Creating a Primary Partition or Volume on Windows Using Diskpart [Beginner's Guide]

Updated by

Tracy King 

Updated on April 22, 2024

Key Insights

This article introduces two ways to create a primary partition – using DiskPart (an integrated tool, full-featured) and Partition Master Free (a third-party app, easy-to-use).

Create partition with DiskPart and create primary partition
An easy way to create primary partition - Use Partition Master Tool
Frequently Asked Questions about Creating Primary Partition

Should a primary partition be created?

Creating a primary partition is crucial for installing an operating system on your computer. By creating a primary partition, you effectively divide your hard drive into distinct sections, which can enhance organization and performance. It can also serve as a security measure, preventing unauthorized access to important data.

Creating a Partition and a Primary Partition by Using DiskPart

DiskPart is a text-mode disk partition utility that comes with Microsoft Windows. It enables users to create, delete, and format disk partitions, as well as modify other attributes. DiskPart can create primary or extended partitions on both MBR and GPT disks.

View volumes created with DiskPart:

Step 1: Open the Command Prompt on your Windows computer.

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the "Run" box. 2. Type "cmd", then click "OK".

Run cmd from the "Run" box

Or search for “Command Prompt” in the search box.

Step 2: Type diskpart, and press Enter.

Step 3. In the Disk Management window, type the following:

list disk (This will list all the storage devices currently in use, so you can see which one you want to create a primary partition on.)

Select disk X (where X is the number of the disk you selected in the previous step, such as select disk 1)

Create primary partition size=X (if you want to create an extended or logical partition, the command would be "create partition extended" or "create partition logical")

assign letter=X (where X is a new letter for the drive, such as D, E, or F. To avoid conflicts, you can check which letters are in use by looking at This PC > Devices and drives in File Explorer.)

Create a system volume

"DiskPart Tutorial for Creating Partitions/Volumes"

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A simple alternative to create a primary partition – Use Partition Master Tool

DiskPart does a great job with primary partitions, but it has some limitations – especially for novices.

• Difficult to use for beginners: Requires elevation to admin privileges and entering correct commands line by line (we get many support emails about mistyped commands or questions on how to set partition sizes). • Cannot be stopped manually. • Cannot expand the system volume.

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To avoid these limitations, it's more responsible to use another partitioning tool. You're lucky because AOMEI Partition Assistant is a simple yet professional partition manager that offers an intuitive interface and features for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Server users. You can create a volume in three steps:

Step 1. Launch tools Partition Master. On the main interface, right-click on the "Unallocated" space on the hard drive or external storage device and select "Create".

Step 2. Adjust the size of the new partition, the file system (choose according to your needs), the label, and so on, then click “OK” to proceed.

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

Watch this video tutorial to learn how to create a partition on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

How to Create a Volume or Partition with Diskpart?

Diskpart is an inbuilt disk utility that offers various methods to help you create partitions and manage volumes in Windows 11/10. Our article will show you how to create a partition with Diskpart and other Diskpart commands.

Frequently Asked Questions about Creating Primary Partitions

Still have questions about "Create Primary Partition with DiskPart"? Want to use another tool? We've collected the most popular questions from Google searches.

How to Create a Primary Partition in Disk Management?

Frankly, it's not available here.

To create a partition, unallocated space is needed:

1. Right-click the Windows logo and select Disk Management.

Select the disk you want to create partitions on.

3. Right click on the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume" from the list.

4. Select the file system, then click “Next.”

Is C drive the primary partition?

When a computer first boots up, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) retrieves information about the boot process from the Master Boot Record (MBR) on the primary partition of the hard drive. The primary partition is typically designated as Drive C. From the MBR, the BIOS passes control to the boot loader, which is responsible for loading the operating system. In most cases, the primary partition contains all the critical files needed to start the OS, including the kernel, drivers, and system files. Thus, it's usually only a damaged operating system that can be deleted or formatted by the primary partition.

What is a primary partition in Windows 10?

A primary partition is a type of partition used to store an operating system and its files. In Windows 10, the primary partition is typically the C: drive. You can create a primary partition during the Windows installation process or after you've installed Windows.

How to create primary and extended partitions?

You must use a third-party partitioning tool to create primary and extended partitions. After starting the tool, you must first create an extended partition. Within the extended partition, you can create one or more primary partitions. Within an extended partition, you can create as many logical partitions as you want, but a disk can have no more than four primary partitions. Creating primary and extended partitions helps organize your hard drive and makes it more efficient.