|
 |
|
|
Published
|
: |
April 20, 2010 |
Last Updated |
: |
April 20, 2010 |
|
|
|
Introduction |
Now with Windows 7, you can for free resize a partition,
either by shrinking it or extending it. With this
feature, you can for example shrink the existing
partition from the end of the volume to create new
unallocated space that can then be used for a new
partition. Let's see how this is
done easily with Windows 7.
|
|
|
Imagine you bought a new laptop or
a new workstation, and you noticed after you booted your
machine that the system has a single partitioned hard
disk. What if you want to have multiple partitions, one
for the operating system and one for your data?

To resize and create a new
partition, follow the below steps :
-
Click on Start
button
, then right click on Computer and
click on Manage

-
From the left side pane, under
Storage , click on Disk
Management

Shrinking a Volume
-
Locate the Hard disk or
partition that you want to resize and right click on
it. For example, on my machine I want to shrink the C: partition which is
456.66 GB so that I can create a new partition.
Right click on the partition and you will see
the available options, any
option that is grayed means you can not currently
use it. For example, the C: partition is taking the
full amount of the disk size, so definitely the
option to Extend Volume will be
grayed.

To resize the partition size
and make it smaller, click on Shrink
Volume... , the system will query the
volume for available shrink space

and then will bring you a new dialog box, where it
shows you the total size of the partition before
shrinking it, the maximum permitted space that is allowed
for this partition to be shrunk by , the amount of
the space to shrink by, and the
total size of the partition after shrinking it.

Using the up/down arrows
or
typing in the textbox beside them,
enter the amount of space you want to shrink by the
partition or keep the default amount of space,
which is the maximum space that you can shrink a
partition for. Once you are done, click on the
Shrink button.
The volume will be resized and
the empty
unallocated space that can then be used for a new
partition on will be displayed as well and colored in
black.

If you opened Computer, you will see the new size of
the C: partition.

Extending a Volume
-
Now if you want to make the
partition bigger, right click on the partition and
click on Extend Volume...

On the Welcome to the Extend Volume
Wizard page, click Next

Similar to the Shrink Volume
Wizard page, the Extend Volume Wizard shows you the
total volume size in MB, maximum available space in
MB that can be used to extend to the volume, and the
amount of space in MB that is available for you to
extend the volume. Once you are done selecting the
amount of space in MB to extend the partition for,
click on Next

On the Completing the Extend Volume Wizard
page, click Finish

The volume will be extended.

Creating a new
Partition
-
To create a new partition, you will first need an
unallocated space, definitely you will have this
space when you shrink a volume as we did previously.
On an unallocated space, right click it and then click on
New Simple Volume...

On the Welcome to the New Simple Volume
Wizard page, click Next

Specify the amount of space you want to allocate
to the newly created volume, keeping the default
amount will create a new volume with the maximum
available disk space. Once set, click on Next

On the Assign Drive Letter or Path
page, assign a drive letter to the volume and click
on Next

On the Format Partition
page, choose to format the volume
with an NTFS file system ( or whatever you desire ),
type a volume label and select to perform a quick
format then click on Next

On the Completing the New Simple
Volume Wizard page, review
the selected settings and then click on Finish. If you want to make any changes,
click on Back and commit the changes then come back
to this page and click on Finish.

The new volume will be displayed along the
other volumes.

If you opened Computer, you will see the newly
created volume.

Summary
With Windows 7,
and without the need for any 3rd party
application, you can resize partitions, either shrinking
or extending them.
Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|