Hard disk partition is an indispensable part of any computer. This how-to guide will help you demystify what is hard disk partition and how to manage them in a safe and effective way.

Overview on Disk Partition

It is well-known that the physical hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) is the most important component to your computer, and all data on the PC like the operating system, all software, and the personal files are saved here.

At the same time, the partition is an indispensable part of the hard drive. Only the hard disk, which is divided into one or more partitions, can be used for data storage.

A partition can be regared as a division of the HDD or SSD. It also called as disk partitions or drive, which means a partition with a drive letter assigned.

Usually, there is only one partition labeled as C on the hard drive. However, it is highly recommended to create several partitions. That can help separate OS from personal data so that your personal files can be safe when OS crashes someday.

Today, we aim to tell you how to manage the disk partitions safely and effectively.

Free Tool for Disk Partition Management on Windows PC

To manage hard drive partitions on Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 computer, there is a built-in tool called Disk Management available for help.

Howerver, it has some limitations you should note: it can only extend a partition that is formatted with NTFS and followed by an adjacent unallocated space on its right side; it can only format a hard drive, which is less than 32GB, to FAT32 file system; it can only convert a non-boot disk to MBR or GPT after deleting all existing partitions and more.

Therefore, in order to manage hard disk partition more flexibly, you might need to turn to any third-party software.

Thus, the free partition manager called AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can be a nice alternative. Much versatile and advanced than Windows native Disk Management, it comes with the following advantages to make disk partition management as easy as A, B, C:

• Extend both NTFS and FAT32 partition with adjacent and non-adjacent unallocated space in its right or left side.
• Move partition, which is adjacent to an unallocated space on both right and left sides, to make unallocated space contiguous to the partition you wish to extend.
• Create a new partition on an existing partition, not just from an unallocated space.
• Format large hard drive (63GB, 128GB, 256GB or 2TB) to FAT32 easily.
• Clone Partition to another hard disk or partition.

How to Manage Disk Partition on PC

Here are stepwise guides on how to use this freeware to manage your hard disk partition on Windows 10/8/7.

To extend a partition with non-adjacent unallocated space:

Step 1. Right click the partition you need to extend and select “Merge Partitions”.

Step 2. Tick the unallocated space and click “OK”.

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

To move partition:

Step 1. Right click the target partition and choose “Move Partition”.

Step 2. Drag the partition to the right side or left side and click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” to execute it.

To create a new partition on an existing one:

Step 1. Right click the partition from which you want to separate another new partition and click “Create Partition”.

Step 2. On this window, you can edit the new partition size and drive letter. Then click “OK”.

Step 3. At last, remember to click on “Apply”.

These are just three amazing features of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Apart from all functions mentioned above, it is also able to convert MBR and GPT without deleting partition, clone hard disk, migrate OS to SSD, make a bootable media that can be considered as an emergency boot disk, check bad sectors and more.

Summary

So, with AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, you can manage your disk partition easily without worrying about losing important data. It can work well on all editions on Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. If you are running Windows Server operating system, there is the Server edition designed for your needs.