Just bought a new computer? Have only one drive and want more? How to partition a hard drive? or just out of space and want to get some from c drive? If any of these questions are arising in your mind then you are at the right place. In this article you will learn how to partition hard drive in windows 7/Vista and XP.

There are quite a few methods for doing this. You can partition hard drive while installing windows or by using a partition software but we will be discussing the easiest which is using windows own partition manager. Partition manager software is available by default on all windows operating system and is really easy to use. Just follow simple steps give below to partition your hard drive.

Step 1 : Open Partition Manager

On Windows 7/Windows Vista : Goto Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Create and format disk partitions

On Windows XP : Goto run and type compmgmt.msc and click run

You should be now in the partition manager and it should look something like the image given below.

Step 2 : Shrink Existing Partition

Now we need to shrink our existing partition, this means that we need to take free space from existing drive and put it into unallocated space from where we will be able to make new partition. To do this right click on the partition that you want to shrink and click on shrink. After this put in the amount of space you want to shrink and click on shrink.

Step 3 : Create New Partition

Now the space that you shrinked has gone into unallocated space, it will shown in black in the partition manager window. Right click on this and click on create new simple volume. A wizard will guide you through the process in which it will ask the amount of space you want to put in the new partition, will ask to assign a new letter and choose file format (should be NTFS) and also the name.

By now you should be able to create your new partition, if you getting any problems then let us know in the comments sections we will be happy to solve them.