New to this! Help Appreciated on HDD partition

[skifast9]

Hey guys, i'm new here and wanting to familiarize myself with the PC hardware/software and everything inbetween. First off I wanted to know how to partition a HDD and if it has to be blank in order to do so. Any help would be great.

Thanks!

 

[lentech]

Just use your setup disc. Then add partitions from the setup program. OR you can delete existing partitions. What OS are you using?

 

[skifast9]

Windows, its an external HDD. Does it need to be blank?

 

[MindoverMaster]

That would help us if you said that first.

I personally use GParted, a CD Boot. There's a link to the guide in my sig.

Otherwise, if you want an easier route, Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Computer Manager, Disk Management on the left.

You just need to partition it. It doesn't need to be blank to do so.

 

[skifast9]

Will it erase anything that is currently on the HDD?

 

[MindoverMaster]

To create a partition, you are formatting it into FAT32, NTFS, or whatever format you choose. Writing over any previous data.

 

[lentech]

Will it erase anything that is currently on the HDD?

Yes, always. If you are using it for storage then do a complete format with NTFS (NTFS is probably better then FAT32). GParted is a good program but Windows already has a computer management program built in; they call it a snap in.