Partition a hard drive in Windows 11: How it works

No additional software is required to partition a hard drive in Windows 11. The operating system has its own tool exactly for this purpose, known as the Disk Management. There are two options to start this tool:

1. Use the key combination [Windows] + [R] to open the ‘Run’ dialogue box and choose the command ‘diskmgmt.msc’.
2. Right-click on the Start menu icon in the taskbar and select ‘Disk Management’.

In order to partition a hard disk in Windows 11, you must first reduce the size of the disk. To do this, right-click the disk you have chosen – in this case, the Windows disk will be the main partition – and then click ‘Shrink Volume’.

In the following dialogue box, you can specify how much space the new partition should have. By default, Windows 11 will offer to shrink the entire available memory on the hard disk. If you want to assign a smaller amount of memory to the partition, simply adjust the value beside ‘Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB’. You can specify the value in megabyte. For example, to reduce the current volume of the partition by 200 gigabytes, specify the value ‘204800’.

Finally, click ‘Shrink’.

In the overview, you will see an unallocated storage quota which you can use for the new partition. Right-click the area and then select the ‘New Simple Volume’ in the menu.

The New Simple Volume Wizard will begin. Firstly, click ‘Next’ and then specify the volume of the new partition. Keep the maximum value if you want to work with the entire amount of memory previously which was previously shrunk. Then click ‘Next’ again.

The next step is to assign a drive letter. Windows 11 will automatically default to the next letter of the alphabet – but you can also select any other available letter by opening the drop-down menu.

In the last step of the disk partitioning, you must set the formatting options and the name of the new partition. For this, choose the option ‘Format this volume with the following settings’ and select:

• the File system – the classic choice for Windows systems is: NTFS
• the size of the Allocation unit size, also called cluster size (recommended setting: ‘Default’)
• the Volume label (name of the partition)

Tick the ‘Perform a quick format’ box and finish partitioning the hard disk by clicking ‘Next’ and ‘Finish’.

The new partition of the hard disk will be displayed in Disk Management if the formatting and partitioning were successful.

Find the hard disk partition you want to delete in the list of volumes or in the disk overview, and right-click on the entry. Then click ‘Delete Volume’.

You will receive a message confirming you want to delete the data from the hard disk partition. Click on ‘Yes’ to continue the process.

After you have deleted a hard disk partition in Windows 11, the space of this partition will appear in the Disk Management with the label ‘Unallocated’. You can now assign the quota to another existing partition on the same hard drive by right-clicking the partition you would like to extend and clicking ‘Extend Volume’.

In the wizard, click ‘Next’ to begin. In the following overview, you will see how much storage space is available for extending the partition – in this case, the available storage corresponds to the 200 gigabytes that are ‘unallocated’ after performing the previous step. Either accept the suggested maximum value or choose an individual value by adjusting the number beside ‘Select the amount of space in MB’.