4. Managing MBR disk partitions on basic disks
A disk using the MBR partition style can have up to four primary
partitions and up to one extended partition. This allows you to
configure MBR disks in one of two ways: using one to four primary
partitions or using one to three primary partitions and one extended
partition. After you partition a disk, you format the partitions to
assign drive letters or mount points.
4.1 Creating partitions and simple volumes
The Disk Management user interface has one set of dialog boxes and
wizards for both partitions and volumes. The first three volumes on a basic
drive are created automatically as primary partitions. If you try to
create a fourth volume on a basic drive, the remaining free space on the
drive is converted automatically to an extended partition with a
logical drive of the size you designate by using the new volume feature
it created in the extended partition. Any subsequent volumes are created
in the extended partitions and logical drives automatically.
In Disk Management, you create partitions, logical drives, and simple volumes by following these steps:
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In Disk Management’s Graphical View, press and hold or right-click an
unallocated or free area on the disk and then choose New Simple Volume.
This starts the New Simple Volume Wizard. Read the Welcome page, and then tap or click Next. -
Tap or click Next to display the Specify Volume Size page, as shown in Figure 16.
Then use the Simple Volume Size In MB field to specify how much of the
available disk space you want to use for the volume. Keep the following
in mind before you set the size and tap or click Next:
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You can size a primary partition to fill an entire disk, or you can
size it as appropriate for the system you’re configuring. Keep in mind
that the file system types available when you are formatting the volume
depend on the size of the volume you are creating. -
You can size extended partitions
to fill any available unallocated space on a disk. Because an extended
partition can contain multiple logical drives, each with their own file
system, consider carefully how you might want to size logical drives
before creating the
extended partition. Additionally, if a drive already has an extended
partition or is removable, you won’t be able to create an extended
partition.
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If you are creating a primary partition, use the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, as shown in Figure 17, to assign a drive letter or path. You can do one of the following:
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Assign a drive letter by choosing Assign The Following Drive Letter
and then selecting an available drive letter in the selection list
provided. Generally, the drive letters E through Z are available for
use. (Drive letters A and B are used with floppy drives, drive C is for
the primary partition, and drive D is for the computer’s CD/DVD-ROM
drive.) -
Mount a path by choosing Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder and
then typing the path to an existing folder. You can also tap or click
Browse to search for or create a folder. -
Choose the Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path option if you want to create the partition without assigning a drive letter or path.
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Using the Format Partition page, as shown in Figure 18, you can opt to not format the partition at this time or to select the formatting options to use. Formatting creates a file system in the new partition and permanently deletes any existing data. The formatting options are as follows:
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File System sets the file system type as FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, or ReFS. FAT volumes
can be up to 4 GBs in size and have a maximum file size limit of 2 GBs.
FAT32 volumes can be up to 32 GBs in size (a limitation of Windows
Server) and have a maximum file size of 4 GBs. exFAT volumes can be up
to 256 TBs. With ReFS and NTFS, files and volumes can be up to 2 TBs in
size on MBR disks and up to 18 EBs on GPT disks.
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Allocation Unit Size sets the cluster size for the file system. This is the basic unit in which disk space is allocated, and by default, it is based on the size of the volume. Note that ReFS volumes have a fixed allocation unit size.
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Volume Label sets a text label for the partition that is used as its
volume name. If you must change a partition’s volume label, you can do
this from the command line by using the Label command or from File
Explorer by pressing and holding or right-clicking the volume, selecting
Properties, and then typing a new label on the General tab. -
Perform A Quick Format specifies that you want to format the partition without
checking for errors. Although you can use this option to save you a few
minutes, it’s better to check for errors because this allows Disk
Management to mark bad sectors on the disk and lock them out. -
Enable File And
Folder Compression turns on compression so that files and folders on
this partition are compressed automatically. Compression is available
only for NTFS.
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Tap or click Next. The final page shows you the options you selected.
If the options are correct, tap or click Finish. The wizard then
creates the partition and configures it.
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