SSD Partition question

Ready to reinstall W7 on a brand new (never used) SSD and want to partition it (2 partitions, one for OS, one for data) before I install the OS. I've only ever partitioned AFTER the OS was installed, so just want to know if there's a preferred method (DISKPART vs. disk management vs. 3rd party like minitool etc).

Thanks-

Benteke said:

Ready to reinstall W7 on a brand new (never used) SSD and want to partition it (2 partitions, one for OS, one for data) before I install the OS. I've only ever partitioned AFTER the OS was installed, so just want to know if there's a preferred method (DISKPART vs. disk management vs. 3rd party like minitool etc).

Thanks-

You can set the operating system partition size during the installation. Then use Disk Management after the installation to create the second partition from the remaining unallocated space.

See steps 6,7,8 and 9 in this tutorial.

Partition the Hard Drive in a Windows 7 Install

whs said:

I would use disk management. Just make sure the installer aligns the SSD - which it should.

SSD Alignment

I'll be using restore disks to install the OS and I don't remember seeing an option to partition the drive before installation the last time I ran them. If I wait till after the OS installation, I'll run into the same problem as I did on my current drive, (disk management couldn't shrink the boot partition smaller than 350GB AND couldn't delete the recovery partition - see attachment below), forcing me to have use 3rd party software to do so.... I just want to create two equal sized partitions on the new SSD.

whs said:

Disk management is limited in it's capabilities. That's why most of us use OEM programs to manipulate the disk layout. Nothing wrong with that.

So you're saying that I shouldn't use disk management to partition a brand new drive into two equal size partitions?

mjf said:

(Free) Partition Wizard is a more powerful tool. You can partition before or after the install. It also has an option to "align all partitions". I used this align capability on an SSD that had an OS installed but wasn't aligned.
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Thanks, I have PW free (bootable) on a flash drive but was just wondering if I should use that OR if it could be done using disk management or DISKPART (see OP). I was told it would be better to partition the new SSD before installing the OS.

whs said:

What I am saying is that not everything you'd like to do (e.g. shrink beyond the MFT) can be done with disk management.

Yes, I know this first hand.... see post #4. but I was using DM to shrink partitions after the OS install. I'm trying to find out the best tool to partition a new SSD prior to anything being placed on it.

whs said:

But if there are no partitions on the drive yet, that is a different story. Then you just have to make sure that the first partition you define takes only as much space as you want it to have - and not the whole disk.

Yes, the drive I want to partition is a brand new SSD. It's never been used, still sitting in the box. I was going to swap out my optical drive for the NEW SSD, start Win7 as usual (my main HDD) and then use either DISKPART or disk management to partition the SSD.