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Ultimate Guide: Does Partitioning a Drive Erase Data?
This article will discuss “Does partitioning a drive erase data?”, not only will it give an answer, but also what partitioning is, how it works, and how to use it. All of these are important to know before partitioning.
By Ivy / Updated on January 8, 2025
Does Partitioning a Drive Erase Data?
“Will partitioning my drive erase any data, or will it move to one side of the partition?”
You'll probably see a lot of similar questions on the Internet, and the answers varies. So, does partitioning a drive erase data? To find out for sure, you need to know what is partitioning and how it works.
“Partitioning” is usually a process by which a computer divides an entire disk into one or more sections, each of which is independent and operates independently of the others. This allows you to install Windows or store data on different partitions.
If you partition a new hard drive or SSD, it doesn’t matter as there’s no data on it. If it’s a used drive, it’s likely to cause data loss due to unexpected factors, such as:
- delete or format partitions wrongly
- the repartitioning process being interrupted
- use of unreliable third-party software, etc
Why Do You Need to Partition a Drive?
Here are 4 main causes of partitioning a drive. You can check them in this handy table below:
| Possible Causes | Description |
|---|---|
| 📄Partitioning the disk for data storage | In any computer, you can only use the disk after partitioning. So users need to partition a drive before installing Windows or storing data on it. |
| ⛔Reduce the risk of data loss | Partitioning a hard drive into multiple partitions allows you to store Windows, applications, and all data in different partitions, making it easier to organize and find data and reducing the risk of data loss due to system crashes or other computer issues. |
| 💾Resize the partition for more space | You may want to extend a partition to increase disk space, shrink a partition to extend the space of another partition, or create a new partition for better data organization. |
| 💻Partition a drive for dual-boot system | If you want to dual-boot different systems, it’s necessary to create two primary partitions at least and format them with compatible file systems. |
How to Partition a Hard Drive Safely
Windows provides users with “Disk Management”or “Command Prompt”to partition a hard drive. I prefer a tool that is user-friendly, simple and easy to operate, which applies to most users. Disk Management is such a software you can use:
Step 1: Press the Win+R keys to open the Run window. Then, type diskmgmt.msc in the dialog window and click OK.
Step 2: In Disk Management, right-click on the drive you want to partition and then choose a feature in the prompted menu. All of them help to partition a drive.
- New Simple Volume: create partitions with unallocated space (if available). If not, you can shrink or delete a partition to get it first.
- Extend Volume: extend space on a partition using adjacent unallocated or free space.
- Shrink Volume: shrink a partition to extend space for another partition or create a new one using the unallocated space.
- Delete Volume: delete the entire partition and data on it.
- Format: format the partition with a compatible file system, such as NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, exFAT, etc. All data on it will be deleted as well. Please think twice before deciding.
Step 3: After selecting the way to partition a drive, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process.
How to Recover Data from a Partitioned Drive
If you happen to lose data on a partitioned drive, you can attempt to use powerful data recovery software. MyRecover, with its user-friendly interface and advanced scanning technologies, which make data recovery easy and efficient, will be a good choice.
❤❤❤ Why Choose MyRecover?
✔ It has a free version that can recover data up to 500MB.
✔ Recover data in more than 1000 formats, such as documents (DOCX, XLSX, CSV, PDF, PPT), images(JPG, PNG, GIF, PSD), videos(MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, X3F), etc.
✔ Search or filter data quickly through file name, extension, data type, etc.
✔ Preview and recover files while scanning.
✔ Selectively restore files, not all of them.
✔ Recover data from specific locations (e.g. Recycle Bin), deleted or lost, formatted, RAW partition, or entire disk in less time.
✔ Work perfectly with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS file systems.
Now, click the download button to get started. Be sure to install this software to another location instead of the partitioned drive. Otherwise, your data may be overwritten.
Step 1. Scan the Partitioned Drive
Launch this Windows data recovery software - MyRecover. By default, it will display the Deleted File Recovery window. Hover the mouse over the partitioned drive and click Scan. You can also select other options according to your scenario or the drive you are using.
Step 2. Search for Recoverable Data
MyRecover can automatically scan the selected drive to find deleted or lost files. You can use search & filter features to locate them quickly without waiting for the final result:
- click the funnel-shaped button to specify the data type (e.g. Documents, Images, Videos, etc) to target the filter range.
- If necessary, set the size, from less than 512KB to 1GB above.
- Then, type the file name or extension in the search box to narrow it down.
Step 3. Recover Data from Partitioned Drive
Once found, double-click them to preview and select the desired files by ticking the checkboxes or leaving the unwanted files blank. Then, click the Recover button and select a new location to save the recovered files.
Conclusion
Does partitioning a drive erase data? The answer is NO if it’s a new hard drive or you don’t delete or format the drive. This means there is still a slight chance of data loss, but not impossible. It’s necessary to backup files or entire drives to protect data safely.
As long as you have reliable data recovery software, i.e. MyRecover, you don’t need to worry about data loss. Its advanced scanning technologies can help retrieve data from partitioned drives and the scanning time and recovery speeds depend on the way you scan the drive to some extent.
FAQs
1. Does formatting disk erase data?
2. Is it a good idea to partition your hard drive?
3. Can you partition a hard drive without losing data?
Yes, if you plan to partition a drive, you can choose to backup files (if there are) in advance. Then, open CMD with the administrator and try the following commands to select the partition:
- diskpart
- list disk
- select disk x (x stands for the number of the disk you want to partition)
- list partition
- select partition y (y represents the drive letter of the partition)
After selecting the partition, you can format, resize (extend or shrink), delete, or make other changes by typing the corresponding commands.
- format fs=ntfs quick or format fs=fat32 quick
- delete partition
- shrink desired=sizeor shrink size=z (z refers to the space you want to shrink)
- extend size=z (z refers to the space you want to extend)
- ....
4. Is it safe to partition a C drive?
5. Does partitioning a drive make it faster?
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