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Partition a Hard Drive
in Windows XP!
Web Tech Support Page!
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Partition a Hard Drive in Windows XP Web Tech Support Page!
By Raymond Garcia
Web Tech Geek.com
Partition a Hard Drive in Windows XP Tech Support Page: Ok you just installed your new second hard
drive, the cables are connected and the computer ready
to start. Your computer boot-up OK, Windows XP is installed
on the C: drive (the master drive), but the new hard drive
isn't ready to use because, you need to partition and
format it first before you can use it.
When you buy a new computer, you receive
it ready for use, that is it's already partitioned (usually
one sometimes two partition) and formatted. If you are
adding new unformatted, unpartitioned Hard drive, or if
you want to create a computer system that can run more
then one operating systems, such as Windows XP and Linux
(dual
booting) - you will need to partition the hard drive
yourself.
Formatting destroys the data in the areas
of the disk it partitions, so be sure to make a backup
copy of all the information on your disk before formatting
your drive or partition it. If your installing a new second
hard drive then you don't need to backup the new drive,
but you should consider backing-up your data on the first
(master ) hard drive.
Disk Management tool -
To partition your new hard drive (the
default is NTFS), you need to use the Disk Management
tool, this is a tool straight from the old work-horse
Windows 2000. To run Disk Management Tool, click on Start,
right-click My Computer, and select Manage from the menu
that appears.
When you see the Computer Management window,
click the Disk Management item listed underneath the Storage
heading. You then see the main Disk Management pane in
the right side of the Computer Management window.
Tip: Windows XP doesn't
provide a way to resize partitions later, but you can
use a third-party program like PartitionMagic
to do so.
Tip: Before working with
partitions and drives, be sure to back up the important
files on your system.
Note: The Disk Management
program replaces the Fdisk program that was part of previous
versions of Windows.
The Disk Management pane of the
Computer Management window
Creating the partition:
Unallocated space appears as an Unknown Partition in the
Disk Management diagram, you can use it to create a new
partition in some or all of the space. To create your
new partition, you need to right-click on the part of
the diagram that represents the unallocated space, the
unallocated space has a black stripe running along the
top and then choose the "New Partition" on the
menu that appears. To create your new logical drive in
an extended partition that has free space
The free space has a light green strip along
the top, right-click on the free space then choose New
Logical Drive from the menu that appears. Now you will
see the New Partition Wizard.
The Partition Wizard will asks you
to specify the following:
1 The Type - Primary,
extended, or logical partition. Your hard drive can contain
up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions
and one extended partition. Choose the primary partition
if you are created a partition in which you will install
an operating system (this is unusual situation). Choose
extended if you plan to create several logical partitions
within it. The logical partition type is available only
if you choose to create the new partition in an extended
partition with some free space.
2 The Size - You may use
the entire available space, or leave room for more partitions.
The Partition Wizard will displays the minimum and maximum
size for the partition, this is based on the space where
it will be stored
3 The Drive letter or path
- Two operating system on your computer. You may select
any unused letter, but the wizard will offer the next
available drive letter. To Mount in the following empty
NTFS Folder, you need an NTFS partition with a drive letter
on the same machine. You may select the "Do Not Assign
A Drive Letter Or Drive Path" option, this will let
Windows assign a letter later, usually the default drive
letter.
4 The File
system - The default is NTFS (recommended),
but you can use FAT32 (not recommended) as well. Both
NTFS and FAT32 will efficiently utilize disk space on
large drives.
Note: NTFS has better security features,
the better recovery capabilities after a major crash,
and has file-level compression built in. NTFS will also
give you the option of enable compression.
5 The Label - Type a name
for the partition, name it something that will indicating
what you will use it for, data files, my files, fatboy
one, etc.
This
is the final screen of the New Partition Wizard, summarizing
your choices before Windows creates the partition. Formatting
a new partition can take several minutes.
Selecting the Active Partition:
If you partition your hard drive among
multiple operating systems, one of the partitions is the
active partition, the partition from which your computer
starts. If you run Windows only, the primary partition
is always active. In Windows XP you can change this behavior
manually by selecting another partition as active using
the Disk Management pane in the Computer Management window.
Right-click on the drive or the partition
that you want to make active and select Mark Partition
As Active from the menu that appears. You can only make
this change to primary partitions. Extended partitions
and logical drives cannot be made active. Only one partition
is active at a time, so make sure it's a partition that
contains a bootable operating system!
See The Tech Support Video Here! - Format and Reinstall a Clean Installation of Windows XP. Video How To - Tech Support Page.
