Would you agree that managing disk partitions takes some effort, but it’s easy once you have the right tools? In Windows, Built-in utilities usually cover partition management, so whether you are setting up a new PC, optimizing your storage, or troubleshooting disk issues, you will find the job comparatively easy.
Use Windows Built-In Tools to Manage Partitions
Using Windows, users can manage their disk partitions using two utilities without the need to download and install any additional software. These options come with Windows and give users a wide range of capabilities, such as creating, deleting, formatting, and resizing drives.
It also won’t let the whole system crash as the OS is on a separate partition with enough space to use should you manually fill up your data partition.
The cool thing is that you do not have to know much about technology to run most partition tasks. Disk Management, the graphic utility provided by Windows, is quite instrumental, as it offers both a visual interface that simplifies the process and advanced options if you are tech-savvy and comfortable with text commands in PowerShell.
Disk Management Utility
The Disk Management utility is Windows’ primary tool for handling partitions without typing commands. It offers an easy and intuitive way of visualizing your drives and their partitions, thereby helping you understand your storage layout more easily.
Here’s how to do the basic partition operations:
- Shrink a volume: Click the partition you want to reduce with your right mouse button and select Shrink Volume. This is an optional step that you may take if you want to enter less shrinkage than the system suggests. This action keeps your data unchanged while creating some space.
- Extend a volume: Click the right mouse button on the partition you desire to grow and then select Extend Volume. You may only increase your volume if there is unallocated space adjacent to the right of your partition—a tip of the iceberg that comes with all the built-in tools.
- Delete a partition: Right-click the partition and then click Delete Volume. Be very accurate that you are completely ready to erase all necessary data from that partition before you proceed.
Even if it is a good idea, Disk Management has some limits. You cannot merge non-adjacent unallocated spaces and still cannot convert to other file systems, such as NTFS or exFAT, without the use of third-party tools.
Command-Line Option
If you are a person who prefers inputting commands, then Windows gives a solution of a command-line tool named DiskPart that is super powerful. In normal mode, you do all the things that Disk Management doesn’t do from a PC console.
Open up the DiskPart command-line shell by pressing “Win + X” keys and selecting “Terminal (Admin)” from the given list. Then, you should write diskpart and confirm with Enter to run the program. Disk Management, however, uses a sequence of commands to handle the system.
Following are some DiskPart commands which can be used to manipulate partitions:
- List drives and partitions: Enter list disk to see all drives on your computer, then choose the disk (use the command select disk X, …where X is the disk number) and then execute the command list partition to verify whether there are any partitions on the chosen disk.
- Create a new partition: Start with the command create partition primary size=X (where X is the size in MB). After that, you can provide a drive letter by executing the commands assign letter%=Y (your preferred letter).
- Delete a partition: First, select the disk, then command select partition (here is partition number X), and then type delete partition. This action is irreversible, and it erases all the data on the partition without asking for your confirmation.
- Expand or reduce volumes: After choosing a volume and the respective target, use disk part functions, e.g., extend size=X or shrink desired=X (X is the size in MB).
The DiskPart utility of scripting is mainly used for batch operations and is used repeatedly on multiple computers, but the worry is that it’s easy to mess it up as a starter. So far, the best thing is to remain silent with the Graphic interface on Disk Management mode.
