Create and format a hard disk partition
On a previous post, I suggested to have “Documents” folders store files on a separate partition. This is important in case u have or want to reinstalled Vista, as ur data will not be affected. To do this, u must have a separate hard drive or a drive partitioned in two or more volumes. If u only have one hard drive with one partition, u can use Vista to create another partition.
Here’s is how:
1. Click Start and type Management on search box, or click Start, right click Computer and click Manage.
2. Click Disk Management under Storage.
3. Right-click the drive u want to add your partition to and select Shrink Volume
4. Decide how much room u want to allocate to the new partition; e.g. If ur hard disk has 60GB and u want to allocate 20GB for ur data, u must shrink the partition to 40GB.
5. Now right click the Unallocated partition u just created and select New Simple Volume.
6. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next.
7. U can either create a custom size volume in MB or accept the maximum default size, and click Next.
8. Select the default drive letter or choose a different letter and click Next.
9. Click Next to format the partition and then click Finish.
To have ur Documents point to the new partition automatically, do the following:
1. Click Start and right click Documents.
2. Click Properties and select the Location tab
3. On the Location Tab, change the drive letter to the letter corresponding to the drive you just create: e.g. if the new hard drive letter is “D”, then change this C:\Users\Administrator\Documents, to read like this D:\Users\Administrator\Documents.
4. Click OK
5. When ask Do you want to create the folder, select Yes.
6. When ask Do you want to move old files to new location, select Yes.
7. You r done. Now whenever u save a file, it will be stored in ur new partition.
Happy computing.