How to Partition a Hard Drive
Big, fast hard drives are popular peripherals that consumers buy in large quantities. Thanks to multimedia and user-friendly programs, hard drive space is now a very important commodity for many computer users. To maximize and optimize the gigabytes of space available on hard drives designed for home users and small businesses, it is often necessary to partition the disk.
Why Partition a Drive?
Even the largest hard drives available to consumers have a limited amount of space. Every bit of space in a hard drive is essential to keep all programs and system processes functioning at the best and most efficient means possible. Here are some reasons why you should partition a hard drive:
Disk management. It’s very easy to fill a large hard drive to capacity, leaving no space for other important or critical files should you need them. Partitions are useful if you have a very large hard drive that you need to divide into separate spaces for your programs, games, operating system, and miscellaneous files.
Multiple operating systems. Multi-booting is very useful for people who want to work with two or more different operating systems on the same computer. You can install different operating systems for each hard disk partition.
Decrease access time. Logical partitions are used to divide the hard disk into separate disks on the same physical drive. Partitioning may speed up access time by dividing a very large disk into smaller, more manageable logical disks.
Protecting files. Partitions can help protect critical data like documents or files from malware attacks or accidental file deletion.
Partitioning the Drive
New hard drives need to be set up properly according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you plan to partition an old hard drive, you need to back up as much of the the data found on the drive. Remember that when you partition a drive that contains data, all the information will be erased.
There are many hard drive partitioning tools available for trial download, shareware, or freeware on the Internet, but chances are you already have the tools available to partition a hard drive with you. You can partition a hard drive either through the Windows installation disk, or through DOS.
Partitioning Through Windows
Insert the Windows installer disk on the CD or DVD drive.
Proceed with the installation process until you reach the page that indicates the available disk space and partitions on the drive where you’re installing or repairing Windows.
Follow the instructions on the page to create partitions. To avoid making mistakes or creating too small or too large a partition, do your calculations on paper first before tallying them on the partition page.
Confirm all changes and proceed with the full installation process.
Partitioning Through DOS
Some people may choose to format and partition their hard drives through the FORMAT.COM command and FDISK.EXE utility in DOS, although the DOS shell is now used very infrequently even by computer experts. You should only use DOS partitioning if you’re planning to install an old version of Windows into a hard drive, or if the Windows partitioning tool (or a third-party disk partitioning tool) fails.
Whether it’s an old drive or a new high-capacity disk, partitioning a hard drive can help you manage all the data you will install and store on your computer.