Creating and formatting a partition in Windows

All hard disk management is done in the Disk Management Administrative Tool. Follow these steps to open this tool:

1. Click on the Start button and select the Control Panel option.

2. If in Classic control panel mode, double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and then double-click on Computer Management icon.

If your control panel is in the Category view, click on Performance and Maintenance, then click on Administrative Tools, and finally double-click on the Computer Management icon.

3. When the Computer Management screen opens, click on the Disk Management option under the Storage category. This will present you with a screen similar to the one below.

The Disk Management Screen

When you are in the disk management tool you will see a listing of your current hard drives and how they are partitioned. From the image above you can see that I have two hard disks installed. The first disk, Disc 0, has two partitions. One partition is a 24 GB NTFS partition that has been assigned the drive letter C:. The other partition on that drive is a 87 GB NTFS partition that has been assigned the drive letter E:. The other drive, has only one partition, the D: partition. The rest of the space, 26 GB, shows that it is unallocated and therefore can be used to make other partitions.

To make a partition from the unused space you would do the following.

1. Right click on the space listed as unallocated.

2. At the menu that comes up, click on the New Partition option.

3. You will now be presented with a wizard as to how you would like the partition to be created. At the first screen press Next.

4. At the following screen, determine if you need a primary or extended partition. For more information about these partitions you can read our partition tutorial listed above. Most people will be fine selecting Primary Partition. Select Primary Partition and press Next.

5. At the next screen you will be prompted to type in how much of the unallocated space you would like used for the new partition. Regardless, of what you decide, you need to enter a size in the Partition size in MB: field, or stick with the default size, and press the Next button.

6. At the next screen select the drive letter you would like assigned to it, or use the default one given. When done, press the Next button. The drive letter that you assign here will be how you access the partition later.

7. In this step you will determine how you would like the new partition to be formatted. For the most part you are advised to use the NTFS file system. If you need a file system that can be readable by older operating systems like DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME, then you should instead choose the FAT32 file system.

8. Type a name in the Volume Label field that will be associated with this partition or leave it blank.

9. Finally press the Next button and you will come to a summary screen. Review how the partition will be created, and if you are satisfied, press the Finish button to complete the creation and formatting of your new hard disk partition.

When the computer finishes creating and formatting the new partition you will be presented with the Disk Management screen again and will see that you have a new partition and drive letter on your computer. Now you can use that drive to start storing your data.