Creating a Partition
To Create A
Partition Or Logical Drive
Using
the Windows interface
1. Open Computer Management (Local)
2. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where? Computer Management (Local) > Storage > Disk Management
3. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click New
Partition, or right-click free space in an extended partition, and then
click New Logical Drive.
4. In the New Partition wizard, click Next, click Primary partition,
Extended partition, or Logical drive, and then follow the instructions on
your screen.
Note
To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then
double-click Computer Management.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the
Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your
computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also
prevent you from completing this procedure.
You can create primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical
drives only on basic disks You should create basic volumes instead of
dynamic volumes if this computer also runs MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows
98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows XP Home Edition.
On a master boot record (MBR) disk, you can create up to four primary
partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition.
On a GUID partition table (GPT) disk, you can create up to 128 primary
partitions.
Using a command line
1. Open Command Prompt
2. Type: diskpart
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type: list disk
Make note of the disk number of the disk on which you want to create a
primary or extended partition.
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type: select disk n
Select the disk n where you want to create the primary or extended
partition.
5. At the DISKPART prompt, type one of the following:
create partition primary [size=n] [offset=n] [ID=byte | GUID] [noerr]
o
create partition extended [size=n] [offset=n] [noerr]
or
create partition logical [size=n] [offset=n] [noerr]
Value Description
list disk
Displays a list of disks and information about them, such as their size,
amount of available free space, whether the disk is a basic or dynamic
disk, and whether the disk uses the master boot record (MBR) or GUID
partition table (GPT) partition style. The disk marked with an asterisk
(*) has focus.
select disk
Selects the specified disk, where n is the disk number, and shifts the
focus to it.
create partition primary
Creates a primary partition on the current basic disk After you create
the partition, the focus automatically shifts to the new partition. The
partition does not receive a drive letter; you must use the assign
command to assign a drive letter to the partition.
create partition extended
Creates an extended partition on the current drive. After the partition
has been created, the focus automatically shifts to the new partition.
Only one extended partition can be created per disk. This command fails
if you attempt to create an extended partition within another extended
partition. You must create an extended partition before you can create
logical drives.
create partition logical
Creates a logical drive in the extended partition. After the partition
has been created, the focus automatically shifts to the new logical
drive.
size=n
The size of the partition in megabytes (MB). If no size is given, the
partition continues until there is no more unallocated space in the
current region. The size is cylinder snapped; the size is rounded to the
closest cylinder boundary. For example, if you specify a size of 500 MB,
the partition would be rounded up to 504 MB.
offset=n
The byte offset at which to create the partition. If no offset is given,
the partition will start at the beginning of the first free space on the
disk. For master boot record (MBR) disks, the offset is cylinder snapped;
the offset is rounded to the closest cylinder boundary. For example, if
you specify an offset that is 27 MB and the cylinder size is 8 MB, the
offset is rounded to the 24 MB boundary.
ID=byte | GUID
Intended for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) use only.
Caution
Creating partitions with this parameter might cause your computer to
crash or be unable to start up. Unless you are an OEM or an IT
professional experienced with GPT disks, do not create partitions on GPT
disks using the ID=byte | GUID parameter. Instead, always use the create
partition efi command to create EFI System partitions, the create
partition msr command to create Microsoft Reserved partitions, and the
create partition primary command (without the ID=byte | GUID parameter)
to create primary partitions on GPT disks.
For MBR disks, you can specify a partition type byte for the partition.
If no partition type byte is specified on an MBR disk, the create
partition primary command creates a partition of type 0x6. Any partition
type byte can be specified with the ID=byte | GUID parameter. DiskPart
does not check the partition type byte for validity, nor does it perform
any other checking of the ID parameter.
For GPT disks you can specify a partition type GUID for the partition you
want to create:
EFI System partition: c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Microsoft reserved partition: e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
MSDATA partition: ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
LDM Metadata partition on a dynamic disk: 5808c8aa-7e8f-42e0-85d2-e1e90434cfb3
LDM Data partition on a dynamic disk:
af9b60a0-1431-4f62-bc68-3311714a69ad
If no partition type GUID is specified, the create partition primary
command creates an MSDATA partition. Any partition type can be specified
with the ID=byte | GUID parameter. DiskPart does not check the partition
GUID for validity, nor does it perform any other checking of the ID
parameter.
noerr
For scripting only. When an error is encountered, specifies that DiskPart
continues to process commands as if the error did not occur. Without the
noerr parameter, an error causes DiskPart to exit with an error code.
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Note
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the
Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your
computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also
prevent you from completing this procedure.
To open command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
You can create primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical
drives only on basic disks You should create basic volumes instead of
dynamic volumes if this computer also runs MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows
98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows XP Home Edition.
On a master boot record (MBR) disk, you can create up to four primary
partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition.
On a GUID partition table (GPT) disk, you can create up to 128 primary
partitions.
You cannot create partitions on removable media using DiskPart.
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