How to Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions in Windows 111087?

• Necessary to create and format hard disk
• Create and format hard disk partition via CMD
• Create and format hard disk partition via Disk Management
• Create and format hard disk partition via free partition software (Recommended)
• Summary

The necessity to create and format hard disk

A new hard disk inserted into your computer will display as “unallocated” space in Disk Managementand be invisible in File Explorer. To make it visible and available for data storagewe have to first initialize the disk to MBR or GPTthen create at least one partition on it and format it to a file system (NTFSFAT32exFATetc) that is compatible with your current operating system.

Sometimesit is necessary to create more than one partition on a hard diskespecially when you have a large hard drive. Creating a separate partition for your system files is also a great way to protect system data from sudden corruption since each partition will have its own file system. In this articlewe will show how to create and format partition by CMDDisk Management and 3rd party partition manager. Read on to get more details.

Create and format hard disk partition via CMD

First of allwe will show how to create and format hard drive partition in Command Prompt. You can manage disk partition by running the corresponding commands.

Firstpress the "Windows key+R" on your keyboard to open the "Run" tool. Type “cmd” and press “OK” to open Command Prompt window. Then type in “diskpart” and hit Enter to launch DiskPart.exe tool. And follow the instructions to create and format hard disk partition.

To create a partitionyou have to ensure there is unallocated space on your hard disk. If there is notyou can shrink another partition to get one.

Step 1. Type in “list disk” and press on "Enter”.

Step 2. Type in “select disk ” and press on “Enter”.

Step 3. Type in “create partition primary” and press on “Enter”

This command will create a primary partition with all unallocated space. If you want to create a smaller partitionyou can input “create partition primary size=n” to create a partition with a specific size. You can also replace primary with extended or logical to create an extended or logical partition.

To format a hard disk partition via CMDyou just execute the following commands:

• list disk

• select disk #

• list partition

• select partition #

• format fs=fat32 quick

You can replace fat32 with ntfs or exfat if necessary. You have to note that Diskpart cannot format a large partition that is over 32GB to FAT32.

Create and format hard disk partition via Disk Management

Apart from running commands to create and format partitionyou can also make use of Windows built-in Disk Management. First of allenter the Disk Management: press the Windows key+R on your keyboard to open the Run tool. Type “diskmgmt.msc” and press “OK”.

To create a partition in Disk Management also requires unallocated spaceso you might need to shrink another partition to get one when necessary. The specific steps:

Step 1. Right-click the partition you need shrink and choose “Shrink Volume”.

Step 2. In the pop-out windowenter the amount of the space to shrink and click on “Shrink”.

Step 3. When it is doneyou will get an unallocated space.

Step 4. Right-click the unallocated spaceselect “New Simple Volume” and follow the wizard to create a new partition. In the processyou will be asked to format this new partition to a specific file system.

To format a hard disk partition to another different file system in Disk Managementyou just right-click the target partitionselect the “Format Partition” optionchoose the proper file system and click on “Format”. Usuallythere are NTFS and FAT32 file systems for you to select on an internal hard disk. For an external hard diskthe exFAT is also available in the file system list.

Notes:
①Disk Management does not allow you to create an 32GB+ FAT32 partitionor format an 32GB+ partition to FAT32 file system due to the FAT32 partition size limit.
②Disk Management cannot format an internal hard drive to exFAT file systemwhich is optimized for flash memory such as USB flash drives and SD cards.

Create and format hard disk partition via free partition software (Recommended)

Using CMD and Disk Management to create and format hard disk partition suffers some limitations as we mentioned above. One of the most significant restrictions is that you cannot create and format a large partition over 32GB as FAT32 file system. To get around such troubleshere we also bring a free yet powerful partition management software named AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

This freeware can directly create a new partition from an existing partitionjust like splitting a partition into two. Besidesit can format a large drive (at most 2TB) to FAT32format a partition on an internal hard disk to exFATas well as format a partition to Ext4/Ext3/Ext2 Linux file systems. Much more advanced than Windows native Command-Line and Disk Management. Now you can download the freeware and check out the following guides.

▌Part 1. Create a partition from an existing partition

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click the partition like C drive and select “Create Partition”.

Step 2. Nextspecify the size for creating a new partition. And you can add a partition label to itset a file system and create it as a primary or logical partition.

Step 3. Click on “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

▌Part 2: Format disk partition flexibly

In this partwe mainly demonstrate how to format a large partition to FAT32 step by step.

Step 1. Right-click the large partition and select “Format Partition”.

Step 2. In the windowselect “FAT32” file system. You can see the “Ext2Ext3Ext4NTFS and exFAT” file systems are also available for your selection.

Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the pending operation.

Summary

On this pagewe have explained how to create and format hard disk partition via CMDDisk Managementand free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Now you can choose one according to your specific situation and requirements. The AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can also do many other disk partition operations that CMD and Disk Management cannot dosuch as: clone partitionclone hard diskmove partitionwipe partitiontransfer OS to SSDconvert disk to MBR and GPT without deleting partitionsetc. For enjoying more advanced functionsyou can upgrade to the Professional edition.