How to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 7?

If you have used Windows Vista, you must be knowing about the in-built option to partition hard drives. Similar to that, Windows 7 too come with a built-in facility to create, resize and delete partitions from a HDD, which means you can shrink or extend the partitions.

The Disk Management utility is capable of shrinking and expanding partitions and it does not require any 3rd party utilities. This step-by-step tutorial helps you create, resize or delete a partition in Windows 7.

Step-by-Step Guide to Partition HDD in Windows 7

1. Go to Start -> Right Click on Computer -> Manage

2. Computer Management windows will open. Click on Storage -> Disk management

3. Select the Drive you want to partition. Right click on the drive and click on Shrink Partition.

4. It will query for the available disk space and then you will then be presented with a window showing you the Size of the Hard drive and the total amount available to Shrink. Enter in the amount you would like to shrink. This will be the size of the new partition. It can’t be more than the amount available to you and remember that Approx 1000 Mb = 1 GB

5. After entering the values, click on Shrink and wait for the operation to complete. Depending on the size of the drive and amount to shrink this could take a while. Once completed, you would see an unallocated space which is the size you just shrunk the volume by. Select it and right click and then select New Simple Volume

6. Follow the Wizard that appears and fill in the Size of the Partition. Normally the size to fill in is the size you just shrunk the drive by.
7. Assign a drive letter, pick one of your choice as it doesn’t make a difference.
8. Then on the Format page, Ensure NTFS is selected and then enter a name for your drive and click Next followed by Finish

9. That’s it! You have resized your hard disk and created a new partition without any third party software!