PC Hacks

Hack #42. Create a New Partition with NT, 2000, XP, and 2003

Use XP's Disk Management console to create a new partition in unused disk space.

You can create a new partition in unallocated or unused space on a disk drive with Windows XP or partitioning software like PartitionMagic. In this hack, we'll create a new 20 GB NTFS partition in unallocated disk space using Windows XP's Disk Management tools. To do this, launch Control Panel, select Administrative Tools, then Computer Management, double-click Disk Management under Storage, and follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the area marked Unallocated. Select New Partition from the menu that appears (Figure 5-3).

   

   Figure 5-3. Create a new partition in unallocated space

2. When the New Partition wizard introduction dialog appears, click Next.

3. The New Partition wizard gives you the choice of making a new primary partition, or an extended partition, as in Figure 5-4. Create a primary partition, then click Next.

   

   Figure 5-4. A new partition may be a Primary or Extended type

   Tip

   A drive may contain up to four primary partitions, or three Primary partitions and an extended partition (which may contain logical drives, letting you overcome the four-drive limit that primary partitions impose). Primary partitions may be made bootable for Windows or other ...