indicate it.