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I purchased a Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows 7 64-bit, but when I started to use my laptop, I found out there's only one partition on my hard disk (C: primary drive) with the OS installed onto it.

But now I want to split my 1 TB hard disk into 2 different partitions, 500 GB each.

How I can do it? And what is the best way to do this without reformatting system and losing any data?

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4 Answers 4

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You could use Windows Disk Management by typing diskmgmt.msc in a Run prompt.

If you find that scary, you could use MiniTool Partition Wizard, EaseUS Partition Manager among others. I have used both them and they have self-explanatory interfaces which makes the process pain free. You won't lose your data. Both are free for home users

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  • Windows Disk Management can be ind of temperamental and might not allow you to partition the disk the way you wish, so for that reason I second the motion of using a third-part Windows tool.
    – martineau
    Nov 15, 2012 at 11:51
  • Generally for me Windows Disk Management acts funny when there are 2 or more partitions. But since here the asker has just one partition, it should work fine
    – pratnala
    Nov 15, 2012 at 13:51
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You have to, in some way, start your computer from another media than the drive you should change the partition table on. I would suggest using i linux boot cd and then run Gnome parted (gparted). I know there is a gparted Live CD. Otherwise you could use Ubuntu.

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    Why use Linux tools, when you can solve it with Windows' own tools? Do you use a Windows CD to fix your Linux issues?
    – TFM
    Feb 3, 2013 at 15:15
  • Well, I guess that's because I know Linux alot better then Windows. But from what I understood there are alot of people using Linux Live CDs to fix certain issues in Windows because they don't want to bother building a PE disc.
    – Niclas Nilsson
    Feb 4, 2013 at 7:07
  • You do not need Live CDs, Linux or Windows-wise, in any way, since you can shrink a partition inside Windows. Check the accepted answer.
    – TFM
    Feb 4, 2013 at 17:23
  • Yeah! I saw it and learned something new. That's great. I guess that's a big part for me hanging around on the Stack exchange sites :)
    – Niclas Nilsson
    Feb 4, 2013 at 20:07
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In the control panel you will find the option security and security you will find and option at the end called create and format partions. Click on it and you will get a virtual view of the disc. Right click on the drive and you will a shrink option. Click on it and you can enter the size. After which you will see the that a free space is seen. Right click on the partition and you ll get an option to create the drive. enter image description here

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You can use PartedMagic (a Linux Live-CD) to do it, or the tool built into Windows. If you edit the partition that Windows resides on you will need PartedMagic.

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