How to Partition My Acer 160GB Notebook

Creating separate partitions on your Acer computer is a good way of keeping important documents safe, should your system ever be the victim of a virus. The data on the second partition is completely separate from the first. In order to partition a hard drive, the main partition containing the operating system must first be shrunk, to free up some unallocated space to create the second partition. This can be easily accomplished using a utility including in Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Things You'll Need

• Windows Vista or higher

Instructions

1. Open the Windows "Start" menu and type "diskmgmt.msc" into the Search box. This will bring up the Disk Management utility.

2. Right-click the C: drive in the lower portion of the window and select "Shrink Volume...." This brings up the "Shrink" dialog window.

3. Enter the size by which you'd like to shrink the drive in the corresponding text entry box. Keep in mind that these numbers are in megabytes (1,000 MB = 1 GB) and the number you are entering is the amount you are removing from the original partition, not the new size. The "Shrink" dialog window will automatically calculate and display the new size of the partition. When satisfied, click "Shrink."

4. Right-click the unallocated space in lower portion of the "Disk Management" window after you've shrunk the main partition. Select "New Partition."

5. Set the drive as a "Primary" partition when prompted. Set the desired size of the new partition. You can choose use the entire unallocated space or only a portion if you plan to create yet another partition. Enter a letter to designate the drive when asked. Format the partition with the NTFS file system and select "Finish" to create the partition and exit the wizard.

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 if creating another partition. If not, exit Disk Management.

Tips & Warnings

• The Disk Management utility is also available in Windows XP, but lacks the availability to shrink the primary partition. If there is already free, unallocated space on the drive, you can create a new partition in the same way.

References

• Microsoft: Create a New Partition
• HowToGeek: Resize a Partition