Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Create and delete partitions

Every hard disk must be partitioned before it can be used, even if that disk only gets a single partition. Here's how to prepare a brand-new hard disk.

First, open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc). If you see the Initialize Disk window at this or any point, select MBR (Master Boot Record) and click OK. Next, make sure the Graphical View, shown by default in the lower pane, is completely visible. Enlarge the pane and the window if necessary to see all your drives.

To create a new partition, right-click a region of your new disk marked Unallocated, and select New Simple Volume. The steps in the New Simple Volume Wizard are pretty self-explanatory, and basically involve dialing in a size for the new partition (use the maximum if you want to use the whole drive), choosing a drive letter, and picking a filesystem (choose NTFS, as described in "Choose the Right Filesystem" earlier in this tutorial).

Or, to delete an existing partition, right-click the partition and select Delete Volume.

If you delete a partition, all the data on that volume will be permanently lost. This happens immediately, and there is no undo. Data on other partitions of the same physical drive won't be affected. If you wish to make a partition smaller or larger without erasing the data, see the next section "Resize and move partitions".

In most cases, newly created or deleted partitions will appear (or disappear) in Windows Explorer immediately.