How to split a disk? A manual for a novice PC user

How to split a disk? This question is asked by many novice PC users, and not only. This can interest and experienced people who have never had to break discs.

To solve this problem, there are two ways, which depend only on the operating system installed on the computer. The first is to use a third-party program, the second is to resort to the means of the system with which you can break up the disks. If you use Windows XP, then the first method suits you, since this operating system was developed in 2003, and this function has not yet been implemented in the OS. The second method is intended for users of Windows 7, as the utility for partitioning the disk is integrated into this system.

So, let's take a closer look at the first method. How to split a disk using a standalone application? For this we need to download Acronis Disk Director, with which we will work.

Having opened the main window of the program, we will see a single disk C, from which we get two disks: C and D.

Let's say it has a size of 500 GB, of which 100 GB is occupied. In the left part of the window, we'll see the "Actions and Tools" section, where the "Change volume size" item is located. Select it by double-clicking the mouse, previously selecting drive C. The program asks how to split. The disk, as mentioned above, has free space. Now change its size to several hundred gigabytes. How much you reduce it, so much will be your place on the new disk D. Let's leave the C drive, for example, 200 GB. Having received the unallocated space, we press "Apply pending operations", and the new disk will be created later. The program will prompt you to restart the computer, we agree.

After reboot, open Acronis Disk Director again, select the unallocated space and click on it with the right mouse button. In the menu that appears, we find an item called "Create volume". Choose "Basic". Specifying an unoccupied space, select the letter for the future volume. It may happen that the desired letter D is occupied, for example, by a DVD drive. In this case, assign any other letter you like. Click "Apply pending operations". After waiting a little, we will see that the conversion is completed successfully. Now you know how to split a disk into XP.

But what if you use Windows 7? You can use the first method, but why bother to download and install additional software, if the necessary function is already built into the operating system?

First we press the "Start" button. After seeing the inscription "Computer" on the right side of the menu, right-click on it and select "Management". In the window that opens, go to the "Disk Management" section . Remember that the countdown drives from scratch. In this system utility, you can divide a disk into an unlimited number of partitions, delete, compress and attach volumes, and also increase in size those that already exist. As you can see, the built-in program is in no way inferior to professional solutions. Now we need to split the disk 0. Right-click on it and select the "Compress Volume" context menu item . Pay attention to the "Total size after compression." Adjust it so that it was around 150-200 GB. It's easy to understand that the size of the new disk will mean "The size of the compressed space", and the C drive will be equal to "The total size after compression".

After you have decided on the dimensions, click "Compress". After waiting a little,
Get an unallocated space and right-click on it. In the opened context menu we find "Create a simple volume". Click "Next", select the letter, format it into NTFS, click "Finish". After a while we get a new volume.

Now you know how to split a disc in Windows XP and Windows 7.