How to create a new D drive (drive) or partition a C drive in Windows 11

Newly purchased computers generally only have a C drive, and some people may want to create a new drive.

This page will show you how to shrink C drive to create unallocated space and then allocate the unallocated space to a new drive.

In simple terms, it will shrink the unused part of your C drive by a specified size and allow you to use that space for your new drive.

Unused space refers to "free space" where no files are stored.

For example, if you look at the following image:

• The total capacity of the C drive is 463GB.
• C drive has 332GB of free space
• The used space on the C drive is "131GB (463 - 332)"

You can see that.

How to partition C drive

1.Start buttonRight-click > Disk Management.

2. Right-click on the C drive and click "Shrink Volume".

3. A screen will appear where you can select the size to reduce, so enter a value in the "Size of the area to reduce" field.

Please note that if you press the shrink button as is, you will end up with very little free space on your C drive.

4. Therefore, first make a note of the "size of the area to be reduced" and the "total size after reduction."

The total size after reduction in the image below is shown in MB, so it is 22039MB = 22GB and 39MB.

The recommended "total size after shrinking" is the "total size after shrinking" you noted down + 10GB (10000MB) to 15GB (15000MB).

You can decide how much you plan to use it in the future, but we recommend setting it a little higher (we'll explain why later).

In the above example, the calculation formula would be:

The noted "Size of the area to be reduced" - "Size to add to the total size after reduction" = 23635

38635 – 15000 = 23635

The "Size of area to shrink" is 23635.

5. Enter the size of the area to shrink.

6. The "Total size after shrinking" is now the "Total size after shrinking" you noted down + 15GB (15000MB), right?

7. Once you have confirmed, click the "Reduce" button.

8. Now unallocated space has been created and the capacity of the C drive has changed, right?

How to allocate the created unallocated space to a new drive?

1. Right-click on the unallocated space and click "New Simple Volume".

2. The "New Simple Volume Wizard" will appear, so click Next.

3. Do not do anything in "Specify Volume Size" and just click Next.

4. The "Assign Drive Letter or Path" screen will appear, and you can select the drive letter you want to assign to the right of "Assign the following drive letter."

The reason there is no "D" here is because "D" is assigned to the DVD drive or similar.

*In this case, the method to make it the D drive is explained below, so for now, select the displayed drive letter, orHow to display "D"(Click to scroll down)

5. Select the drive letter you want and click Next.

6. You can change the name of the volume in "Volume Label", but for now just click Next.

7. Click Finish.

Did you confirm that the E drive was created?

Rename the "Volume"

If you remember how to change the name of a drive (volume), you can change it at any time, so let's try changing it.

1. Right-click on the created E drive and click Properties.

2. Change the text shown in the arrow area of ​​the image below to your preferred name.

*Here, I changed it to "Download".

3. Once you have made your changes, click OK at the bottom.

The E drive has now been renamed.

The name of the drive displayed in File Explorer has also been changed, so please check it.

Reasons for setting the total size after reduction slightly larger

The reason for setting the total size after shrinking to a slightly larger value is that, for example, if you run out of space on your C drive, you will have to delete your E drive to increase the capacity of your C drive.

Let's look at the following image.

I'm running out of space on my C drive, so I'm trying to shrink my D drive to create unallocated space and allocate it to my C drive.

Now, notice where the unallocated space is shown in the image above.

It's to the right of the E drive, right? Now, let's try increasing the capacity of the C drive.

However, even if I try to increase the size, "Extend Volume" is grayed out and cannot be selected.

Next, what happens if you right-click on the E drive? You can select "Extend Volume" here, right?

in this way,You can only increase the capacity of a drive that has unallocated space to the right.

Therefore, we recommend that you set the total size after reduction to be slightly larger than necessary.

How to display "D" if it is not displayed when assigning a drive letter

Points to note

When changing the drive letter, be careful, for example, if the D drive is a DVD drive, make sure that another application is not set up to read the DVD drive.

Changing the drive letter means changing the path (file address).

If the D drive is not available when another app is trying to read from it, an error may occur when starting the app.

Also, if you have a different drive that is not a DVD driveDrive (partition)Also, be careful when changing drive letters when there are

For example, if you have installed an app on the E drive, changing it to the D drive may prevent the app from starting.

Many apps require you toRegistryWrites information such as the installation location to the and reads the information when the app starts.

If the drive letter has been changed, the information cannot be found and an error occurs.

Changing the drive letter is like moving and changing your address.

If you don't tell them where you're moving, they won't know where you've gone.

Before allocating unallocated space to a new drive

If you want to make the unallocated space into D drive, for example in the image below, you first need to change the drive letter of the DVD drive.

1. Right-click on the D drive in Disk Management and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

2. Click "Change".

3. Select a drive letter other than "D" and click OK.

4. A warning screen will appear. Please understand the precautions and click "Yes".

The drive letter will then be changed.

*If the DVD drive is in use, Explorer may open. If this happens, close it.

5.How to allocate the created unallocated space to a new drive?Go back and continue working.

If you have already created a new drive

If you have already created a new drive, for example, in the image below, if you want to change the E drive to D drive, you must first change the drive letter of the DVD drive.

1. Right-click on the D drive in Disk Management and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

2. Click "Change".

3. Select a drive letter other than "D" and "E" and click OK.

4. A warning screen will appear. Please understand the precautions and click "Yes".

The drive letter will then be changed.

*If the DVD drive is in use, Explorer may open. If this happens, close it.

6. Right-click on the E drive > click "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and change the drive letter to "D".