Creating and Managing Partitions in Windows 7
Windows 7 has built in disk management utility to partition a hard drive. So it is now possible to create new partitions in Windows 7 computer without using any third party tools. This articles explains how to partition the hard drive in your windows 7 computer.
How to create new partition in Windows 7
Windows 7 comes with a built in disk management tool to partition a hard disk. Partitioning is required for many reasons. For example you may need a new partition if you want to boot from a different OS or for managing files, programs etc.
The disk management tool available with windows 7 is enough for all your basic needs. With this tool you can create new partitions, or delete a partition etc. without any third party tools. You need an unallocated free space on your hard disk to create a new partition. If it is not there, you can shrink an available partition and create a free un allocated space for the new partition.
Let us now see how to create a new partition in windows 7.
1. A free un allocated space is required on your hard drive to create a new partition. If it is not available, you need to shrink an available partition to create a free un allocated space.
Go to 'Start' -> Right Click on 'Computer' -> 'Manage' as shown in the screen shot below.
2. Once you click on 'Manage', you will see the computer management screen as shown below. Now click on 'Disk Management' under Storage as shown below.
3. Now you have to select the drive that you want to partition. Right click on the drive letter, and select 'Shrink Volume' as shown below.
4. Now you will see a window which shows the size of the hard drive and the amount available to shrink. You need to enter the amount of space to shrink ( which would be the size of the new partition).
5. Once you enter the values, you need to click on 'shrink' which would take some time depending on the size of the drive and the amount to shrink. Now you will see the unallocated free space. Select it and right click and then select 'New Simple Volume'.
6. Now you just follow the wizard and fill the size of new partition and assign a drive letter and format the new partition.
