- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE HOW TO#
- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE INSTALL#
- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE FREE#
- #HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE WINDOWS#
For more advanced users, Disk Management can be accessed in the command-lineĢ.If you have a later version, you will want to go to the Power User Menu.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE WINDOWS#
First, navigate to “Open Disk Management,” which is included in all versions of Windows For an operating system, you should consider a clean install. A second hard drive will appear just like a second partition in Windows Explorer or File Explorer, with its own drive letter.When you are partitioning a hard drive, you are really preparing it for the files that will be stored on it. Of course, you can always get a separate data partition by adding a second hard drive to your computer. RELATED: 7 Tips For Using Multiple Hard Drives With Windows If you’re dual-booting several versions of Windows, each of them can use the data on the separate data partition without accessing each other’s system partitions. When you reinstall Windows, you’ll be able to format your system drive cleanly and have all the files on your data partition in the same place. exe file from the folder and you’re good to go.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE INSTALL#
For example, Valve’s Steam service and Blizzard’s games all allow you to run their games from a folder without having to download and install them after reinstalling Windows. However, some programs can be placed on the data partition and used even after you reinstall Windows. There’s no point in installing most programs to the data partition, as they’ll have to be reinstalled if you ever reinstall Windows. To make this easier, you can move your user data folders - your Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos directories, for example - to your external hard drive by right-clicking each folder in Windows Explorer (or File Explorer on Windows 8) and using the options on the Location tab. To make the most of your separate data partition, store your personal data files on it. When the process is complete, you’ll have a separate data partition.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE FREE#
If you need to free up space but don’t want to delete any files, you may want to temporarily copy them to an external hard drive, delete the originals, and copy the files back over to your data partition afterwards.Īfter the process completes, right-click inside the Unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to create a new partition from the unpartitioned space.įollow the wizard, assigning your desired drive letter to the new partition. If you only have 20 GB of free space, you won’t be able to shrink the partition by more than 20 GB. Of course, you must have enough free space on the partition to shrink it. For example, if you want a 100 GB data partition, enter 102400 into the box and click the Shrink button. You shouldn’t encounter any problems while doing this, but data loss is always a potential threat when modifying your partitions.Įnter the amount of space you want to shrink the partition by, in MB. Warning: Before messing with your partitions, you should always ensure you have backups of your important files. In the Disk Management window, right-click your C: partition and select Shrink Volume. On Windows 7, press the Start button on your keyboard, type manage disks into the Start menu’s search box, and press Enter. On Windows 8, press Windows Key + X or right-click in the bottom-left corner of your screen and select Disk Management. You’ll need to access the Disk Management tool from within Windows to do this. You can do all of this from within Windows. If so, you can resize your existing system partition to make free space and create a new partition in that free space. There’s a good chance you already have Windows installed to a single partition on your hard drive.
#HOW TO PARTITION SECOND HARD DRIVE FOR STORAGE HOW TO#
RELATED: How to Manage Partitions on Windows Without Downloading Any Other Software The space on the other partition will be available as its own separate drive letter in Windows. When you’re happy with your partition sizes, select the partition you want to install Windows to and click the Next button. Create several partitions by clicking the New button and entering a size for each partition.