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Why might you need to partition a hard drive?

Luigi Oppido
Computer & Tech Specialist
Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

Luigi Oppido

Computer & Tech Specialist

Expert Answer

There are a few reasons you might need to partition a hard drive. Creating a partition can help you: divide a computer so you can run MAC on one side and Windows on the other half, run multiple versions of the same operating system, such as Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows 10, or separate the operating system from your stored data to protect it from potential viruses.

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Question

What do I do if the options to shrink and extend the volume are grayed out?

Community Answer

You could install a free program, such as MiniTool Partition Wizard, to create your partitions.

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How do I create a partition using diskpart.exe?

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Run diskpart.exe from a command line and select a disk (use the command "LIST DISK" if you need to see which ones you have). Use the command "CREATE PARTITION" followed by the type of partition. Although, I would recommend using Window's disk management as it's easier to use.

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My computer is saying the "The volume you have selected to shrink may be corrupted. use Chkdsk to fix the corrupted problem...". How do i go about this?

Jackson Stewart

Community Answer

So, first open up command prompt as admin. Do this with the Windows key+x+a. Type chdsk than the name of the disk you want to repair. For example, chdsk b:. You can find your drive letter in file explorer.

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