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Partitioning a hard drive is a fairly simple operation with the
utility tool already installed on Windows XP. However, if you have
difficulty finding the desktop on your computer, you'll want to leave
this job to someone with a little more experience.
Go to your control panel and click on Administrative Tools
 From there, go to Computer Management
Click on Storage, then Disk Management (local)
 Now
that Disk Management is open you will see a list of all the volumes, or
hard drives that are attached to your computer. For ease of
explanation, I will assume that we are partitioning an empty external
hard drive. (I also strongly recommend partitioning only empty drives
because you run the risk of splitting your data between partitions
otherwise and that's not a good thing.)
From the list of volumes,
click on the empty hard drive that you wish to partition. Below the
list of volumes, your selected disk will be highlighted.
Right
click on the unallocated space of the drive. Select Make New Partition.
If you do not see Make New Partition then select: Delete Partition. Once deleted, right click again and select Make New Partition.(If
you're wondering why there is a partition on your new drive it is
because the manufacturers have made small partition on the drive
already to store important system or drive information. The larger
portion that is empty sometimes is partitioned in the process.)
Now
the Partition Wizard will be open and follow the directions to name
your volumes, and allocate the space on the drive anyway you want.
The benefits of partitioning your hard drive(s) are: Organization of
our data, Enhancement of your computers performance Securing sensitive
information
My PC drive is partitioned in two large halves. I
keep all my programs on the system half, and all my digital files (of
which there are many on the other half.)
On my external hard
drive, which is partitioned into three segments, is where I keep my
backups and information that would be save me from tragedy should my
hard drive crash and burn.
NOTE: You must have an Administrator type user account to perform this function.
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