by Tina Gasperson
A partition is a special separate place on your hard drive that has its own drive letter – if you only have one partition on your hard drive, then it is probably called C:, or the C drive. It’s handy sometimes to make a new partition on your hard drive – especially if you want to install a separate operating system such as Linux, or an older version of Windows. Another reason to partition your hard drive is to keep your data separate from your applications. That way if you need to reinstall your apps or your operating system, you won’t need to do anything with your data, since a partition is seen by the computer as a separate hard drive.
Making a new partition from the free space on your hard drive is not hard to do but you will need special software. Windows XP has built-in partition management functionality but you have to already have unallocated space in order to use it, and you probably don’t have that if you’ve never partitioned your hard drive before. Unallocated space is not the same as free space – the free space on your hard drive is already allocated to the primary partition. Unallocated space is not usable because it exists outside of the partition.
To create a new partition on your hard drive, download the Cute Partition application and burn it to a CD. Boot the CD and follow the instructions to separate out some of the free space on your hard drive and remove it from the current partition, then create a new partition with this unallocated space. Cute Partition manager helps you assign a drive letter to your new partition and format it so that Windows XP will recognize it and you’ll be able to access it from “My Computer.”
Once your new partition is set up, you can save files and applications onto it just as you do on your original “C drive” partition, but the data will be completely separate from that partition.
Tina Gasperson (tinahdee@gmail.com), affectionately known as Computer Lady by her family, has been writing about IT, home computing, and the Internet for more than a decade.
{ 4 comments }
Or why not just use Easus Partition Manager which is free for the personal edition and does is all without having to do any burning!
http://easeus-partition-manager.en.softonic.com/
I have used this several times and have never had a problem using it in XP
HEPL Please! I’ve downloaded cute Partition,There are no instructions,Gone to help none there either,How do I create unallocated space,then a 35GB partition???
Here’s a Partition Magic clone that has even been updated for Vista and Windows 7, free for personal or business use. Partition Wizard – Free partitioning utility.http://www.PartitionWizard.com.
Can any one suggest how can i partition a free space of 43 GB to logical drives.. as my computer is having 80 GB hard disk and after formatting 3 drives ( 1 c drive which is primary ) and 2 other drives which are logical drives out of total 4 drives. I’m only able to 2 drives one is primary and other is 4rth drive which i haven’t formatted and rest 43 GB space is not visible. so how can I can convert that free space to unallocated. Is there any way without using these software’s?
kindly reply on my email id also:
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