Partitioning hard drives, with a functioning operating system, is carried out using some built-in features. You can partition your hard drive or SSD using the command prompt, Windows disk management or a third party software. However, partitioning a new hard drive or SSD without OS is an entirely different thing. Here you do not have the luxury you have on a fully functioning OS. There is no software installed, you are given a plane slate, with no tools.
Despite the fact that it sounds impossible, Partitioning hard drives or SSDs without OS is actually possible. In this article, we explore a tutorial on how to partition a new SSD or Hard drive without OS.
Please note that for you to partition the hard drive or SSD without OS, you will need a bootable device, to boot the hard drive or SSD without an operating system. In this article, I will demonstrate how to partition a new hard drive or SSD using a bootable device containing windows OS. The steps are listed below.
How to Partition a new SSD or hard drive without OS, During Windows Setup
when installing windows OS, you are provided with the option to manage your hard drive or SSD space. Here you will be able to manage the partitions on your hard drive or SSD. You can create partitions or delete already existing partitions. As already mentioned, you will need a bootable device containing windows OS.
1 Insert the boot device into your computer. If your boot device is a disc, you are required to place it in your CD ROM. If it’s a bootable flash drive, you should plug it to any of the USB ports on your computer.
2. Follow all on-screen prompts until you are landed in the page where you can manage your storage space.
3. Once you are on the windows storage management page, press shift+F10 simultaneously to open a command prompt.
4. Type “diskpart” and press enter
5. At Diskpart>, run a few lines of commands to create a new partition:
- List disk
- Select disk [disk number]
- Create partition primary [size=n]
Disk number and size is dependent on the configuration of your hard drive or SSD. Below is an example of how to use the above command line.
- List disk
- Select disk 0
- Create primary partition size=60000
Note: Creating a partition of 6000MB means you are creating a partition of 60GB and also disk 0 is the name of the default partition that your hard drive or SSD has.
5. Hit enter
Note: You are advised to allocate more than 100GB to your new partition, because Windows update, installed programs, and other system files will keep consuming space on system partition
After you might have successfully carried out all the steps listed above, you will have a well partitioned hard drive. Steps listed above should be followed in order, to prevent complications.