Have you partitioned your computers hard drive? If not, they you could be inviting trouble to your life. The answer could be No, since you do not know how to format or the knowing its importance. Partitioning hard drive does not only assist in managing of files but also prevents loss of files when the drive is damaged. In this article you will learn how to partition your hard drive on windows and Mac using different methods.
From within Mac OS X Lion: To restart your MacBook in Windows, click System Preferences in the Dock and click the Startup Disk icon to display the settings you see here. Click the Windows partition you created in the list to select it (the folder icon will bear the Windows logo, and it will be labeled Windows as well). Click Restart, and then.
An external hard drive that supports both Windows and Mac operating systems can be extremely helpful to users who work on both the operating systems. However, Windows was mainly optimized for NTFS (New Technology file system) format, on the other hand, APFS was created for the Mac OS.As we all know NTFS is not compatible with Mac and similarly. On your left column, identify the hard drive you intent to partition then highlight. The hard drive you are looking for should be right above Macintosh HD. On the right side of the column, there is a row of tabs. Click on the one written 'Partition' and a 'Volume Scheme' section will appear. How to partition hard drive in Windows and Mac Published on: December 3, 2018 by Tarun Bhardwaj Partitioning a hard disk means having the ability to split the disk into multiple units so you can, for example, install multiple operating systems on the same computer, store sensitive data in an independent disk area and so on. (2) Now, remove the pre existing or old Windows partition and resize the current Mac hard drive partition easily. (3) Here, after a successful Mac computer partition, create a new Windows partition in free space and set the format to MS-DOS (FAT).
Part 1How to Partition a Hard Drive on Windows 10
Below is a guide on how to partition a hard drive on Windows 10.
Method 1. Using Computer management tool to partition
Step 1: After you have opened your computer, click on File Explorer button then right click This PC icon.
Step 2: From a small menu box that appears, click on manage.
Step 3: On clicking manage, another window pops up, from there click Computer Management then below it click storage button to get disk management.
Step 4: From Disk management, click on letter C, then Shrink volume. Double click on Drive C to shrink it.
Step 5: At the bottom of the new window, click on unallocated area that you would like to create partitions. Click on New Simple Volume from the small menu box that shows up.
Step 6: From the New Simple Volume Wizard window that appears, just specify or give appropriate size of the volume that you want to assign the partition.
Then click on Next button at the bottom of the window.
Step 7: From Assign Drive Letter or Path window, assign a letter you would like to use for access. Then click on Next button.
Step 8: Here you give format partition specifications, select the file system, volume label, and size. Thereafter click on Next button.
Step 9: Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard window appears displaying the partition specifications. Click on Finish button at the bottom of the window and the partition will have been created successfully.
Part 2How to Partition a Hard Drive using EaseUS Partition Master Free Software
Where you may not want to partition your hard drive using disk management, you may use EaseUS Partition Master Free software to partition freely and easily.
Partitioning hard drive with this software only require simple few clicks. Here is how to do it.
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master Software on your computer.
Step 2: After you have opened the program, select any drive like drive E and shrink it using 'Resize/Move Partition.
Step 3: Thereafter, let the unallocated space be behind drive C by dragging drive E towards the right side of the program window.
Step 4: Select drive C and enlarge its space with resize/move partition
Step 5: finally click Apply and the hard drive partition will be complete.
Part 3Partitioning a Hard Drive on Mac using Computer Management Tool
It is always a good move to partition hard drive on your Mac computer to enable you organize your data with ease. It also promotes proper management of your data.
Here is a procedure on how you can partition your hard drive with computer management tool. All you require is a Disk Utility feature.
Step 1: After you have logged in to your computer, get to Finder then click on Applications. From applications, get to utilities then click on Disk utility icon.
Step 2: In the new window, click on your hard drive which will be highlighted blue on the top left side.
Partition A Hard Drive For Windows And Mac Os
Step 3: click on partition button that will appear in the middle of the window.
Step 4: The next window that pops up gives the partition layout. Here you only give the name and number of partitions you would want and the volume size. After providing this information, you can then click on Apply button at the bottom of the window.
Step 5: The following window displays the partitions you have chosen. A confirming message pops up and after you have confirmed on the partitions, click on partition.
You may want to partition your Mac's hard drive to enable you run multiple versions of similar operating system from one disk. Where you may not want to perform your hard drive partition on Mac using computer management tool, you can still partition it using any free software. In this article it shows how to partition hard drive using Stellar Partition Manager
All you need to do is to download the software freely then follow the steps on how to partition.
Part 4How to Partition with Stellar Partition Manager
Step 1: First Run Stellar partition manager software on your Mac computer then click on continue button at the bottom right of the window.
Step 2: Select a hard drive in which a new partition is to be created. Choose from the left pane.
Step 3: Click on Add button in the tool bar and a small dialog box pops up where you give the name of the partition you want to create and move the slider to give the size of the partition.
Step 4: After giving the name and size, now click on OK button.
Step 5: In the next window that appears, the new partition will be added to the task to do list. Click on Start button in the tool bar to begin partitioning.
Step 6: A warning message is displayed on a message box. Confirm that the partition selected has sufficient back-up protection for your important data. After you are sure about it then click on continue to add the new partition.
Step 7: On completion, a window appears which shows the new partition in the middle pane along with other partitions. Finally, the program will indicate it that the partitioning process is completed. From there you can now mange your files on the created partitions.
Partition Mac Hard Drive For Windows Without Bootcamp
With above guide, one cannot miss how to partition a hard drive at any given point. You can either use computer management tool or partition software.
Part 5How to Recover Lost Data from Partition Hard Drive
When you partition a hard drive always comes along with data lost from your partition hard drive, under this circumstance, you will need a partition hard drive data recovery software to help you retrieve you lost data back.
- Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
- Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera and camcorders.
- Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.
- Preview before recovery allows you to make a selective recovery.
- Supported OS: Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista, Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8, 10.9, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.10, 10.11 El Capitan, 10.12 Sierra) on iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro etc.
Wondershare Data Recovery is capable of restoring deleted/lost files or formatted partition from hard drive (HDD and SSD), external hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, digital camera, camcorder, iPod, Music Player and many kinds of mobile devices (Nokia, Blackberry phones and Phones with older Android OS than ICS). While offering the advanced recovery modes like Raw Recovery or Deep Scan Mode, it`s pretty easy to use:
Simple steps to Recover Lost Data from Hard Drive
Step 1: Select the type of files you want recover and click 'Start' to recover lost data from hard drive.
Step 2: Select the location where you lost your data. If you are not sure where the location, you can go to select the option 'I can't find my partition' to start scanning lost data.
Step 3: Select a partition to scan files.
If quick scan can't get your lost data, you can go to deep scan which will deeply search your lost data.
Step 4: Preview the lost data from partition hard drive
Note: Please do not save these recoved files to the partition hard drive which you recovering, it will overwritten.
In simple words, a disk partition can be defined as the Mac can be dividing into different partitions, and all the partitions have their specific space that you can use. You can also transfer the essential files and documents in one partition and lock it, and the other partition can be used for other general tasks.
If you want to manage your Mac hard drive by creating different partitions, then this article is the right place for you. It is a full guide of how to partition a hard drive on Mac. Let’s check it out.
Before Partitioning A Mac: Backup and Clean it Up First!
The very primary step before moving towards partition hard drive on Mac, you must backup and clean up the internal hard drive of Mac. First thing to do is to backup your files on Mac using Time Machine. If anything goes wrong in the partition process, you still have the backup files.
Then you need to clean up your Mac and prepare for disk partition, so if any other unwanted program that might become the reason for virus or interruption can easily remove. As for Mac cleaning, you can use the Mac cleaning tools to do that, but for effective results, use iMyFone Umate Mac Cleaner. This app is a great chioce for cleaning up your Mac before partitioning a hard drive, for it can do the cleaning task efficiently and thoroughly. The main cleaning features of it are as follow:
- Clean Up Junk: It can easily clean up to 40+ types of junk files in one go with Quick Clean & Deep Clean mode.
- Delete large files: It can quickly delete large files that over 50MB within one click.
- Delete duplicate files: It can delete the duplicate files from your Mac without any problem to reclaim more available space.
- Uninstall apps and remove extensions: It will allow you to uninstall unused apps and remove those unnecessary extensions in a flash.
The app is super easy to use that you can use it to get a cleaner Mac with simple clicks. Now, here are the steps to follow if you want to use this fantastic app for junk cleaning from your Mac.
- Download the app and launch it on your Mac.
- Then you need to choose a feature that you need, after that, click on the Scan button.
- Just preview and then select all the unneeded items to clean up, all can be done in a few minutes.
Here We Go! How to Partition A Hard Drive on Your Mac?
For disk partition, there are twp types: Volume and Partition. Before creating a new partition, you need to confirm your Mac's operating system. For different macOSs, there are different operations when it comes to disk partition. We will list several ways below to help you determine how you go about partitioning your Mac.
For macOS High Sierra & Later Versions: Create A Volume
A new word here, Volume, is a storage container that a Mac can read. It include CDs, DVDs, SSDs and hard drives. If you are running macOS High Sierra or later versions on your Mac, then you can create a new volume. The term ‘partition’ is used in those Macs running lower versions.
So, here is the question: how to create a volume on Macs that are running macOS High Sierra or later versions? These later macOSs use a new file system - Apple File System (APFS). For those Macs using the APFS, you can use Disk Utility in MacOS to create a new volume. Below are the steps to follow.
- Open Disk Utility on your Mac.
- Click the drop-down menu and choose 'Show All Devices' option. Then select the disk you want to add the new volume to and hit the '+' button to add a new volume.
- Next, name your new volume and set it up accordingly by clicking on 'Size' Option. Then fill in the 'Reserve Size' and 'Quota Size' options.
- At last, you must click on 'Add' button to confirm your request.
For macOS Sierra & Lower Versions: Create A Partition
As mantioned above, for Macs that are running lower verisons, you can partition its hard drive. There are two methods that can create a partition on Mac. One is using Disk Utility and the other is using Boot Camp. Just keep reading!
Partition A Hard Drive For Windows And Mac
Method 1: Use Disk Utility to Partition A Hard Drive on Mac
The first way to do the disk partition on Mac is to use Disk Utility, which can repair and partition disk drive spaces from your Mac. Next, let's follow the procedure of Mac disk utility partition:
- Open Disk Utility application on your Mac.
- Next, you need to choose Mac's internal hard drive.
- Then click Partition option and click the add partition button: '+'.
- Now a new partition will show up, and you can change the size as indicated by what you need. Then give this new partition a name as you like.
- At last, you must click on 'Apply' button to confirm your request.
- You can also click on 'Revert' button to remove the partition on Mac.
When the process is done, you will have a new hard drive with available space. Just transfer anything you want and keep them in the new partition.
Method 2: Use Boot Camp to Partition A Hard Drive on Mac
As we mentioned above, you can run different operating systems on your Mac after partitioning a hard drive. So if you want to run Windows on another drive, this way is very helpful to get it done. Boot Camp is a pre-installed application in the later version of Mac. You can launch it and follow the steps below.
- Open Application > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant.
- Click on “Create or remove a Windows partition” option and hit “Continue” button.
- Then select a hard drive on your Mac for disk partition.
- Next, confirm the size of the partition for running Windows OS.
- At last, hit the Partition button and that is done.
Extra Tip: How to Resize or Delete Your Partition?
After talking about how to partition hard drive on Mac, we will guide you more extra tips in the next part. Let's check them out!
To Resize A Partition: Click on the 'Partition' option in Disk Utility and click the '+' or '-' button to change the size of your partition.
To Delete A Partition: Click on the 'Partition' tab in Disk Utility, then click the '-' sign and hit 'Remove' option to delete a partition.
What Are The Benefits and Risks of Partitioning A Mac?
Here are some of the benefits and risks of partitioning a hard drive on Mac that you must consider before going to do that. Let’s check them out:
Benefits of Partitioning A Mac:
How To Partition A Seagate External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
1. You can run more operating system
The main benefit that the Mac partition provides to you is, it will allow you to run two operating systems smoothly. You can also use the two different versions of one OS that means you can run on the two different partitions of the same device.
2. You can manage and format hard drive separately
The disk partition on Mac os x can allow you to manage both partitions in different ways. If you want to use another volume of the mac, it will require double space so, make a wise decision and select the right option according to the available space.
3. It will give you a private space
And you can enjoy the separated space for your essential documents, and the other partition can be used for general tasking. In this way, your essential data will be safe and sound, and no one can use it. The separate partition will allow you to use the Mac without any disturbance.
Risks of Partitioning A Mac:
When you partition your hard drive on Mac, a main risk of that is data loss. Actully you can avoid this by backing up your disk before partitioning your Mac. But if you forgot to backup your disk and lost some files after partitioning, don't worry. You can use Mac Data Recovery Tool to recover all the lost data on your Mac.
Partition Hard Drive For Windows And Mac
Conclusion
That's all on how to partition a Mac. You can easily follow the steps we listed above to do the disk partition by yourself. And remember to clean up your Mac before making a partition, the best choice for cleaning junk file on your Mac is to use Umate Mac Cleaner. Get started now! First, clean up your Mac and then create a partition on it.