partition and format external hard drive windows 10

Partition and format external hard drive windows 10 how to#
Partition and format external hard drive windows 10 for windows 10#

Step 6: Follow the on-screen instructions and select the size of the volume (the default will use all unallocated space) and the drive letter. Step 5: Right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume from the resulting menu. When complete, you’ll have new unallocated space shown next to the corresponding physical drive in the bottom half of the Disk Management screen. Step 4: The process can take a minute depending on the speed of your drive. If you’re going to specify the eventual partition size, input it in megabytes in the respective field before hitting Shrink. If you’re going to use all the free space on the hard drive, click the Shrink button. Once completed, it will ask you how much of it you want to use. Step 3: Your PC will then calculate how much free space you can allocate to the new partition. Right-click and select Shrink Volume from the resulting drop-down menu. If it is an existing drive with files and your operating system installed on it, you must create some unallocated space before you can partition it. Step 2: Select the hard drive you want to partition from the list of drives available. Alternatively, use the Windows Power User menu (Windows key + X) and click Disk Management. Select Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions from the results box.

Step 1: Use the Windows search box to search for Disk Management.

Partition and format external hard drive windows 10 for windows 10#

Although the below steps are specifically for Windows 10 systems, they are also applicable to 8.1, where the process is much the same. Although some third-party applications have slightly expanded feature sets, the standard Windows tool is perfectly capable of creating new partitions. The simplest way to partition your new or existing hard drive is with Windows’ built-in Disk Management tool. We dive deeper into the differences between SSDs and hard drives in this comparison. If you’d prefer someone else to handle the backup process for you, these are the best cloud providers.Īlso, keep in mind that we’ll be using the term “hard drive” throughout this piece, but the same steps and procedures will apply to a solid-state drive as well. If you’re looking to create new volumes for making a backup, we’d still recommend you use one of the best external hard drives instead. If you follow the steps below, we’ll help take you from a single-drive system to one with as many virtual drives as you want.

Partition and format external hard drive windows 10 how to#

Fortunately, learning how to partition your hard drive using Windows 10 is quick and easy. Whether you have a new drive or want to partition an existing one, the process is much the same. If you just bought a new drive and want to split it up, you must partition it before using it.