A program to resize your hard drive. The best programs for partitioning (partitioning) a hard drive

Partitioning the hard drive into several partitions– a necessary procedure that will allow you to be sure that in case of problems with the system and the need, your personal and important information will remain safe.
There must be at least two logical partitions. Of course, more can be done. For example, create three partitions, leave one for Windows and programs, second use for personal information, and make the third a spare one and store the most important information there.

In this case, if there are any problems with the system, you can easily install it without touching the partition with the necessary files.

Partitioning hard drives using standard Windows tools

This is the easiest way for those who don’t want to search for, download and install special software.

The built-in separation utility is available in all versions from XP to Windows 10. You can find it in two ways:

Press the Win+R combination on your keyboard and enter the command discmgmt.msc in the window that opens, then click Enter.
Go to menu "Start", then "Control Panel" – "Administration" — .
In the dialog box that opens, select the menu on the left side "Disk Management". From the displayed drives, select the one you want to split. Next, open the context menu and find .
In the new window you should indicate the number of megabytes for the partition to be created (in megabytes) and click "Compress".

Now the new area will be reflected in green. This means that she is still completely free and independent. In order to turn it into a hard disk partition, you need to call the context menu and select "Create Simple Volume".

After all this, the system will guide you through a few simple steps, where you need to specify the maximum partition size, assign a new letter to it, select a file system, and so on.

Programs for partitioning local disk on Windows 10

One of the most powerful and popular utilities that does its job perfectly. Its only downside You can name a countless number of functions that a simple user simply does not need; they can simply get confused.
But if you look at it, then The disk partitioning process may seem even easier than in Windows. To do this, you need to find the hard drive in the program window, select it and click “Resize volume” in the left menu.

Now, move the slider to specify the size of the new partition. Next you can see a new unallocated area “Not occupied”. By clicking on it and selecting “ Create Volume", you will be taken to a setup wizard that will walk you through all the steps step by step.

Since the size has already been set, you will only need to specify the filename NTFS system, assign a letter to the new partition and confirm the changes.

Now the main window will show “Apply pending operations”. If you click this button, partitioning will begin.

The functionality of this program is very similar to Acronis. Here at the very beginning you also need to select “ Creating a section", then select the hard drive to work with and Use the slider to indicate the desired size of the new partition. In the same window, you should check that the file system is NTFS and the drive letter does not match the existing ones. After that, we check the changes, confirm them and wait until the utility completes the physical changes on the hard drive.
When she finishes, the newly created partition can be seen next to the usual drives and D.

From time to time, users want to redistribute free space on their hard drive. This happens in cases where, for example, one has already run out of space, while the other still has quite a lot of it. To divide free space without any problems, it is recommended to look at special editing software. In principle, you can try to do all the work using standard Windows tools, but it is better to use software that was developed specifically for these purposes. Although there are many different applications that you can download, we will describe only a few of them that have gained immense popularity.

One of the best is undoubtedly a hard drive partitioning program called Partition Magic. The software boasts many positive qualities and advantages, among which are a convenient and intuitive interface, as well as rich functionality. Its capabilities are very great, it can move information, change, merge, delete, as well as create new sections.

Among other things, the free Partition Magic program is designed to work with all known file systems, including NTFS, FAT and FAT32. You will be able to convert one system to another without losing data. In general, if you need a high-quality and useful one that will quickly cope with any tasks related to working with hard drives, then you should definitely study Partition Magic - you will really like the software.

Also called Paragon Partiton Manager. The software is distinguished by its high speed of performing all separation operations. At the same time, its functionality allows you to convert file systems, solve loading problems, and backup individual files and entire disks. Unfortunately, it can only be installed on Windows, which forces all other users to find an alternative.

Finally, let's talk about the cool Acronis Disk Director utility - a full-fledged software package that includes a large number of important components - a partition manager for moving, copying, deleting, merging. In addition, if installed, users will be able to recover partitions on the hard drive if they were lost as a result of a system failure.

To work with hard disk partitions (dividing into partitions or combining them into one), the Windows 10 operating system has a built-in utility “ Disk management" Its use, in my opinion, is preferable to installing any third-party tools. You can read how to split a hard drive using Ten’s own means or, conversely, combine its partitions in separate articles on this site: divide And combine. But sometimes situations arise when it is quite difficult to do without third-party tools.

This article was written in response to questions from site readers who had problems dividing a hard drive or merging its volumes. The Disk Management utility built into Windows 10, despite all its advantages, has its drawbacks: sometimes it does not allow you to create a partition of the required size, sometimes it does not allow you to split your hard drive at all, sometimes it is not possible to combine the necessary volumes into one. In these problematic situations (and only in them!) I recommend using a third-party one, even if free program for managing hard disk partitions in the "top ten". It is worth remembering that using any third-party tool to manage the operating system can be potentially dangerous. I am not inclined to dramatize the situation, but I believe that I am obliged to warn about it, even if the probability of possible problems is one chance in ten thousand. Therefore, whenever possible, it is better to still use the Disk Management utility built into Windows 10, developed by Microsoft.

When I was preparing this article, I spent several hours of time to find a truly completely free, reliable and reputable program for dividing a hard drive into partitions(or their combinations). There are a lot of outright lies and dubious programs of unknown origin in this area. A separate point in my search was the question that the software found should not only free, but also had a Russian-language interface and it also turned out completely compatible with Windows 10. The last question is far from idle - the fact is that on the Internet you can find information about how some disk partitioning programs created for Windows 7 or 8 ruined the hard drives of Windows 10 users.

So, as a result of a long and thorough search, I finally found and tried the program myself AOMEI Partition Assistant. In general, its full version, the Professional Edition, costs from $59 and much more. But don’t let this scare you, because the functionality of its free Standard Edition branch is quite enough to:

Divide the hard drive into partitions
Merge hard drive volumes into one partition

In general, the presence of a paid version speaks only in favor of this software. After all, this indicates the seriousness of the intentions of its authors. Those who create programs for money probably make decent solutions for free, albeit with somewhat limited functionality (especially since it’s quite enough for us). Another proof of the authority of AOMEI Partition Assistant, in my opinion, is the presence of an article about it in Wikipedia. By the way, if you doubt the reliability and safety of a particular program, always check through a search engine whether Wikipedia writes about it. This, of course, is not a 100% guarantee, but still, since this electronic encyclopedia strives for maximum objectivity, in articles about software there you can find information about the possible “pitfalls” of a particular program. It is there, on Wikipedia, that it is better to take a link to the official website of the program. The fact is that the first places in search engines are often not the official websites of certain programs.

On the official site AOMEI Tech I found it right away section dedicated to the Partition Assistant program. Let's go down a little on this page to the second screen. There, to download the free version of the program we need to manage the hard drive, we find the item Partition Assistant Standard Edition and (of course) click “Download”. Don’t be alarmed that the site is in English; the program itself has an official Russian localization. Please note that there are several options for downloading this program for different needs on the page - for free home use, choose the version Standard Edition.

The installation process of the program is not at all complicated. First, you are asked to select a language, then traditionally accept the usage agreement, and, if necessary, select the folder where the program will be stored - that’s basically all. After installation, the program will automatically launch if you leave the “Run this program” checkbox at the last stage.

I will not consider all options for using AOMEI Partition Assistant to manage a hard drive. I will only examine in detail the question of how this can free program to split your hard drive into several partitions in Windows 10. Everything else (including merging volumes) is done by analogy.

Dividing a hard drive into partitions using the free AOMEI Partition Assistant program in Windows 10

When the program starts, all the physical hard drives installed on your computer or laptop, as well as the partitions that exist on them, will be displayed at the bottom. In order to divide a disk into several volumes, you first need to “pinch off” a piece of space from an existing partition. To do this, stand on the donor volume and, right-clicking on it, select “ Resize partition».

A new window will appear in which you need to specify what size you want to leave the existing volume. All remaining space will be freed up for the new partition. I left the C drive with 150 GB. Click OK.

Now we see that we have free space labeled " Unoccupied" We need to create a new partition (volume) on it. To do this, right-click on it again and select the item “ Creating a section».

The pop-up window appears again. We leave everything in it as default and click OK.

After this, a new section will appear on the program screen. It would seem that you can rejoice. But it was not there. Turns out, no changes have been made to the hard drive itself yet! For the operation to be completed, you need to click the button at the top. Apply».

Typically, you will need to restart your computer to complete the operation. This is exactly what the new window in the AOMEI Partition Assistant program tells us. Click “Go” on it. It is better to leave the checkbox next to the “Check partitions before execution” item. This will allow the program to check the partitions for errors before dividing.

After this, a new window will appear again warning you to restart your computer. We agree and click “Yes”.

After the reboot, the actual physical division of the hard drive into two partitions begins. It occurs before the Windows 10 operating system boots in PreOS mode.

Personally, this process took me only a couple of minutes. Most likely, the fact is that on the shared hard drive I had nothing except the clean installed Windows 10 and several programs. Therefore, it did not take much time to move files. If the computer is weak and there is a lot of information on the disk, then the division process may take much longer. My computer rebooted twice and then started up normally. After that, a new section appeared in Explorer, and the existing one became smaller.

Let me remind you that, by analogy with this instruction in Windows 10, using the free AOMEI Partition Assistant program, you can combine hard drive partitions.

I foresee a question from some meticulous readers of my site about why I reviewed only one free program for managing hard drive partitions on a “ten”. Will explain. The fact is that the rest of the programs I studied did not suit me for various reasons: some of them did not have the Russian language (and for many this is important), others had too much functionality in the free version, others raised doubts about the plan security for the operating system and compatibility with Windows 10. In addition, I absolutely see no point in looking for something else to solve fairly rare problems. I believe that the software reviewed copes with the assigned tasks with a bang and has undoubted advantages over all other free programs that I have studied. So why then bother yourself and others with unnecessary information?)

Key Features

resizing hard drive partitions;
formatting/deleting/creating/copying logical and primary partitions;
converting the FAT file system to NTFS;
hard drive cloning;
visual viewing of data;
converting a dynamic disk to a basic one;
hard drive performance testing;
hide/show/set active partition;
changing the assigned letter.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

free distribution;
performing all basic actions with disk volumes;
internal data security system;
work with traditional and new types of disks;
professional testing tools;
support for working with RAID arrays.

Flaws:

blocking certain functions;
lack of support for dynamic disks;
English menu.

Paragon Partition Manager. Free software product for hard drive management. It can change partition structure, size, defragment and search for bad sectors. Supports any media models.

Partition Magic. A free program for partitioning a hard drive into partitions and managing their structure. It can perform scheduled backups, create volumes, merge them into one or split them, and resize them.

Work principles

After starting the program, its working window will open with the disk selected by default:

Working window

The sidebar is divided into sections. At the top there are buttons for managing current tasks. Below is the Wizards section with three wizards for copying and restoring. If you select a specific volume, the list of available operations will expand.

Operations on the selected volume

You can format, delete, copy, move, expand volumes, set headers, check the integrity of a partition, view its properties, and much more. etc.

If you need to increase, for example, the size of drive C by reducing other volumes, use the “Extend Partition” tool, which performs expansion.

Changing the disk size

Select the drive, activate the tool and configure the settings in the window that opens. Then click “Ok”, after which new scheduled operations will appear

To create a new partition, select the area with the gray stripe (“Unallocated”), and then activate the “Create Partition” tool.

Saving changes

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a convenient program for performing various operations with the hard drive.