How to split a disk into two disks. The capabilities of the installed system. Why partition a disk, and when to do it

Today we will talk about how to break HDD into partitions in Windows 10: what is it for, as well as several ways how to do it. Increasingly advanced computer user when installing operating system Windows decides to split the system or hard drive into multiple partitions. What is it for? The main goal is convenience of work, and most importantly, the separation of working files of the operating system and personal data, which we in no way want to lose. And this can happen if the system suddenly crashes. Also, the separation hard disk into sections will help your Windows 10, will be a tool that will help it run faster.

Let's take a look at the topics that will be covered. Disk Controllers File Types Partitioning How to partition partitions on existing disks. In terms of performance, the mantra has always been "the more disks, the better." But something changed in the middle of the journey. A long time ago, people did damn gymnastics to distribute tablespaces across different disks. The result was the parallelization of disk access. If successful, the process doubles when one operation is performed on two disks at the same time.

Hard disk partition concept

A very popular magic formula was to decouple indexes from tables. Generally, accessing a table and accessing its indexes too, it seemed to make a lot of sense. Surprised, this is not exactly how things work. You need to make a realistic estimate of which properties will be available most frequently. This was the so-called "avoidance of disk competition". It happens that the optimizer, when executing a query that includes several tables, can implement disk access from several different forms. Depending on the season, the frequency of access to objects can vary, in fact, there are many details to evaluate.

So, here are some ways to partition your hard drive in Windows 10:

By standard operating system tools
When you install Windows 10
With the help of special programs

Now let's take a closer look at each of the methods.

How to create partitions on a hard drive using Windows 10

The main condition in this method to divide the hard drive into partitions in Windows 10 is a sufficient number of free space(so that it is no less than you decided to define for a new one).

Result: distributing objects on two disks, not just one, does not mean twice the speed. So the main question is how many discs will be split into recording information at the same time. The implementation is straightforward and the performance gains are also large: the performance gains are exactly the same as the number of disks used. 2 disks, 2 times faster. 5 disks, 5 times faster, 100 disks, 100 times faster. If you are using systems that perform very complex queries, in a large database like a data warehouse, you will have a significant amount of temporary data.

Press the Win + R keys and in the "Run" window enter diskmgmt.msc
Download started special utility management
After loading it, right-click on the section that corresponds to the disk with which we are working
Next, select "shrink volume"
In the window that opens, in the "Section of compressible space" column, indicate the size that we are going to select under new disc or logical partition
Choosing "compress"
Unallocated space should appear on the right, click on it right click
You need to select the item "create a simple volume"
The resulting volume will have a default size that is equal to free space... We can specify a lower value if, for example, we want to create multiple logical drives
We indicate the letter of our new disk
We define file system(set a new one or leave it as it is) and click "next"
Everything, if the steps were performed correctly, our disk is divided in two

Splitting on the command line

You can also change the size of the disk in Windows 10 using the command line. This method also applies to the tools of your operating system. Please note that this way will work only when you divide the only system partition into two - for system data and your personal. And here's how to create a new volume on your Windows 10 hard drive this way:

How to delete a hard drive partition in Windows

But if you have placed a large volume of discs with at least 5 discs, this cost is offset by the increase in the number of discs. Of course, this depends on the use of a large disk controller. The problem is that if you buy multiple discs in the same batch, there is a good chance that they will be defective over the same period. If you look at dozens of bulbs at the same time, you will see that they start to burn at the same time. On the other hand, if you are concerned about security, placing a large number of disks increases the likelihood of multiple disk failures.

We open command line as administrator
We start entering commands in this order: first diskpart
Then list volum. When this command is executed - pay attention to the volume number that corresponds to the C drive
Enter select volume N. N is the volume number from the previous paragraph
Then the command shrink desired = size. Instead of the word "Size", we enter the number in megabytes, by which we will reduce the C drive, in order to divide it by two
Then list disk. When executing this command, remember the number of that HDD or SSD, where there is a C partition
The next command select disk M. M is the number that we remembered in the previous paragraph
Next, we enter these commands in order: create partition primary
Format fs = ntfs quick
Assign letter = desired_drive_letter
The process is complete. You can look in the explorer at the disk partition we created

Acronic Disk Director

This program will also help us to expand or reduce the size of the hard drive. How to use it:

Hidden partition for system recovery

Another odd detail: if a failure occurs and you have a hot stock, it will go live and start reassembling the entire redundancy circuit. If this happens, you will lose all your data. If safety is your concern, use a hot supply and don't add too much disks.

On these drives, the total storage space will be equivalent to the space of all drives together minus. It's safer, not much more expensive. For a small number of disks, the use of an additional disk for parity is significant, but for a large number it becomes a minor issue. From a security point of view, the possibility of losing 2 disks is very interesting.

When you start the program for the first time, select the "manual" operating mode
A window will open in which we select the section that we will split
Right-click on it and select "split volume"
Set the size, then click "OK"
Click "apply pending operations"
Reboot the computer and click "OK" again

After buying a computer, the user often looks for an answer to such a question - how to divide a hard drive into partitions. Using the operating system tool, you can divide your hard drive in Windows 7 and Windows 8 into multiple partitions. The process of dividing a hard disk into two or more parts is no different in these operating systems.

Disable system protection

Its performance gain is zero on write and more than doubles read speed. In addition, the total storage capacity is half the total of the disks. Fiber Channel drives are used only in high-performance external storage arrays. You really have to buy a decent controller and dedicated server drives rather than desktops.

Partitioning a hard disk with special programs

There is another important detail about the size of the discs. Although, if you need a lot of disk space, of course the best solution is the presence of many small disks, rather than several huge disks. Increasing the number of disks is synonymous with increasing performance. There are no serious 1-disk database servers. Start with 2 disks and increase this number in pairs. Of course, if you are not using external storage, the server environment will severely limit it. There are new 2.5 "discs instead of the traditional 3.5" discs.

Manufacturers of computers, especially laptops, Very often create one hard disk partition on which the operating system is installed, and there, in the future, all user files will be located.

For more convenient use of the computer, you can create another hard disk partition on which the user will store his files - music, videos, documents, and other files. So it will be easier for him to find required files because if all the files are on the same disk, then it will be quite difficult to find the folders and files you need.

This should allow more drives in a single enclosure in addition to reducing power consumption. It's too early to make a serious comparison. Constant Transfer Rate is the number of bytes that a disk can transfer over an extended period. Manufacturers often publish bit rates and constant bandwidths in their specifications. You only have to worry about the second.

Let's take a look at some of the specification details. It should be remembered that the larger the disc diameter, the greater the number of sectors on the outer tracks of the disc. Thus, by maintaining the number of disk rotations, larger diameter disks can transfer more data; The seek time, which measures the speed of head movement, is the same, but since a 3.5-inch disc must travel across a larger diameter disc, its average seek time is longer. The power consumption of 2, 5 drives is significantly lower due to the lower weight of the drives. Believe it or not, this is a very reasonable price to pay.

In the event of an operating system failure, files located on another disk will not be lost during the reinstallation or recovery of the operating system.

You can divide the hard disk into partitions using the operating Windows systems 7 or Windows 8. More advanced operations with hard disk partitions can be done using specially designed programs, such as, for example, Acronis Disk Director, EASEUS Partition Manager, MiniTool Partition Wizard.

So, given that we're looking at cutting edge hardware, we can expect these drives to become standard in 2 years. Well, to close the hardware problem, you have to think carefully about your disk controller. Just like anyone who sees the processor can't see the chipset, anyone who sees the disks can't see the disk controller. A good parent matters. A simpler controller can cost around $ 250, while a more powerful controller can outperform the system. But you should reserve some budget for some of the accessories for your controller like cables, memory combs and external batteries that can easily get you through for the price of $ 2,000.

Keep in mind that you can only divide the disk into 4 main partitions. If you have already created 4 such partitions on your disk, then you will not need to perform this operation, since the new, created partition will not be displayed in the operating system. This is often faced by laptop owners, because manufacturers often create hidden partitions on the disk to restore the system and to store individual programs and drivers.

If you get here it might be interesting to think about external storage. There are several storage models that scale to accommodate a large number of disks. You can start with a crate containing a dozen discs and add new bins and even shelving that can reach thousands of discs. There are other significant benefits to using external storage. Performance is also key. In addition, the vaults usually sell some software that enable special hardware features like disk tweak, advanced monitoring, and my favorite: snapshots!

How to split a hard drive into two partitions in Windows 7

To split hard Windows disk 7, you need to log into disk management with an administrator account. This is exactly the way you can partition a hard drive in Windows 8. In Windows 8, the partitioning process is no different from the process in Windows 7.

After you open Explorer => "Computer", then you will see the hard disk partitions of your computer.

The cost of mid-range storage solutions has plummeted. You have no idea how many prices have already dropped. Of course this Account can reach millions very quickly. Just put thousands of entries into your account. Do you think using thousands of records is an exaggeration? It's really worth looking at the benchmarks as in addition to the performance result, they detail all hardware costs and software including support for 3 years.

Now comes the really important part that understands different types information that will be recorded on your server. Even if you have a small database server with two disks, it is very important before you leave the disk partitioning. Let's see how we can categorize them.

In this image, you can see that the hard disk has two partitions - "Local disk (C :)", which will need to be divided into partitions, and a protected partition - " Microsoft Office 2010 (Q) ", which is not subject to change.

Here you can see that the hard disk is already about half full of data. The partition itself, on which the operating system is installed and the files are located, is named after the brand of the hard disk installed on the computer.

We are obviously imagining that you are creating a dedicated server. Database servers are services that love exclusivity, especially with regard to disk access. Therefore, if this is unavoidable, another service needs to be added to the same server, this is not a server Email or files. Nothing can dispute the access to the database drives.

In theory, this should never happen, and you should have enough memory to avoid this situation most of the time. Your server generates a series of logs about what is happening in the database and on the server. The number of logs generated varies greatly depending on the configuration of the database and other services. You have to determine where to place your logs, what to log, when to log in, etc. preserving a section for these logs is important.

The new hard disk partition will be created from the free space of "Local Disk (C :)".

To partition a hard disk, you need to enter disk management. First you need to go to the Start menu and then right-click on the Computer button. In the opened context menu it is necessary to select the item "Management".

Logs should be monitored and should not take up more than expected space. Typically, the logs are cleaned periodically. The default tablespace is the one used to store the data dictionary. It takes up little space because it only consists of metadata about other bank objects. If you lose your data dictionary, you won't be able to access the larger object from the database, making it completely useless. As far as security is concerned, this is a tablespace that needs to be very well protected.

This will open the Computer Management window. Then, on the left side of the window, select the "Disk Management" item.

The Disk Management tab will display information about your computer's disks. In this image, you can see that there is one disk on the computer - " Logical disk(C :) ", which is named after the brand of the hard drive (hard disk). The disk has the NTFS file system. I will divide this section into two parts.

If you have a lot of memory, perhaps the system dictionary should almost always be buffered, making performance a secondary concern. A problem that is often encountered is that people don't create new tablespaces to use regular application objects. Mixing both is not a good idea. The space occupied by the default table space is usually minimal if it actually contains only the data dictionary.

The temporary tablespace has no effect on information. The information stored there is only work area for intermediate operations and temporary tables. In theory, this information should never be stored on disk, but heavy operations such as sorting a very large table may require a lot of this table space. Running heavy queries can make this tablespace somewhat critical.

Also on the hard drive there are also two special protected partitions that were created by the laptop manufacturer - "Recovery Partition" (it does not appear in Explorer) for system recovery, and a partition with Microsoft Office 2010.

A desktop computer may not have such additional partitions, if you did not purchase a computer from a reputable manufacturer. These protected partitions will not be needed to solve our problem - dividing the hard disk into two partitions.

It's worth knowing your application's load profile to see if it's worth investing in a specific approach to that tablespace. Database information is stored end-to-end in your data files, which must have their own tablespaces. One of the criteria for partitioning table spaces is to use one pair of table spaces for tables and one pair for indexes in each application. While partitioning indexes and tables onto separate disks is not more common, it can greatly aid you in managing, resolving, and recovering from disasters.

You can also enter Disk Management in another way. To do this, go to the Start menu, enter the expression “diskmgmt.msc” in the “Search” field, and then press the “Enter” button on the keyboard. This will open the Disk Management window.

The contents of this window are identical to the contents of the Disk Management tab in the Computer Management window.

In order to split a hard drive into two parts, you need to select a drive that will be split into two parts. To do this, you will need to move the mouse cursor over the disk to be divided, in this case it is the “(C :)” disk, and then, in the context menu that opens, click on the “Compress volume ...” item.

This will open the "Request Compression Space" window, in which you will be informed that a poll is in progress to determine the available compression space.

In my case, there was already 342 GB of data on the hard drive.

After the polling process is complete, the "Compress From:" window will open, in which the following parameters will be indicated: total hard disk size before compression (599480 MB), available space for compression (245037 MB), size of compressed space (245037 MB), and total disk size after compression (354,423 MB).

You can change the size of the compressible space. "Compressed space size" is the size of the future second disk, which will be created after the hard disk is divided into two parts. The "Total Size After Compression" is the size of the "Logical Drive (C :)" after the hard drive has been partitioned.

If you use a Windows operating system tool, you will not be able to partition the hard drive more than half. I draw your attention to the fact that the sizes of the disks should not be the same, they should differ in size from each other. Read more about this at the end of this article.

After that, the compression process begins. After completing it, you will see that a new section has appeared with unallocated space.

After that, the window “Creation wizard simple volume", In which you will need to click on the" Next "button.

In the next window "Specify the size of the volume" click on the "Next" button.

In the "Assign a drive letter or path" window, you need to select a letter for the new disk partition. If the computer already has a drive marked with the letter "C", then it would be better to assign the next letter of the alphabet - "D" to the second drive. Then you should click on the "Next" button.

In the "Format Partition" window, some settings are already selected by default - file system, cluster size and volume label, the "Quick format" item is activated.

By default, the volume label is named " New volume". You can delete this name and leave nothing in this field, then the second partition of the disk will have the name - "Logical disk (D :)". In the future, if necessary, the title of the section can be corrected.

Then the formatting of the new one starts. partition hard disk.

After completing the formatting process, in the next window "Completing the Simple Volume Creation Wizard" you will be informed that the creation of a new hard disk partition has been completed. You can familiarize yourself with the parameters of the created hard disk partition.

After that, you need to click on the "Finish" button.

In this image, you can see that a new hard disk partition has appeared - "New Volume (D :)" with the NTFS file system.

After opening Explorer, you can see the created new hard disk partition, which is still free of files, as well as "Local Disk (C :)", which is full.

Now you can change the names of the hard disk partitions, if you have not done so earlier, to other, more understandable ones.

To do this, you need to right-click on the disk that you want to rename, and select "Rename" in the context menu. Then you should enter a new name for the hard disk partition, and then press the "Enter" button on the keyboard. It is not necessary to change the section names; you can continue to use the section names already on your computer.

After renaming, hard disk partitions will have more meaningful names. In this image, you can see that I have already moved some of the files from the "Local drive (C :)" to another, just created drive - "Local drive (D :)".

If you have Windows 8 operating system installed on your computer, then you can partition the hard drive in the same way as described in this article.

How to change the drive letter

Optic DVD drive on the computer was marked with the letter "D". Since I was going to split the disk into two parts, I changed the drive letter in advance.

This is done so that the hard disk partitions have letters in the order of the letters in the alphabet, for more convenient use and perception. For example, in Explorer, the hard disk partitions will be indicated first, then the CD / DVD drive, and then the connected drives, memory cards and disks.

To change the drive letter, go to Disk Management and right-click on the CD / DVD drive. In the context menu, click on the item "Change drive letter or path to drive ...", and in the window that opens "Change drive letter or paths for D:" (your letter name may be different) click on the "Change" button.

In the "Change drive letter or path" window, you must enter another letter to change, and then click on the "OK" button.

Changing the drive letter is optional. The new hard disk partition can be designated by any letter of the alphabet that is not yet occupied.

Solving the problem with the RAW file system

After partitioning the hard disk using the Windows operating system, if you made the sizes of the hard disk partitions the same, there may be a problem with the file system. After formatting, you may find that the new disk partition was not created in the file NTFS system, and in the RAW file system.

I ran into this problem myself when I was tinkering with partitioning a hard drive in Windows 8 on my daughter's laptop. In order not to arise this problem, in the process of creating a new hard disk partition, the partition being created must have a different size than the "Local Disk (C :)".

To resolve this issue, you must rerun the Simple Volume Wizard process. In the "Specify the volume size" window, in the "Simple volume size (MB)" item, you need to slightly reduce the partition size, and in the "Format partition" window, uncheck the box opposite the "Quick format" item.

Formatting will take certain time, which will depend on the size of the hard disk partition. After completing the formatting process, the problem will be resolved, the new disk partition will now have the NTFS file system.

With the help of the operating system tool, you can easily split your hard drive into two parts in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

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