diskmanagement

[diskmanagement]

Disk Management

Applies To: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012

Disk Management is a system utility in Windows that enables you to perform advanced storage tasks. Here are some of the things Disk Management is good

Initializing a virtual disk may be utilized to set up a new drive.

See Extend a basic volume to extend a volume into space that isn't already occupied by a volume on the same drive.

See Shrink a basic volume for instructions on how to shrink a partition, usually so you can extend an adjacent partition.

See Alter a drive letter for information on how to modify or assign a new drive letter.

To Initialize New Disks 1). Here's how to initialize a new disk using Disk Management. If you prefer using PowerShell, use the initialize-disk cmdlet instead. Open Disk Management with administrator permissions. To do so, in the search box on the taskbar, type Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) Disk Management, then select Run as administrator > Yes. If you can't open it as an administrator, type Computer Management instead, and then go to Storage > Disk Management.

2.) In Disk Management, right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click Initialize Disk (shown here). If the disk is listed as Offline, first right-click it and select Online. Note that some USB drives don't have the option to be initialized, they just get formatted and a drive letter.

3). In the Initialize Disk dialog box (shown here), check to make sure that the correct disk is selected, and then click OK to accept the default partition style. If you need to change the partition style (GPT or MBR) see About partition styles - GPT and MBR. The disk status briefly changes to Initializing and then to Online status. If initializing fails for some reason, see A disk's status is Not Initialized or the disk is missing entirely.). Select and hold (or right-click) the unallocated space on the drive and then select New Simple Volume.

4). Select and hold (or right-click) the unallocated space on the drive and then select New Simple Volume.

5). Select Next, specify the size of the volume (you'll likely want to stick with the default, which uses the whole drive), and then select Next.

6). Specify the drive letter you want to assign to the volume and then select Next.

7). Specify the file system you want to use (usually NTFS), select Next, and then Finish.

Warning! If your disk already has files on it that you care about, don't initialize it - you'll lose all the files. Instead, we recommend troubleshooting the disk to see if you can read the files - see A disk's status is Not Initialized or the disk is missing entirely.