Results for Hard Disk & Storage

Create a New Partition on a Windows 7/8/8.1/10 Hard Disk

October 14, 2017

This wanem online guide teaches you how to divide your computer's hard drive into two distinct sections (or "partitions"). Partitioning a hard drive allows you to treat the hard drive like two separate hard drives, which is helpful when installing multiple operating systems on one computer. You can partition your hard drive on both Windows and Mac computers.

The Windows 7/10 Disk Management tool provides a simple interface for managing partitions and volumes.

Here’s an easy way to create a new partition on your disk.
  1. Open the Disk Management console by typing diskmgmt.msc at an elevated command prompt. 
  2. In Disk Management’s Graphical view, right-click an unallocated or free area, and then click New Simple Volume. This starts the New Simple Volume Wizard. (Note: If you need to create unallocated space.
  3. Read the Welcome page and then click Next. 
  4. The Specify Volume Size page specifies the minimum and maximum size for the volume in megabytes and lets you size the volume within these limits. Size the partition in megabytes using the Simple Volume Size field and then click Next. 
  5. On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, specify whether you want to assign a drive letter or path and then click Next. The available options are as follows: 
  6. Assign The Following Drive Letter Select an available drive letter in the selection list provided. By default, Windows 7 selects the lowest available drive letter and excludes reserved drive letters as well as those assigned to local disks or network drives.
    Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder Choose this option to mount the partition in an empty NTFS folder. You must then type the path to an existing folder or click Browse to search for or create a folder to use.
    Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path Choose this option if you want to create the partition without assigning a drive letter or path. Later, if you want the partition to be available for storage, you can assign a drive letter or path at that time.
    Use the Format Partition page to determine whether and how the volume should be formatted. If you want to format the volume, choose Format This Volume With The Following Settings, and then configure the following options: File System Sets the file system type as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is selected by default in most cases. If you create a file system as FAT or FAT32, you can later convert it to NTFS by using the Convert utility. You can’t, however, convert NTFS partitions to FAT or FAT32.
    Allocation Unit Size Sets the cluster size for the file system. This is the basic unit in which disk space is allocated. The default allocation unit size is based on the size of the volume and, by default, is set dynamically prior to formatting. To override this feature, you can set the allocation unit size to a specific value. If you use many small files, you might want to use a smaller cluster size, such as 512 or 1,024 bytes. With these settings, small files use less disk space.
    Volume Label Sets a text label for the partition. This label is the partition’s volume name and by default is set to New Volume. You can change the volume label at any time by right-clicking the volume in Windows Explorer, choosing Properties, and typing a new value in the Label field provided on the General tab.
    Perform A Quick Format Tells Windows 7 to format without checking the partition for errors. With large partitions, this option can save you a few minutes. However, it’s usually better to check for errors, which enables Disk Management to mark bad sectors on the disk and lock them out.
    Enable File And Folder Compression Turns on compression for the disk. Built-in compression is available only for NTFS. Under NTFS, compression is transparent to users and compressed files can be accessed just like regular files. If you select this option, files and directories on this drive are compressed automatically. 
  7. Click Next, confirm your options, and then click Finish. 
  8. The Windows 7 Disk Management tool will now show the space configured as a new partition.


Create a New Partition on a Windows 7/8/8.1/10 Hard Disk Create a New Partition on a Windows 7/8/8.1/10 Hard Disk Reviewed by Wanem Club on October 14, 2017 Rating: 5

Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage

October 11, 2017

Cloud storage can get pricey no matter how good the bargain. That's why Zoolz offers a smarter way to purchase cloud backup based on tiered solutions meant to suit your particular needs. With this lifetime of Cold Storage and Instant Vault, you'll have an extremely affordable place to safely store massive amounts of data that rarely gets revisited, as well as a home for 1TB of data you need to access regularly. This is an extremely affordable solution for that entire mountain of files. 

4.5/5 Stars, Reviewster 
Named the Number 1 Best Business Cloud Storage Service by TopTenReviews 

  • Store 1TB of Instant Vault data & 1TB of Cold Storage data for life, w/ no additional costs
  • Quickly & easily select the files you want to store w/ Smart Selection
  • Retrieve stored files in approximately 3-5 hours
  • Enjoy great features: bandwidth throttling, icon overlay, file retention & more
  • Preview thumbnails of images
  • Get reliability w/ data stored over multiple facilities & devices
Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage Reviewed by Wanem Club on October 11, 2017 Rating: 5

How to Manage Your Hard Drive Partitions

October 11, 2017


The hard disk is the hardware component where the data is stored. Basically, everything you keep on your PC is there: the operating system, applications, files, etc. A partition is a logical division of the hard drive, which is capable of acting like an individual entity. Theoretically, you can have just one single partition on a hard disk but that's very counterproductive as every time you will need to format the drive (and it will happen), you will lose all the data. This is why knowing how to create, delete, extend or shrink partitions is highly useful. Here's what you need to know:

Managing hard disk partitions without third-party software


Windows ships out with its own partition management tool so you don't have to install additional software if you don't want to. This guide is made for Windows 7 as it is the most popular in the world at the moment, but if you have a different version of the operating system, things aren't very different. In order to access the partition manager, you will need to go to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools and a new window will be automatically launched. Once there, click on the Disk Management button in the Storage category (in the left column). After a short period of time, during which the tool identifies your hard-disk and its partitions, you will have full access to play around with anything you want. However, don't mess around with drive C: (or whichever other partition you use to boot) as you might lose the operating system along with all the data on it. Furthermore, having a bootable recovery disk at hand could also prove to be prudent.

While in the Disk Management window, right-clicking on a drive allows you to shrink, extend, delete, format or change the letter of that respective partition:
  • Shrinking a partition will decrease the amount of space on it while the surplus left will be transformed into unused space(which can be afterwards transformed into a new partition)
  • Extending a partition allows you to increase the storage space of the specified drive but requires you to have unused space at your disposal,
  • Deleting a partition will completely remove the respective drive and all the data stored on it, transforming into unused space.
  • Formatting a partition is a process that makes the respective drive "usable" for Windows. It transforms unused space into an area that the operating system can work with. In most cases, you will have to choose between FAT32 and NTFS (modern operating systems utilize the latter).
  • Changing the letter is pretty much self-explanatory. It lets you modify the letter of the respective partition. In case you have a large number of drives, this could help you easily distinguish between the ones you use for booting, for applications of for movies. Certain letters may be reserved for specific devices, so you won't be able to use them.
One thing to remember is that every operating system will steal space when creating partitions. What I mean is that if you have 500GB of unused space, partitioning it will result in a drive with a slightly smaller capacity. The more partitions you create the more space will disappear (will be reserved by the operating system, rather) and while the percentage of the space that goes missing is insignificant, if you work with huge amounts of space (>TB), you may notice a couple of missing GB.

Alternative solutions

If the partition manager provided by Windows is too difficult to control or doesn't provide the functionality that you require, you can always try alternative solutions. Here a few applications that will help you deal with your partitioning tasks for free:
The free version of EaseUS Partition Master(called Home Edition) is one of the best solutions that you can find. Besides the usual functions, such as creating new partitions and deleting, resizing or shrinking them, this tool can also perform a few neat tricks, such as moving or hiding and unhiding your drives (all without risking data loss). Furthermore, this tool offers a copy wizard which will offer you a very easy way to extend a partition while also keeping all your files intact. EaseUS Partition Master can simultaneously work with 32 storage devices, supports drives of up to 4TB and is even capable of performing operations on partitions specific to Linux operating systems (EXT2/EXT3).
Paragon Partition Manager is another reliable solution. Even though the link I provided says shareware, the application has a free trial version called Paragon Partition Manager 14 Free. What's really cool about this application is that it was designed to help users manage their partitions without risking data loss, thanks to its patented technology. Partition Manager 14 Free only offers basic functionality (creating new partitions, deleting existing ones, resizing drives and formatting them), but regular users won't need much more than that. Add to that its well-designed interface and the several wizards that will assist you in your tasks, and you have a free partition manager that anyone can use.
Minitool Partition Wizard Home Edition may be the last entry on our list, but that surely doesn't mean that it's not an effective partition manager. This tool will help you create, extend, shrink, delete, format, change drive letters and copy disk partitions. Another really interesting feature is that the application is capable of converting your FAT32 drives into NTFS partitions. Additional functionality includes the ability to test the disk surface, rebuild the Master Boot Record (MBR), and a 1GB data recovery tool.
How to Manage Your Hard Drive Partitions How to Manage Your Hard Drive Partitions Reviewed by Wanem Club on October 11, 2017 Rating: 5
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