At present, it is rather difficult to imagine a person who is not in old age and does not own a computer. Any user sooner or later raises the question of how to split the hard drive, due primarily to the fact that the system may require reinstallation, but I would like the various files, including media files, to remain safe and sound.
The need for these actions
In addition to the file saving listed above when reinstalling the system, these actions are necessary for faster full scan of partitions with antivirus and anti-spyware programs, as well as for faster scanning of partition surfaces and their defragmentation. Also, according to some users, the creation of several virtual volumes contributes to the fact that the performance of the OS increases. Such a need may arise if several systems are used on the same drive.
Partition Device
Each physical disk can be divided into several logical or virtual volumes. How to share a hard drive on Windows will be discussed in this article.
On each section you create, you can make your own FS. Information about the new logical volume is placed in the partition table. In the first sector, owned by a physical hard drive, is located MBR - the main boot record. In it, 64 bytes are allocated for each virtual partition, 16 bytes are allocated for one record, that is, only 4 logical volumes can be made on one physical disk. This limit can be bypassed with the help of special programs.
Using Windows Firmware
More recently, this OS did not provide the user with any tools to carry out these actions. However, at present, when posing the question of how to split a hard drive on Windows 10, as well as on versions 7-8, we can already say that you can not use third-party programs. These versions already contain applications that allow breaking the hard drive into various sections.
When dividing, one must take into account that a part cannot exceed the whole. The application is launched from the command line or from the “Run” item (the “Super” (Win) + R key is the default hot combination). As a result, the "Disk Management" window opens, in which all physical volumes, as well as virtual partitions, are displayed if they have ever been created before and if they are supported by the OS in question.
You can get into it in another way: go to the “Administration” item located in the “System and Security” control panel, and go there to “Create and format partitions”.
If you have a question about how to split the hard drive, you first need to decide on the volume that will undergo this procedure. In the context menu, select Compress Volume. The program will give information about the total disk size, available space for compression. Enter the size that we are going to compress, and click on the button of the same name.
The “Unallocated” label will be displayed here. On it, select "Create a simple volume" in the context menu. If it is planned to create one additional section, its size will be the same as it was previously released. If several of them are planned, then everyone needs to determine their volume.
In the next step, when answering the question of how to split the hard drive into Windows, you need to select the appropriate partition letter and its file system. After all the performed actions are confirmed, new partitions will be created and will appear after the OS reboot.
However, it is no longer possible to merge the divided partitions into one again using this program.
Partitioning a disk during OS installation
If you bought a device without a preinstalled OS, then during the installation process, the user is prompted to select the drive intended for installation. How to split a hard disk into parts in this case? You need to click on “Disk Settings”, select the volume, click “Delete” (it has not been used yet, so there is nothing wrong with deleting it), and then on “Create”. In the window that appears, enter the size that we need. If you need to create another section, repeat the steps on the second button.
Winchester sharing using third-party applications
Experienced users when they ask how to split the hard drive try not to use the tools provided by the OS itself, but third-party applications. For the most part, these programs not only allow you to split the disk into separate partitions, but also then combine them into one volume. There are various modifications: both paid and free. Consider some of this list.
AOMEI Partition Assistant
This application is Russified and free. Using this program, it is easy enough to answer the question of how to divide the hard drive by 2. To do this, click on the physical volume, and then select "Partition partition" in the context menu. In the dialog box, enter the dimensions of the new section.
You can enter it from the keyboard or, moving the slider, observe the size dynamics at the bottom. We confirm the changes made, after which the application crashes the disk. Changes in the OS will appear after a reboot.
Acronis disk director
This application is proprietary, that is, commercial, with closed source code. Using this program allows you to answer the question of how to split a hard drive without loss. Actions to separate the hard drive can be carried out in two modes:
Despite the apparent simplicity of automatism, it is easier to use the first mode.
We select a disk on which we are going to organize several virtual partitions. In the context menu, select "Split Volume", indicate its size and confirm the actions performed. Here, the operations become pending. To apply them, click on the “Apply pending operations” button on the toolbar. Changes will take effect after rebooting the OS.
Paragon Partition Manager
The functionality of this application is similar to that discussed above. First, select Create partition, select the hard drive, determine the size and letter of the partition. FS must be NTFS. We confirm the pending changes and wait for the program to make the necessary changes, and then restart the OS.
Finally
In the framework of this article, various methods have been considered how to split a hard drive. This can be done using the built-in Windows 10 software, as well as using third-party software, both paid and free. Sometimes, something in a given program operation may go wrong, as a result of which all information may be destroyed, therefore, when performing such actions, you should always backup the most important files.