How to efficiently partition your hard drive in Windows 11

Good data organization on the hard drive involves using at least two partitions. This guide shows you how to divide a hard drive into smaller, virtual parts in Windows 11.

Whether the computer is used for personal or business purposes, it’s a good habit to have at least 2, preferably 3, partitions if the hard drive capacity allows it. Such a scheme provides the convenience of managing and organizing data within the storage.

For example, the first partition can be the system partition, the second is dedicated to software, and the third is for storing essential documents or multimedia. By using such a partition layout, the user does not lose the software or valuable files in the event of an operating system failure. Data damage on one of the partitions does not affect files stored on another partition.

A partition is a designated part of a hard drive that acts like a separate logical unit. It allows for data organization, installing different operating systems, and better disk space management.

Each partition can have different file systems, designations, and names, which affects how data is stored and accessed. In the Windows system, each partition appears as a separate disk and can be used as such; for example, formatting one does not result in data loss on the others.

External software is not required to partition a hard drive in Windows 11. Before starting, it’s a good idea to plan this operation well, including making a backup of your data, to avoid losing access to important files in case of failure.

We start partitioning the drive by launching the Disk Management tool. To do this, press the key combination Win + R, type diskmgmt. msc in the text box of the Run tool, and then click OK. You can achieve the same result by right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting the Disk Management option.

To partition the drive, you first need to shrink the size of the existing drive. To do this, right-click on it and select the Shrink Volume option from the menu. Then, in the window that appears, enter the appropriate value in the field labeled Enter the amount of space to shrink (in MB) and confirm by clicking the Shrink button.

In the next step, right-click the Unallocated section and select the New Simple Volume... option. The new partition creation wizard will start. Follow the instructions on the screen to define the partition size, its designation in the system, the file system, etc., and then confirm by clicking Finish.

There are many methods and solutions for partitioning a drive in Windows 11, and using the Disk Management tool is one of the simplest. Creating new partitions can also be successfully done using applications such as AOMEI Partition Assistant and MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.