For any partition management work, there are many free third-party tools available, but Windows includes a pretty good Disk Management Tool that should suffice you for most of your disk management work like partitioning, formatting, merging, etc. The Windows 11 and Windows 10 built-in Disk Management Tool also allows you to re-size the disk, create a partition, etc., if you have enough free space on your system drive.
Disk Management Tool in Windows 11/10
Before you start, I recommended you back up your data to a safe place. You might want to also read up on the difference between Partition, Volume and Logical Drive. Next, you need to access the Computer Management tool first. So, press Win+X simultaneously to bring up the Power Tasks Menu and from the options displayed choose Computer Management.
This will display Computer Management. The Computer Management section is a collection of Windows administrative tools that you can use to perform your computer-management tasks. The option also appears in the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel.
In Computer Management, you will find the Storage option. Under it, you will notice ‘Disk Management.’ Click on it. Alternatively, you may simply type “partition’ in Settings search and hit Enter to open the Disk Management Tool.
Resize, Extend Partition, Shrink, Delete Partition using Disk Management Tool
Once you have clicked it open all the disks with their volume will be displayed in the small window.
Select a disk for creating a new one. Right-click on it. You will see various options like:
- Change Drive Letter and Paths
- Format
- Extend Volume
- Shrink Volume
- Add Mirror
- Delete Volume
Read: How to delete a Partition or Volume.
Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows
Let us as an example say that you want to create a new volume or partition. So to do this, first select ‘Shrink Volume’.
Then, wait for some time while Windows check the amount of space available for Shrink. Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB and hit ‘Shrink’. Once you hit the button, you will observe some free space created. Check out the screenshot below.
Now, right-click on the free-space created and choose the first option ‘New Simple Volume’.
Then, select the amount of space you would like to allocate to the free space and click ‘Next’.
Now, assign a drive letter to your partition and move to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
If you would like to store data on this partition, you will have to partition it first. So, format the partition with NTFS.
After the formatting process has been completed successfully, you can see a new partition created in your Windows Explorer.
Using this inbuilt Disk Management Tool in Windows 11/10/8/7, you can similarly create a partition, extend a partition, shrink a partition and do more very easily.
TIPS:
- See this post if your Extend Volume option is grayed out.
- Learn how to use Unallocated Drive Space in Windows 11
- Learn how to resize a partition in Windows using DiskPart.
seems quite the same as windows 7
i am getting error when i create new volume from free space please help me
You must be working in a parallel dimension because none of is available. Oh I can get to Computer Management (windows 8) not as you suggest Setting/search typing in “partition” Secondly all or most of those feature I need to use are grayed out. I’m guessing for some bloody reason I’m not seen as an administrator, but it’s only a guess
When i create new simple volume from free space (97 GB), it get error that “there is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation.Please help me to save my Disk of 97 GB.
There could be two possible solutions for this issue: As the disk pre-configured by OEM may have conflicts with disk management tool in Windows, you should try some 3rd party tool to repartition the disk. You may try to delete a less important partition created already and merge the space together to create a new partition with proper drive letter. See https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-management-tool-windows
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Why the Extend Volume option is hidden????
If it is not possible for Windows to extend the Volume, it will be grayed out.
only if the free space is near to the drive you wish to extend, the option can be selected. If ithere are any drives in between, it will be hidden.
on one hand,disk management is a perfect tool, but on the other hand, its has some limitations, for example, the extend volume is only available when there is unallocated space adjacent to the partition, otherwise the extend volume will gray out. furthermore, you can not move partition with disk management. how can do to extend system partition? i have been troubled by then same problem. but i surfed on internet and fond a free third-party software to solve the problem. aomei partition assistant.
more detail information:
http://www.disk-partition.com/windows-8/change-partition-size-windows-8.html
hope can help the guys who needed it.
how to marge to dynamic disk ?
i wan to create first extended then 2 logical partition in it after that primary partition
http://samcrew.com this is my site and this is consists of many amazing tricks :p
I have a windows 7 laptop. I didn’t know there was a WIN key, what does one look like? Thank you
i have a 2TB external hard disk which is not getting detected by my computer.So, what should i do now to get it detected?
Windows was unable to comlete the format Removable Disk K: