How to Create Partitions on a USB Drive in Windows 10/11 [Complete Guide]

By

Linda 

Written by

Sherly 

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Are you looking for ways to create partitions on a USB drive? This page has got you covered. It offers three methods to partition a USB drive to better manage your USB storage. First, let's understand the benefits of partitioning a USB drive.

Can I create partitions on a USB drive?

Indeed, you can. Starting with Windows 10 version 1703, Windows supports creating multiple partitions on removable media like USB drives. This way, you can have multiple partitions to utilize the space better. But what's the point of doing that? Read on to find out.

Support for mixed OS environments:

If your USB drive is formatted as exFAT, you can use it on Windows 10, but one day you might only have access to a Linux computer. Since the file system isn't compatible, you won't be able to access the files on the USB drive from this new computer. However, if you have an EXT4 partition on your USB drive, this problem goes away.

Better management:

Creating multiple partitions helps us classify files and quickly locate the ones we need. It also helps overcome limitations of different types of file systems.

However, do you know how to partition a USB drive? Don't worry. In the next part, you'll learn 3 ways to partition a USB drive, including a professional USB partition tool. Please share this post on social media to let more people know how to create partitions on a USB drive.

How to Create Partitions on a USB Drive

If you're new to USB partitions, this might sound a bit confusing. Don't worry though – we'll explain everything in detail in this guide. So just follow along step by step. First, let's take a look at what these three methods are.

Method 1: Create partitions on the USB drive with the tool Partition Master

Method 2: Create a partition on the USB drive using Disk Management

Method 3: Create a partition on the USB drive with Diskpart

Are you having a hard time choosing a suitable way? Don't worry. We have a table for you. As you can see, using Free Partition Manager is the best choice because it only takes 4 steps to complete the whole process.

Having chosen the most suitable method for you, we'll now look at how to use these tools to create partitions on your USB drive.

Method 1: Create partitions on USB drive with Partition Master

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a free disk management tool for all Windows users, compatible with all versions of Windows. It also has a clean interface and is user-friendly, allowing you to create partitions on a USB drive with just a few simple clicks. Download the tool now and give this guide a try.

Step 1. Launch Partition Master. Right click unallocated space on the hard drive or external storage device in the main window, and then choose "Create".

Step 2: Adjust the size, file system (select as appropriate for your needs), label, etc., of the new partition, and then click “OK” to proceed.

Step 3. Click the Run 1 Task button and create the new partition by clicking Apply.

Watch the following video tutorial to learn how to create partitions on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

Aside from creating partitions on a USB drive, the Partition Master tool has many other features. Let's learn more about this disk utility.

Other highlights of MiniTool Partition Wizard:

• Convert USB to bootable
• Run USB flash drive speed test
• Merge partitions on USB drive
• Fix error with USB having two partitions
• Copy operating system and data to another HDD/SSD
• Resize, delete, move, and extend partitions

Now, click on the button below and download this tool to quickly fix the disk partition problem.

Method 2: Create Partitions on the USB Drive Through Disk Management

What is Disk Management? It's a built-in utility in Windows that helps you manage disk partitions. In this section, we'll guide you through how to create a partition on a USB drive using Disk Management.

Step 1: Type “Create and format hard disk partitions” to open Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on the "Unallocated" space on your target USB drive and select "New Simple Volume".

Step 3: Determine the size of the volume with the New Simple Volume Wizard.

Step 4: Assign a drive letter to the new partition.

Step 5: Choose the file system you want and click “Next.”

Step 6: Click “Next” and then “Finish” to complete the process.

Incidentally, if you find “New Simple Volume” grayed out, this link might help.

How to Fix "New Simple Volume" Grayed Out in Windows Disk Management

Sometimes, the "New Simple Volume" option is grayed out when you try to create a new partition in Disk Management.

Method 3: Create partitions on a USB drive using the Diskpart command

Here you can learn how to use Diskpart commands to create partitions on a USB drive. Diskpart is also a great tool to manage your disk partitions with commands. Be careful while typing the commands as a mistake can lead to severe data loss.

Step 1: Right-click the Windows logo, and select “Run.” Type cmd, then press Enter.

Step 2: Type "diskpart" to launch Diskpart.exe.

Step 3. Press the «Enter» key after each of the following commands:

• List disks
• Select disk 1
• Create primary partition size=20480
• Assign letter=H
• Format fs=ntfs
• Exit

By the way, if you prefer to use Diskpart to delete a partition, we also have a guide prepared for you:

How to Delete All Partitions in Windows with DiskPart?

There are two commands in DiskPart that can be used to delete all partitions on a Windows computer. Each command is designed for a different purpose, as shown below.

Conclusions

This article will describe three ways to create multiple partitions on a USB drive. Each method is suitable for a different kind of user, but if you are new to computers or not very tech-savvy, Partition Master is the better choice because it is very easy to use.

Furthermore, if you have more questions, please proceed to the next paragraph.

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Frequently Asked Questions on How to Create Partitions on a USB Drive

If you're new to computers, you might find it difficult to create partitions on a USB drive. That's why we've listed three other questions that might help you out.

1. How can I create multiple partitions on a USB flash drive?

Normally, there are three ways to create multiple partitions on a USB flash drive. You can achieve this with Disk Management or Diskpart. However, if you're not a tech-savvy person, you can use tools like Partition Master to assist you.

2. Can I create two partitions on my USB drive?

Certainly, you can partition your USB drive and create multiple partitions on it as per your requirement.

3. How to partition a USB drive in Windows 10?

You can partition your USB drive using Diskpart. Follow these commands:

• List disks
• Select disk G
• Create primary partition with size 10240 MB
• Assign letter N as drive letter
• Format the file system as NTFS
• Exit

Replace “G, 10240, N, and ntfs” with the correct letter, volume, and file system format that you want to use.