Using Microsoft Diskpart To Create Single Partition On Hard Disk

We can consider hard disk as the most crucial part inside a personal computer. Without hard disk, the personal computer has no meaning in term of usage. The users cannot save their important data even they totally cannot use their personal computer to manage their daily work.

But, before it available to be used, hard disk should be managed or prepared. Usually, many people will use the free utilities or trial software which can be downloaded from the Internet or some of them are more convenient to use the built-in utilities provide by operating system or its pre-installation OS itself.

For Windows users, they have an option to use Microsoft Diskpart. Microsoft Diskpart is the command line utility that can be used to partition the computer hard disk and also the external disk like thumb drive. It is the replacement for fdisk utility which built-in inside MS DOS. In comparison, Microsoft Diskpart is built-in inside Windows PE also inside Windows OS itself, (Windows XP till Windows 7).

For users who use Windows 2000 OS versions, you can download Microsoft Diskpart from Microsoft website and install it into the system.


Click Here To Download.  

 
IN THIS ARTICLE I WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO CREATE A SINGLE PARTITION ON COMPUTER HARD DISK USING MICROSOFT DISKPART. 



What You Need

1. Windows PE boot CD. You can create it using Microsoft WAIK for Windows Vista. Click here for the guide.

Before The Procedures

1. Power on the computer –-> insert Windows PE boot CD into CD-ROM drive –-> press to boot from CD –-> wait until Windows PE finish loading into system memory
   
   
   
   
   
2. After a couple of minutes, you will see the command line below
   
   
   
   
   
3. Based on above, type diskpart –-> press --> the Microsoft Diskpart utility will run inside Windows PE command line. See below.  
   
   
   
   
   
4. Type list disk –-> press --> Diskpart will list the disk attached to the computer. See below
   
   
   
   Based on above, you noticed it is the single hard disk (Disk 0) inside the computer. 
   
   Note:
   If you attached the external disk such as thumb drive to your personal computer, Diskpart will list it as Disk 1. See below
   
    
   For your information Disk 0 always represent the primary hard disk inside the computer.

The Procedures

Now, you want to create a single partition for primary hard disk. So, you need to perform the following steps

1. Select the primary hard disk, by typing select disk 0 –-> press . 
   
   
   
   
2. Erase data inside it (primary hard disk) by typing clean –-> press .
   
   
   
   Note:
   Please make sure you have selected the disk which you want to erase by using the select disk command. Else, the message below will appears
   
   
   
   
   
3. After hard disk had been erased, you can create a partition on it by typing create partition primary –-> press .
   
   
   
   
   
4. The hard disk now has its own partition. Then, you need to make the partition active by typing active –-> press .
   
   
   
   
   
5. Now, you need to format the hard disk partition where you had made it active. Type format fs=ntfs quick –-> press .
   
   
   
   Note:
   Maybe it is worth to explain what I understand about these two Diskpart commands, CLEAN and FORMAT. Actually both processes can result the data loss inside the primary hard disk.
   
   Using the clean command, you will erase the entire hard disk’s configuration including its partition. But, when you use the format command, you only erase the data inside hard disk partition without destroying the partition itself.
   
   For example, your computer hard disk has two partitions. You may use format command to erase data inside one of the partition without need “to disturb” the another partition. But, if you use the clean command, both partitions will destroy and result the data loss.
   
   
   
6. After the formatting process finish, you need to assign drive letter to the hard disk partition.
   
   Thus, you must type assign letter = <drive letter> –-> press .
   
    
   
   Note:
   If you create only single partition on your computer hard disk, you can assign its drive letter as c:
   
   
   
7. Finally, type exit –-> press to exit the Microsoft Diskpart utility.
   
   

After The Procedures

Maybe you need to view the disk partition you created using Microsoft Diskpart. If you want to do it, you can follow the steps below

1. Run the Microsoft Diskpart again by typing diskpart –-> press .
   
   
2. Type select disk 0 –-> press .
   
   
3. Type list partition –-> press .

The Summary

1. The procedures in this article is very suitable to be applied if you want to deploy Windows using image file (.wim) into your personal computer. To create an image file, you can refer to my 7 series’ articles, Windows Vista Deployment Using Microsoft WAIK. The procedures above must be done BEFORE you start the deployment process.
   
   
2. If you want to create partition for your primary hard disk, you must use Microsoft Diskpart which built-in inside Windows PE.
   
    
3. If you want to create partition for your thumb drive, you can use Microsoft Diskpart which built-in inside Windows operating system. The procedures to create is almost the same with the procedures I listed above.