Forum Discussion
Milliken
Jun 24, 2025Iron Contributor
How do you partition a hard drive in windows 11?
Got a brand new hard drive for data backup. Unfortunately, the drive is not showing up in the file explorer. It seems all the space are not allocated and I need to partition the hard disk by myself. ...
AbdullahGujjar
Jun 24, 2025Bronze Contributor
GParted is an open-source partition editor that works independently from Windows. Since Windows won't let you modify system partitions while running, GParted runs from its own live environment — usually a USB stick or CD — allowing you to safely resize, create, delete, or format partitions. It is one of the best tool for disk partition on Windows and Linux.
Boot from the GParted USB
- Restart your PC.
- Enter the boot menu or BIOS/UEFI settings (usually by pressing F12, Esc, Del, or F2 during startup).
- Select the USB drive as the boot device to launch GParted Live.
How to Partition a Hard Drive
- After booting into GParted Live, the graphical partition editor will open.
- Select the target drive from the dropdown menu at the top-right corner.
- To create a new partition:
- If the disk has unallocated space, right-click it and choose New.
- Choose the partition size, file system type (e.g., ntfs for Windows), and label if you want.
- Click Add.
- To resize or delete existing partitions, right-click the partition and choose the appropriate option.
Important Tips:
Always back up important data before modifying partitions.
Don’t modify the Windows system partition unless you know what you’re doing.
GParted supports many file systems including NTFS, FAT32, ext4, etc.