How to Partition NTFS Hard Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7

When you need to partition NTFS hard drive out of certain reasons, you can apply Disk Management or third party hard drive partition software – AOMEI Partition Assistant.

By Bryce / Last Updated January 7, 2021

About NTFS

NTFS (New Technology File System) is a modern file system, applied by the Windows NT operating system and its advanced versions. Compared with the earlier FAT file system, NTFS has advantages in performance, extensibility, and reliability, which owns various functions like file/folder/partition compression and encryption, etc. Partition beyond 2TB is allowed on NTFS drive and file over 4GB in size can be stored on NTFS drive.

Why partition NTFS hard drive?

In general, your hard drive has only one partition, made by computer manufactures. To protect data and facilitate data management, you may need more partitions on your disk. For instance, if there is one partition, your operating system, programs, and data will be stored in one partition. If there are two or more partitions, you can separate them, so that you can reinstall system and keep data stored in other partitions if your OS is damaged or crashed.

Partition NTFS drive with Disk Management in Windows

It’s simple to partition NTFS hard drive via Disk Management, a Windows built-in tool that offers useful functions like extending, shrinking, deleting, and creating volume, etc. Take a closer look at how to make use of Disk Management.

1. Open Disk Management by pressing Windows + R simultaneously, inputting “diskmgmt.msc” and hitting Enter key.

2. Locate the NTFS hard drive that you need to partition, right click a partition on it and choose “Shrink Volume”.

3. In the small pop-up window, determine the amount of space to shrink and click “Shrink”.

4. You can get an unallocated space behind the partition that you have shrunk. Right-click the unallocated space and choose “New Simple Volume”.

5. Here you open New Simple Volume Wizard, click “Next”.

6. Specify volume size and click “Next”. Then, assign drive letter to it and click “Next”.

7. In the Format Partition window, set the file system to NTFS of the new volume and click “Next”.

PS.: During this process, it is available to adjust cluster size of this new volume on the hard drive.

Then, click Finish. Within a few seconds, an NTFS partition has been created.

Partition NTFS drive via free hard drive partition tool

Obviously, Disk Management can help you to partition your NTFS hard drive easily and quickly. However, it also is with some defects. Take an example, you’ll find the “Extend Volume” is grayed out when there is no unallocated space just behind the partition that needs extending. At this time, third-party reliable and powerful hard drive partition software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard will be a great choice.

Apart from basic features like shrinking and extending partition, AOMEI Partition Assistant is featured with more functions like merging partition, moving partition, and so on. It is with a user-friendly interface so that it can be handled even by green hand in computer. It is specially designed for Windows system, thus you can use it in different Windows systems including Windows 10/8/7, XP, and Vista.

To partition NTFS formatted hard drive, free download AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard at first. Then, follow the steps listed below:

вњ” Create NTFS partition on hard drive

Step 1. Install and run it. Find the NTFS hard drive that needs partitioning, right-click a partition (Here is F drive) on it, and choose “Resize Partition”.

Step 2. Shrink partition by drag the slider bar leftwards to get unallocated space and click “OK”.

Step 3. Here you can see there is unallocated space behind F drive. Right-click the unallocated space and choose “Create Partition”.

Step 4. You can adjust partition size by dragging the slider bar. Then assign a drive letter and set file system for the new partition. Then, click on “OK” button.

PS.: If you specify the drive letter as “None”, the partition will showing up in File Explorer.

Step 5. In the main interface, preview pending operating and click “Apply” > “Proceed” to perform.

Note: It is allowed to split partition to get new partition via AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

вњ” Extend NTFS partition on hard drive

Step 1. Get unallocated space by shrinking one partition on the hard drive you need to partition. If there is unallocated space, skip this step.

Step 2. Right-click the NTFS partition that you’ll extend (here is C drive) and choose “Merge Partitions”.

Step 3. Tick box before “Unallocated” and click “OK”.

Step 4. You’ll return to the main interface, confirm your operation and click “Apply” > “Proceed” to execute it.

вњЌ Notes:
✔ You can also apply “Move Partition” and “Resize Partition” function to extend NTFS partition.
вњ” It is available to merge one partition into another partition and the merged partition will present as the form of folder.

Verdict

Just within a few steps, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can help you to partition NTFS hard drive flexibly and conveniently. In fact, it is able to assist you in partitioning SD card, USB flash drive, and so on. All in all, it’s worth trying this powerful hard drive partition software. And you can experience more features, like recovering deleted NTFS partition, split partition, clone system disk to GPT SSD, etc., by upgrading it to Professional version.

Hard drives and partitions

Learn methods of deploying WindowsВ to different drives, including hard drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), or virtual hard drives (VHDs), and with different partition layouts, including with data and utility partitions.

What’s new in WindowsВ 10

Use Compact OS and single-sourcing to save more space on the hard drive: Compact OS, single-sourcing, and image optimization.

Use the FFU image format to apply images faster to your devices: Deploy Windows using Full Flash Update (FFU)

In WindowsВ 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education), we’ve changed the partition layout. While we still use a separate recovery tools image, Windows no longer needs a separate full-system recovery image to use push-button reset features. This can save several GB of drive space.

We now recommend that you place the Windows recovery tools partition immediately after the Windows partition. This allows Windows to modify and recreate the partition later if future updates require a larger recovery image.

If you use scripts to deploy Windows, check out the sample scripts we’ve created for different device firmware types (the newer UEFI-based BIOS, or the legacy BIOS). To learn more, see UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions and BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions.

It’s no longer necessary to run the Windows System Assessment Tests (WinSAT) on SSD drives. Windows detects SSD drives and tunes itself accordingly.

On UEFI/GPT-based drives, we’ve reduced the recommended size of the MSR partition from 128MB to 16MB.

Drive types

You can install Windows to a hard drive, such as a hard disk drive or a solid-state drive. For additional security, you can use hard drives that the factory has pre-encrypted. A single computer may contain multiple drives.

Solid-state drives

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a hard drive that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. An SSD must have a minimum of 16В gigabytes (GB) of space to install Windows. For more information about drive space and RAM considerations, see Compact OS, single-sourcing, and image optimization.

NoteВ В It’s no longer necessary to run the Windows System Assessment Tests (WinSAT) on SSD drives. Windows now detects SSD drives and will tune itself accordingly.

Advanced format drives

You can use some Advanced Format Drives to provide additional drive space.

Advanced Format 512 emulation (512e) drives are supported on either BIOS-based or UEFI-based computers.

Advanced Format 4K Native (4Kn) drives are supported on UEFI-based computers only.

WarningВ В For Advanced Format 4K Native drives (4-KB-per-sector) drives, the minimum partition size is 260 MB, due to a limitation of the FAT32 file format. The minimum partition size of FAT32 drives is calculated as sector size (4KB) x 65527 = 256 MB. For more information, see Configure UEFI/GPT-Based hard drive partitions.

Factory-encrypted hard drives

To help protect your deployment environment, you can use a factory pre-encrypted hard drive to prevent unauthorized access before you install Windows or any other software. For more information, see Factory Encrypted Drives.

Multiple hard drives

If you install Windows on a device that has multiple hard drives, you can use the disk location path to make sure that your images are applied to the intended drives.

To do this, use the diskpart SELECT DISK= command to select each drive. For example:

NoteВ В The system drive might not appear as disk 0 in the DiskPart tool. The system might assign different numbers to drives when you reboot. Different computers that have the same drive configuration can have different disk numbers.

Partitions

You can divide your hard drive into multiple partitions. You can create separate system, recovery, Windows, or data partitions.

To enhance the security of the Windows partition or a data partition, you can use BitLocker to encrypt the partition. For more information, see BitLocker Drive Encryption.

The partition types must match the firmware of the computer. You can install Windows on hard drives that are based on any of the following types of firmware:

Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). Uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition structure.

Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) (Class 1): Uses the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition structure.

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Class 2: Uses the GPT partition structure. Also includes a compatibility support module (CSM) that enables you to use BIOS functions, including the MBR partition structure. This module can be enabled or disabled in the firmware.

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Class 3: Uses the GPT partition structure.

To determine your system type, consult your hardware manufacturer.

System and utility partitions

A system partition is a partition that contains the hardware-specific files that are needed to load Windows.

By default, during Windows Setup, Windows stores these hardware-specific files in a separate partition. This enables the computer to use the following:

Security tools. Some security tools, such as BitLocker, require a separate system partition.

Recovery tools. Some recovery tools, such as Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), require a separate system partition.

Multiple operating systems. If a computer has multiple operating systems, such as WindowsВ 10 for desktop editions and WindowsВ 7, the computer displays a list of operating systems. The user can then select which operating system to boot. When the system boot files are on a separate partition, it is easier to remove a Windows partition or replace the partition with a new copy of Windows.

We recommend adding system utility partitions before the Windows partition, because in the event that a full-system recovery is needed, this partition order helps to prevent the recovery tools from overwriting the system and utility partitions.

For information about how to configure system partitions while you apply images, see Capture and Apply Windows, System, and Recovery Partitions.

Microsoft reserved partition (MSR)

The MSR is used on UEFI/GPT systems, to support software components that formerly used hidden sectors.

For more information about configuring MSR partitions, see Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions.

For more information about MSR partitions, see Windows and GPT FAQ

Recovery partitions

Add a separate partition for the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) at the end of the hard drive, just after the Windows partition. With this partition order, if future updates require adding to or replacing the Windows RE tools partition, Windows will be able to manage the partition size automatically.

For BIOS/MBR-based systems, it’s still possible to combine the Windows RE tools partition with the system partition. To save drive space, consider creating logical partitions to get around the four-partition limit. For more info, see Configure more than four partitions on a BIOS/MBR-based hard disk.

For WindowsВ 10 for desktop editions, it’s no longer necessary to create and maintain a separate full-system recovery image. Windows can perform a push-button reset using built-in tools.

Data partitions

You can include a separate data partition to enable easier maintenance for situations where either the primary operating system is likely to be replaced, or when multiple operating systems exist on the same device, such as WindowsВ 10 and WindowsВ 7. When a device has multiple hard drives, a data partition may be stored on another drive.

WarningВ В For typical single-drive configurations, we do not recommend that you use a separate data partition. There are two main reasons:

• The partition may not automatically protect data that is stored outside the user profile folders. For example, a guest user might have access to files in an unprotected data partition.
• If you change the default location of the user profile folders to any volume other than the system volume, you cannot service your image. The computer may not apply updates, fixes, or service packs to the installation. For a list of known issues related to changing the default folder locations, see Description of known issues with the FolderLocation settings.