Creating logical drives in Acronis - instructions.

Hello! I’ll probably start from the very beginning, and if you’re not very interested, and you know why this article was written, then you can safely move on to the next heading, lower on the page. I decided to install Windows 8, I want to test it new system, and instructions for Windows installation 8 I haven’t written a blog yet. Install on virtual machine I don’t really want to, I want to demonstrate to visitors of my blog a real installation on a real computer. Everything would be fine, but I’m not ready to give up Windows 7 yet, especially since it’s not very good feedback they're floating around the internet about the figure eight, and if people talk about it, then most likely it's true :).

So I decided to install Windows 8 on one computer next to Windows 7. I think I’ll see what happens, and then if I like the eight, I can install it instead of the seven. There is only one little thing left, you need to create a partition on your hard drive to install Windows 8 as a second system. This is not even a problem, I thought about taking a boot disk with Acronis Disk Director , take some space from the local drive D and create a partition for Windows 8.

But then I realized that not everyone who reads my blog, in particular this article, has a ready-made boot disk with Acronis Disk Director. Therefore, I decided to write an article in which I tell you in detail and with pictures how to create a partition on your hard drive in Windows 7, we will make it all out of working system standard utility “Disk Management”.

I need to create another partition on my hard drive to install a second operating system. You may have another reason, for example, you installed Windows and were too lazy to do only one system disk C, under which all was allocated hard memory disk. I've encountered this and it's very inconvenient. Therefore, in this way you can take some memory from a single partition and create one or two more local drives for storing photos, videos, etc.

How to create a partition on a hard drive under Windows?

As I wrote above, we will create another local disk using the utility “Disk Management”, first we need to launch it. We go to “Start”, "Control Panel", select "Administration", a window will open in which you can run “Computer Management”. In the window that opens, on the left you need to select “Disk Management”. Wait a moment while the system collects information about the partitions on your hard drive.

After loading the information, we will see all our HDD and sections that have already been created. This means we need to create another partition, but I only have 47 MB ​​of free memory (see the picture below, light green area). This means we need to take some space from one of the already created partitions, let’s look at which we have the most free space, select it, click right click mouse and select “Shrink Volume...”. As you can see, I selected local drive D for compression.

You need to wait a little while Windows 7 determines how much space can be squeezed out of this partition :).

A window will appear in which you can see the total size of the partition before compression, and how much space is available for compression. In my case, the maximum I could take from drive D was 20,140 MB, which is great for Windows 8. But you can specify how much space you want to take from a specific local drive. Click “Compress”.

We wait a little and look at the table again. As you can see, the area with free memory (light green area) has increased. You can create a partition from this free area. Right click on it and select “Create a simple volume...”.

The creation wizard will open simple volume. Click “Next”.

Based on the free area, the system will show us the maximum and minimum size the created section. And it will ask you to enter the size for the new partition. For new logical drive I used all free memory, so I just clicked “Next”.

Next we need to assign a letter for the disk being created. Therefore, we leave the mark opposite “Assign a drive letter” and choose a letter, or you can leave it as a prepositional system. Click the “Next” button.

The next stage is formatting the partition. I advise you to immediately format the local disk. Against "File system" I advise you to install NTFS, “Cluster size” We leave it as default. Where “Volume Label” we indicate any name, since I am creating a partition for installing Windows 8, I named it that way. Check mark opposite “Quick Format” and click “Next”.

We check the information and click “Finish”.

All is ready! I now have another logical partition “H” called “Windows 8”. Now you can install an operating system on it, or simply save information.

If you go to "My computer", then you can see the partition we created, even without any reboots.

Conclusion

To be honest, this was the first time I created new section on your hard drive standard means in Windows 7. Usually I always use a boot disk, or a standard manager during the installation of the operating system.

But if you are running Windows 7, and you just need to create another partition and take some memory from the existing one, then all this can be done in a few minutes using the method described above, and there is no point in downloading and burning all sorts of boot disk images.

How to increase one logical partition at the expense of another using boot disk, I wrote in the article, read it, it might come in handy. Here is another article on the topic of partitioning a new hard drive during the installation of an operating system.

Perhaps someone will say that this method is bad, and it is best to create new partitions using special programs. This is not true, I did not have a single problem either when creating or using this section. I installed Windows 8 on it without any problems next to the already installed Windows 7, but this is a topic for the next article. Good luck friends!

Also on the site:

Create a partition on your hard drive using a standard tool in Windows 7 updated: February 14, 2013 by: admin

To create a partition, you will need unallocated space on your hard drive. If the hard drive is new, then it is not initially marked. If there is no unallocated area on the disk, then it can be created using .

Warnings

1. To perform operations with sections of hard disk must be used account with administrator rights.

2. Make sure that in the service settings Disk Defragmenter The startup type is set to "Manual". If this service is disabled, then when you try to create a partition you will receive an error:

The specified service cannot start because it is disabled or all devices associated with it are disabled.

Method 1: Create a partition using Windows 7 Disk Management

1. Open Control Panel (View: Icons) > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.

2. From the left menu, select Disk management.

3. In the middle part of the window, right-click the unallocated area (shown as an "unallocated" partition, marked in black) in which you want to create a partition, and select the command from the menu that appears.

5. Specify the size of the disk to be created in megabytes or gigabytes. Remember that 1 gigabyte contains 1024 megabytes.

7. Select a drive letter from the drop-down list of available letters and click Further.

8. Select the file system and formatting method for the new partition. If desired, enter a volume label. So that the partition appears in the Computer folder simply as Local disk , delete the contents of the field Volume Label.

I recommend for new sections to always do with file system NTFS and the minimum possible cluster size (512 bytes). Full formatting will carefully create a cluster table, the NTFS file system will allow you to store files larger than four gigabytes, and the minimum cluster size will ensure the most efficient use disk space with inevitable file fragmentation.

Warning

If Windows 7 prompts you to convert a simple volume to dynamic, click No. No need Convert a simple volume to a dynamic volume. If you agree, then the reverse transformation will be possible only during complete reinstallation Windows 7.

After completing these steps, a new partition will be created in the unallocated area. You can close Disk Management.

Method 2: Create a partition using DiskPart (command line)

2. Type diskpart and press ENTER.

3. Type list disk and press ENTER.

After this command, a list of all physical hard drives and you will be able to see their IDs as serial numbers, which will be useful in the next step. You will also see which disk contains unallocated space - its volume is non-zero and is displayed in the graph Free.

4. Enter select command disk X (instead of X enter the identification number (ID) of the disk on which there is unallocated area to create the partition) and press ENTER.

5. Type the command create partition primary and press ENTER.

This command will create a blank RAW partition on the drive you selected in step 4.

6. Type list volume and press ENTER.

The command will display a list of all sections with their IDs. Like disk IDs, partition IDs are represented as numbers, starting from zero. Note the ID of the RAW partition, whose size is the same as the unallocated area volume you saw in step 4.

7. At this stage, you need to decide which file system will be used on the created partition and format it.

• To execute full formatting partition with the NTFS file system, enter the command: format fs=ntfs and press ENTER.
• To perform a quick format with NTFS, run format command fs=ntfs quick
• To fully format a partition with FAT32, run the command format fs=fat32
• To perform a quick format with FAT32, run the command format fs=fat32 quick

8. Once you have finished formatting the new partition, type exit and press ENTER.

The new partition should now appear in the Computer folder, with a drive letter already assigned.

The topic of compressing a volume or disk partition in Windows was touched upon. Here I want to show you how you can use unallocated disk space and create new volume or partition using the Disk Management tool or using the Command Prompt.

How to create a new volume or partition through Disk Management

Open the Disk Management tool. To do this, open the Run dialog (Win + R), enter the command diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

Right-click on the unallocated space and click Create Simple Volume.

In the Create Simple Volume Wizard window, click Next.

Enter the amount of space you want to use for the new volume (or partition) and click Next.

In the next step, you can change the formatting options, but this is not necessary, especially if you are happy with the default settings. Additionally, you can change the volume label to any name you prefer, but it's best to use something descriptive: for example, "Movies", "Documents", " Backups» etc. You can also enable the option to compress files and folders. When all settings are selected, click Next.

Review your selections. If you want to change anything, click "Back" to return to the previous steps. If you are happy with everything, click "Done".

After this, a new partition should be successfully created on your computer.

How to create a new volume or partition via the command line

Open command line with administrator rights.

Enter diskpart and press Enter.

In the DISKPART line, enter list disk. This command will list the drives on your PC. It will also help you determine the disk number with unallocated space.

Now enter the command select disk with the volume number and press Enter: for example, selectvolume 0.

Advice: you can manually specify the size of the new partition. To do this, you need to add size=x to the create partition primary command (where x is the partition size in megabytes). The entire command will look like this: create partition primary size=1000

Now that the partition has been created, enter the command list volume and press Enter. As a result, you will see a volume (in my case volume 3) with file RAW system. However, it would be more correct to say that this is a volume without a file system.

Next you need to format the partition as a file NTFS system. Enter the command format fs=ntfs quick(Where quick- this is an indication that it should be used quick way formatting) and press Enter.

You have just successfully created and formatted a partition. The last thing to do is assign a drive letter to the new partition. That's pretty too simple task.

Enter the command list volume, note the number of the new partition and enter the command select volume, not forgetting to indicate the section number. For example, in my case the command would look like this: select volume 3.

Now you have two options to assign a drive letter: you can simply enter the command assign, but then the DiskPart tool will automatically assign one of the available letters to the new partition (this is what is shown in the screenshot below); or you can enter the command assign letter=f, Where f is the drive letter. If you choose the second option, make sure that the letter you want to assign is not already assigned to another drive.

That's all! Everything written above works in Vista, Windows 7 and 8.x.

Have a great day!

What is a logical drive? Sooner or later, all PC users face this issue. Many of them do not even pay attention to the fact that the expression so familiar to the ear is, in fact, an incomprehensible phrase for them.

So, a logical disk is a certain, predetermined part used to store information. As a rule, in the system it is designated by alphabet (B, C, D, E, and so on).

It is worth noting that logical drives are not something physical that you can touch with your hands, like a hard drive, they are just a conventional logical unit that serves for user convenience and systematization of information on a PC. For example, having one physical media, you can create several logical ones on it (for movies, for work information, for games, a system volume).

Splitting a disk into several logical partitions has a number of undeniable advantages. Let's consider the most significant of them.

1. Ease of use information resources and disk space for different users of one physical device. In this case, you do not have to share your “space” with others by creating a logical disk and setting the appropriate access rights to it.
2. Data security. Using special programs and utilities can protect individual logical units from changing data, from being able to write or read information. You can also establish the possibility of performing the above actions only after introducing personal password user.
3. Possibility of installing several operating systems. Having a couple of logical volumes in your arsenal, you can install different operating systems. Of course, for everything to work correctly, you need to have more or less powerful computer and put different ones on different disks. At correct installation It will be possible to select the OS that is located on a particular logical partition by simply specifying the desired location when booting the PC.
4. Less data loss. If a logical disk is damaged, after it is partitioned, only the information that was stored in that location is lost. However, the remaining volumes are not affected. It is also worth mentioning that when reinstalling the OS, only the data that was in system partition, and the remaining volumes are not affected, that is, this technology allows you to save user files during the installation process.
5. Defragmentation of individual logical units. Allows you to carry out the defragmentation process much more efficiently and quickly, which will not only speed up your PC, but also extend the life of your hard drive.

How to create a logical disk? Let's consider this process using Windows 7 as an example, since this system is the most common today among ordinary users.

Step 1. Log in with administrator rights.

Step 2. Open Control Panel. Click the System and Security group. Go to the Administration Section.

Step 3. In the list, find and select Computer Management. Go to the submenu of the Storage devices section.

Step 4. Select the disk you want to partition. Right-click on it and select Shrink Volume.

Step 5. In the Size of the compressed field field, specify the size of the new disk space in megabytes and click the Compress button.

Step 6. Click on the area that appears labeled “Unallocated” and select Create Simple Volume, which appears when you right-click. This will launch the Volume Creation Wizard.

Step 7 Answer the wizard's questions (what name to give the new disk, what file system to format it in) and enjoy all the advantages of the technology.

Such simple steps will lead to partitioning of the hard drive and will greatly simplify “life” for the average user.

While working with personal computer It may be necessary to change, add or remove partitions hard drive. If at initial installation Windows 7 creates partitions interactively and intuitively, but making changes to the created partitions requires a certain skill. Due to the lack of any experience in these matters, the user may perform incorrect necessary actions, which will subsequently lead to complete loss of data or even failure of the hard drive. The Disk Management utility will help facilitate the process of creating and changing disk partitions.

Disk Management utility and its functions

The Disk Management utility is a tool for performing various operations with hard drives and their sections.

With its help you can:

• create, delete, merge volumes on a disk;
• compress volumes;
• format volumes;
• assign letters for volumes;
• add volumes without rebooting;
• manage local and remote disks online.

Opening Disk Management

There are several ways to launch the program.

Via the Start menu

1. Click on the “Start” menu and right-click on “Computer”. Select "Management".

   Right-click on “Computer” and select “Manage”

2. In the “Computer Management” window that opens, click on “Disk Management”.

   Select "Disk Management"

3. The Disk Management window will open.

   Disk Management window

Via command line

Via "Control Panel"

1. Click on the “Start” menu and select “Control Panel”.

   Click “Control Panel”

2. IN search bar Enter “administration” and click on the “Administration” section that appears.

   Click on the “Administration” section

3. Select “Computer Management” from the list.

   Select "Computer Management"

4. In the “Computer Management” window that opens, click on “Disk Management”.

   Click on “Disk Management”

Why doesn't Disk Management open?

There are situations when the Disk Management console does not open or opens but the console window is blank and the warning “Could not connect to the Logical Disk Manager service” appears.

The reasons that caused this problem to appear may be different. To eliminate their influence on the disk management process, you must perform the following steps:

1. Conduct antivirus scan. Launch antivirus program It is recommended to do it from an optical disk or from a protected flash drive. After checking, open the “Quarantine” of the antivirus. If the dmdskmgr.dll library is in Quarantine, then return it to its place.
2. Run the command Rundll32 setupapi, InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\dmreg.inf through the Start menu and the Run window.
3. Go to "Control Panel" - "Administrative Tools" - "Services" and make sure that "Logical Disk Manager" Disk Manager) and Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service are running. If they are stopped, then enable them.
4. Enter the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) menu. To do this, when turning on the computer, press Del, F2 or Esc (the choice of key depends on the computer manufacturer). If in launch pad there is no information about the connected HDD, then check the connecting cables at the points of connection to the drive.

How to create a logical drive

The very first hard disks, first created by IBM in 1973, contained 30 cylinders, each of which was divided into 30 tracks. By analogy with automatic rifles using the .30–30 Winchester cartridge, such discs were called “Winchesters”. Over time, in colloquial speech the word “Winchester” was transformed into “screw”.

Most hard drives are sold already prepared for installing Windows, i.e. the main partition has already been created on them. The remaining operations are carried out during the system installation process. Installation is carried out from a bootable optical disk or USB device. At one of the installation stages, a window will appear asking you to select a space to install the system.

If the hard drive was not prepared for immediate installation of the system before going on sale, then all operations will have to be done by the user. This requires a bootable optical disk or USB stick.

Before installation, configure in the BIOS ( basic system I/O) boot from DVD or USB drive:

When forming a partition on a hard drive, everything is used free space, A additional sections are created after Windows installations 7.

If possible, it is better to take advantage loading Windows PE, in which are built Acronis programs Disk Director or Partition Magic. These utilities are designed to manage hard drive partitions.

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is used to prepare your computer for Windows installation. It is a built-in component of other system installation and recovery tools and is not intended to be used as a primary operating system.

If you don't have a bootable disk like Windows PE, you can:

The created logical drives must be formatted using the format.com utility. Now you can proceed to installing Windows 7.

Hard drive logical drive management

You can manage hard drive partitions using context menu each of them. They provide a set of commands necessary for work.

Compressing a Partition

The command to compress a logical drive is specified in the context menu.

Creating a section

A new partition is created in a free area of ​​the hard drive that is not yet part of a formatted volume. At the bottom of the Disk Management console, this space is highlighted in bright green, and in the legend line it is indicated as “Free”.

1. Once the partition has been compressed, right-click on the unallocated space and select “Create simple volume” from the context menu.

   Right-click on the unallocated space and select “Create simple volume” from the context menu

2. The “Create Simple Volume Wizard” will launch.

   After launching the “Create a Simple Volume Wizard”, click “Next”

3. Specify the size of the new volume.

   Specify the size of the new volume

4. Assign a letter (letter) to the disk.

   Assign a letter to the disk

5. We decide on the file system, cluster size and volume label.
6. We format the partition.

   We format the partition

7. In the last window, click on the “Finish” button and create a new logical drive.

   Click on the “Finish” button

After reformatting, the volume is ready for use.

Changing the section letter

Merging sections

When there is a need to reduce the number of logical drives, two are merged into one joint logical drive. Before the merger necessary information from the logical drive being deleted is copied to another drive or removable media.

To merge one drive with another:

1. Select the volume that we want to attach and call the context menu. Click on “Delete Volume”.