How to Partition a Hard Drive Using Windows XP Home Edition

When a new hard drive is added to a Microsoft Windows XP installation, it is unformatted and contains no partitions unless it has been used previously. A hard disk drive does not function properly until it has at least one partition and a formatted file system. Partitioning a hard drive with Windows XP Home Edition requires using the built-in "Disk Management" utility to create the partition and format the hard drive.

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" button in the lower-left corner.

2. Right click "My Computer."

3. Click "Manage."

4. Click "Disk Management."

5. Right click the empty area of the new hard drive.

6. Click "New Simple Volume."

7. Choose the FAT32 or NTFS formats. NTFS is the default and is recommended over FAT32 unless you intend to share the partition with other computers and devices that can't read the NTFS format.

8. Click "OK." Wait while the utility partitions and formats the new hard drive. The next available drive letter is automatically applied to the new hard drive, which is immediately usable.

Tips & Warnings

• These instructions work with any internal, external, primary or secondary hard drive, as long as there is enough free space on the drive. For example, a Windows system partition may only use one third of the total hard drive space, with two thirds either assigned to a data partition or completely free of data.

• If you have data you want to save, back it up before partitioning and formatting a drive already in use. This process removes any pre-existing data from the hard drive.