Windows 7: quick question on partitioning during Win7 installation

Hi all,



I have a new 320gig SATA drive on the way for my laptop. It's factory new so I assume it will be unallocated space with no file system.

What I would like to do is get 3 drives of approx 100gb each out of it.

During installation I understand I can choose "advanced disk options" and choose a new drive using all of my 320gb (about 298gb formatted) and format it as NTFS.

Can I then shrink / extend this 298gb drive to become 100gb, and then create a new drive in the extended 198gb section? Can I then format this as NTFS, and repeat the same step again to create a third drive?

Is this the best way to achieve my goal of 3 suable 100gb drives with C being the OS drive. I am not hung up about the hidden 100mb system bitlocker drive thats created, thats fine.

Any advice rgeatly appreciated. thanks so much.

You can attach the disk to a regular computer first. You can then format it to NTFS in disk management. I'd then use something like Acronis Disk Director Suite to setup the partitions how you'd like them to be. Use manual mode.

Please note, if you choose this way, Windows 7 will not create a special 100 mb partition which normally would house your booting files, as you've noted. Instead, it will place the booting files on the same partition as Windows itself. This is how I run.

When done, remove the drive and put it in laptop. Clean install Windows to the partition of your choosing.

Alternatively, you can install Windows straight to the unformatted disk on the laptop. After, you can use Acronis Disc Director Suite to shrink the partition and create new ones out of the empty space.

thanks for that torrentg. If I don't have a way to do the pre-partition option as you suggest, is it possible to partition up the drive during the installation of Win 7 using the advanced disk options during the drive selection steps?

Yeah. It will format and create a primary partition automatically for you when you choose the blank brand new drive you put in laptop and picked during the install.

grand, but can I also create D and E drives and then just choose C to install on.

No. You can't create extra partitions then during install. If you use Acronis inside Windows 7 once it is installed, it is quite simple to shrink the existing C: partition after and create D: and E: new ones in the unallocated space.

I have done it many times without the slightest glitch.

thats exactly the info I needed. Thanks torrentg I'll look into getting a copy of Acronis, or else pre partitioning the drive before installation.

thanks alot for your replies.

Very welcome. Anything you need, let us know!