The hard drive stores all the files on your computer. The work of each program and even the operating system itself depends largely on the work of your hard disk... Therefore, it is important that it is in perfect condition and optimized.

Optimizing hard drive performance in Windows 7

Optimizing a disk is a complex process that involves several steps. These steps differ depending on whether you are using an SSD or HDD.

Advanced Disk Cleanup in Windows 7

The first step in optimizing disk performance should be to clean it up. Temporary files and other debris accumulate on the disk over time and slow down its work. To remove them, we will use system utility Disk Cleanup. We do the following:

In addition, you can delete additional files in the "Clear system files". But that's not all. You can access Advanced Disk Cleanup by entering the command in command line... For this:

Defragmenting a disk in Windows 7

Defragmenting the hard disk is the basis for its optimization. If over time your disk starts to work slower than before, and the response when opening files and launching programs has become much greater, then your hard disk needs to be defragmented. By itself, this process consists in moving fragments of files to each other for more quick access to them. The need for defragmentation arises when these pieces are recorded on different parts of the disk during active disk use.

During the defragmentation process, all red areas will appear side by side, providing quick access to the file

Defragment your disk as needed. Before defragmenting, let the utility analyze the fragmentation of all partitions and issue a report. If the share of fragmented files is 10% or more, then it is worth defragmenting them, but if less than 10%, then defragmentation can be delayed.

Operating room default Windows system 7 enabled automatic defragmentation. It is tuned for Wednesday and turns on at night. However, depending on your computer work schedule, this may not be enough, or the defragmentation process may be interrupted by you. In this case, you need to start it manually. This is done as follows:

It is worth mentioning that defragmentation is a rather lengthy process. You may have to wait for several hours.

Video: How to Defragment a Disk on Windows 7

Optimizing an SSD drive on Windows 7

If you have an SSD drive, the situation is slightly different. It does not require defragmentation, and the system takes this into account. Automatic defragmentation will not be performed when using an SSD. But in the case of such a drive, there are a number of other actions that can contribute to increasing the speed of the disk. And instead of tweaking SSD storage manually, it will be easier to use a special program - SSD Mini Tweaker.

After downloading the program from the Internet and downloading it, do the following:

A complex setup for your SSD has been completed. Of course, you can tweak most of these options yourself, but it will take much longer. And also you can get information about each option that this program changes if you read the reference data.

In the help, you will find information about all the settings of the SSD drive.

Video: how to set up a system for an SSD using SSD Mini Tweaker

Disk Management Utility

You may need to have access to the disk management system to set up a disk. With its help, you can change the drive letter, divide the disk into virtual volumes, or, conversely, combine them together, which can be convenient for creating a separate partition under operating system... In the future, this can help avoid the loss of important data and provide an opportunity to format the partition without the risk of deleting necessary files.

To interact with the disk, use the context menu: it is called by pressing the right mouse button

To open Disk Management in Windows 7, just call the Run menu by pressing the Win + R keyboard shortcut and enter the command "diskmgmt.msc" there.

Enter the command "diskmgmt.msc" and click "OK"

Actions in the dispatcher itself are performed mainly using context menu... That is, it is enough to select the required disk and call up the menu by pressing the right mouse button.

Fixes errors with hard disk

Let's figure out how to solve the most common errors that may arise with your hard drive.

Disc is defined as dynamic foreign (undefined)

If you find in the manager that the disk is not defined as basic, but as dynamic with the postscript "undefined" or "foreign", then most likely you will not be able to access the data on this disk.

Dynamic foreign disk will not work properly

You can fix this error with special programs... To fix it, we need to convert the dynamic disk back to basic, and this can be done using de paid program TestDisk or paid Acronis Disk Director. The possibilities of a paid program, of course, are much wider, and we will analyze this process using its example. Do the following:

Of course, if a malfunction occurs on a disk with an installed operating system, you will not be able to access it. The solution here is simple - insert the disk into another computer as an additional one and perform all the actions you need, and then put it back in place when the disk is restored.

Video: Working with Acronis Disk Director

Windows 7 detects a hard drive failure

If, during any check, the system displays a message about a problem with the hard disk, the first thing you should do is create a backup copy of the necessary files. While your disk is still functional, copy all the necessary files from the disk to another drive or upload them to the cloud. This can later help you rescue these files if the problems get worse.

You can determine which drive you are having a problem with by carefully examining the error message. The letter designation of the virtual disk partition will be indicated there.

At the bottom of the notification, you will see the drive letter

The error could arise for the following reasons:

• problems appeared directly with the drive itself. This may be due to physical damage or contamination. In this case, it is recommended that you return your drive to service center to diagnose and fix problems;
• operating system problems. If certain system files are damaged by viruses, the error may appear on its own for no reason on the part of the disk. In this case, it is recommended to check the system antivirus software, and then restore damaged files using the installation disk.

Regardless of the cause of the problem, the best you can do is save your files ahead of time. If the error message continues to appear and you want to get rid of it, you can disable the disk diagnostic system. This is done as follows:

Formatting the disk for installing the Windows 7 operating system

For more effective work disk at reinstalling Windows it is recommended to format it, that is, to completely clean the disk from files on it. You can format the disk right during Windows installations 7. Be sure to do backups all necessary files, as formatting will completely delete them. To start formatting:

Thus, formatting is carried out quickly and without much frills. In addition, it is possible to perform formatting using special programs. For example, there is such an opportunity in the above-mentioned Acronis Disk Director program. The program must be written to the disc, and the disc itself must be selected as the boot device. This can be done in Boot menu BIOS or by pressing the appropriate key when turning on the computer (depending on your BIOS version).

Install CD / DVD as the first Boot device

After the disk with the program is loaded, we do the following:

Disk programs

There are many programs that can help you optimize, clean, or otherwise manipulate your drives. Let's analyze the possibilities of some of them.

CCleaner disk cleaner

Disk cleanup includes deleting temporary files and installed applications at the user's choice. Good program cleaning tool can delete the cache of your browser and temporary files of various programs, carry out system diagnostics. And one of best programs in this area is CCleaner. This program has the following features:

• system cleaning automation;
• completely harmless and safe cleaning of temporary files, as well as analysis of registry damage and its correction;
• work with all popular browsers.

The program interface is simple and convenient, suitable for beginners who want to regularly clean their computer of garbage. In addition, the free version of the program is not limited in functionality and has the same features as the paid one.

CCleaner helps you set up startup applications, which will also speed up your computer.

CCleaner is a popular disk cleaner

Video: CCleaner and its main functions

EaseUS Disk Copy hard drive cloning software

In this case, cloning means the transfer of information from one disk to another. This can be extremely helpful when reinstalling your system. EaseUS Disk Copy is a great free solution for this task. It is different:

• the ability to work with any operating system;
• support for disks up to a terabyte;
• high cloning speed;
• simple interface for novice users;
• support for dynamic disks.

In general, it does an excellent job with the task for which it was created, and its only serious drawback is the absence of the Russian language in the program.

EaseUS Disk Copy - disk cloning software

Recovering disk partitions with Starus Partition Recovery

In the event of a damaged hard disk partition, one of the special recovery programs - Starus can help Partition Recovery... She copes well with this task. The main features of this program:

• deep scan of the disk for damage;
• recovery of partitions that have been damaged or deleted;
• recovery of information on any type of media;
• comprehensive disk analysis.

The program is considered simple and effective among the users.

Starus Partition Recovery can repair damaged partitions of your disk

DAEMON Tools disk drive emulation software

If you are going to reinstall the system, you cannot do without a flexible tool for creating virtual disks. DAEMON Tools Lite or another version of DAEMON Tools will help you create installation disc or make virtual disks. The program also makes it possible to create several virtual drives immediately and their simultaneous use.

It is easy to work in this program, but the limitations free version programs are not very visible.

DAEMON Tools - a program for creating and using virtual disks

Video: DAEMON Tools Lite program overview

It is important to know how to tune your hard drive to work efficiently. The disk optimization process is not one-time, and actions to improve its performance should be performed from time to time throughout the entire life of the device. Now you know how easy and simple it is to improve the performance of your disk with the Windows 7 operating system.

This article explains how to create, modify or delete hard disk partitions using Windows 7.
To work with hard disk partitions in Windows 7 there is a tool called "Disk Management": Control Panel → System and Security → Administrative Tools → Computer Management → Disk Management OR “Start” → in the search bar enter: diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

1. Creating a section
Click right click mouse on a free, not occupied by other partitions, place of the required hard disk → Create simple volume... The "Simple Volume Wizard" window will open, click the "Next" button. Then specify the size of the partition to be created, assign a drive letter, select the required file system and formatting options, make sure once again that you did everything correctly and click "Finish"
2. Compressing a section
Shrink volume... A window will appear asking for a space for compression, we are waiting until the end of the poll. Then, in the window that appears, in the line "size of compressible space", specify the amount of free space and click "Compress"
3. Section expansion
Right click on the desired section → Expand volume... The "Volume Expansion Wizard" window will appear, click the "Next" button. Then select the desired free area in the list, click "Add", then indicate the size of the free space allocated to the partition, click the "Next" button, check the information and click "Finish"
4. Deleting a section
Right click on the desired section → Delete volume... Before proceeding with the operation, copy all the necessary files and folders to another drive, since after deleting a volume, all data on it will be lost.
5. Change drive letter
Right click on the desired section → Change drive letter or drive path… Press the Change button, select the required drive letter and press the OK button. Next, we will take a closer look at ways to expand disks and not harm the information we store.

To share HDD on the sections, you need to go to the "Start" menu → right-click on "Computer" and click on "Manage".

In the window that appears, go to the "Disk Management" section.

Select the hard disk and the partition that you want to partition and right-click on it.

In the drop-down menu, you need to select "Shrink the volume" and then select the size to which you want to reduce existing section... The space freed up after compression will be the new hard disk partition.

To create a new partition, you need to right-click on the vacated space and select "create volume". Then specify the size of the new partition and wait for the operation to complete. Sooner or later, any computer user is faced with such a problem as a lack of free space on the system partition of the hard drive. This is where the question arises: How do I expand the C drive?

First we need to go to the "Computer Management" tab (see above).
When this tab opens, you will see in the window all the media that are currently connected to the computer. Each hard disk can be split into several logical ones. The very first will be "Disc 0". The system-reserved space and logical partitions (C, D, E, F, etc.) will be displayed on the right. If you have only one C drive and it is full, you can try "Shrink Volume" (see above). If you have several logical partitions, then go ahead.

Disc division principle.

The principle of action is as follows: we must expand the C drive at the expense of an adjacent logical partition. This could be drive D, E, and so on. In the same way, you can enlarge not only the C section, but others, if you have such a need. So, we delete the adjacent disk, for example, D. Click on it with the right mouse button and select the "Delete volume" option. Click OK. Immediately after that, this volume should be displayed in black. It should display "Volume not allocated". Now you can add the space we need to the C drive. To do this, right-click on the C partition and select "Expand Volume". Click "Next" and select the size you want to add.
You can use the maximum size, as suggested by default, or choose at your discretion. Click "Next" and then "Finish". If no additional windows pop up, then the operation was successful. You have learned how to expand the C drive using Windows 7. The main thing to remember is that the system partition can only be enlarged if there is free place... Otherwise, nothing will work.

Possible difficulties.

What other difficulties can there be? Let's say we have five volumes. We want to configure them in such a way that we add part of the space to drive C, and another to drive D. When you delete one of the partitions, the "Delete volume" function may not be active, and the "Expand volume" function is not available on volume C.
The point is that the section style can be used MBR *... This is an outdated style. In this case, two adjacent volumes can be linked with a green border. This means that more than four volumes cannot be created with the MBR partition style.

Windows 8 provides the same tools for increasing space. Therefore, this method is also applicable on this operating system.

Partitioning a hard drive in Windows 7 is very simple thing... You can see for yourself if you break down and create a new section according to the described algorithm.

* MBR (Master Boot Record) main boot record in PC - table in the first sector boot disk that stores data about the physical and logical organization of the disk. If this entry is corrupted, it becomes impossible to boot the OS.

That's all. Thanks for reading the article. I hope you found it useful.

Hard disk management features have grown with the introduction of Windows 8. In this Windows versions easy-to-use tools have emerged that allow you to quickly perform operations such as initializing disks, creating partitions and volumes, formatting and deleting them, and resizing volumes without losing data. Sooner or later, knowledge of these tools can be useful, especially when you have problems with your hard drive or you want to update your computer by installing a new hard drive.

Itself hard connection disk in system unit is not a big problem. All cables to the drive or motherboard have their respective connector, which can only be connected properly, thereby protecting these devices from damage.

Locate the four four screws before installing the second hard drive. Prepare the cable that connects the drive to motherboard and, perhaps, SATA adapter on power supply, if the power supply suddenly does not have such a free connector. It happens that when buying assembled computer, SATA drives are used for a hard drive and an optical drive, and there is no way to connect a second drive due to the lack of a power cable with a corresponding connector.

Before starting the installation, disconnect the power from the computer - there should be a corresponding switch on the back of the power supply, if not, disconnect the power cable from the mains.

After turning off the computer, open the case and locate the four-wire harness (yellow, red, and two black) with a wide connector. This connector is used to connect power to the hard drive. A narrower SATA cable connector is used to connect to the motherboard.

Connect the SATA cable to an available slot on your motherboard. It doesn't matter which slot you plug the drive into. A hard disk with an operating system and an optical drive may already be connected to the SATA slots, if the computer is not so old, where these drives or one of them is still connected to IDE controller... After connecting the hard drive, insert it into the appropriate free space and fix it with screws.

After booting the computer, the system should define it as a new device. But, if you run any application and try to use new disc, it turns out that the system does not see it. Therefore, first you need to initialize it, and then create a new volume on it, which the system will recognize as a separate hard disk (the so-called logical disk).

After starting the computer, in the Start menu, click on the "Desktop" tile. In the window that appears, click the quick access toolbar and the Explorer icon. In the left pane of Explorer, click on the Computer tab. A list of all available drives will appear in the right pane of the window, but you will not see the new drive here. Click the Computer menu and on the toolbar, click the Open Control Panel button.

By default, Category View will be enabled in the Control Panel and there will be no disk management tools in the list of available functions. In this case, click on the View button and select small icons from the list
After that, the Control Panel lists all the tools for managing your computer. Double click on the Administration icon.

» How to partition hard drive in Windows 7?

How to partition hard drive in Windows 7?

Have a Windows 7 laptop? Then you may be faced with having only one local disk C. It may not be convenient: if you need to reinstall the system or do a rollback, all important information will need to be manually transferred to an external medium. After that, you can start formatting the local disk and then installing the operating system. The presence of several local drives will allow you to initially save the necessary information in a different section where the system files are contained. This will allow you to format the local drive C without fear of losing important files. Therefore, for convenience and greater reliability, the hard disk must be partitioned.

The procedure is considered quite simple, it does not require downloading additional software... After all, Windows 7 has a built-in utility that allows you to easily partition a disk. The splitting will take place without losing any information, so there is no need to transfer files to an external medium before the procedure. Partitioning the hard drive and creating new partitions is possible only if there is sufficient free space.

How do I access the Disk Management section in Windows 7?

• It is enough to enter "START" and enter "diskmgmt.msc" in the search. The application of the same name will need to be opened.
• If you want to run the application with administrator rights, then just press "Win + R", then also enter "diskmgmt.msc" and press the "Enter" button.
• Also in Windows 7, you can go to the "Disk Management" section using the Control Panel (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management)

In the center at the top you can see the available sections hard drives... Below is the number of physical hard drives, optical drives as well as external drives that have been installed. In the image, the C drive is already split, so the breakdown will be shown using the “J” drive as an example, which is not significant.

Creating a new section

To create a new partition in Windows 7, you can use the unallocated space, but you may not have it. To create it, it is enough to do:

• You need to select a section that has enough free space and right-click. After that, you must select the item "shrink the volume ...". Remember, if you have multiple partitions, it is better not to compress the system volume.

As a result, a window will pop up, you just need to wait for the end of the process.

• After a while, a new window will open, where you will need to specify the size of the space that you decided to compress. The maximum value will already be indicated in the window that appears, but you can specify a smaller size. The value you specify will be the size of the future logical disk. Remember that it is by this amount that the compressed disk will be reduced, so using the maximum value is not recommended. After entering the required value, it is enough to press the "compress" button.

You will need to wait a while, depending on the fragmentation of the shrinking partition and its volume.

Convert to hard drive partition

After these manipulations in the "Disk Management" window, an additional partition will be created with a black bar at the top. The size will be listed here, as well as the word "Not Allocated". This space needs to be converted to a hard disk partition. You must right-click and select the line "Create simple volume".

It is enough to select the maximum size in it and click "Next". Finally, you will need to assign a letter that will be the "name" of the drive and click "Next".

Then you need to check the box next to "Format this volume as follows:". Specify NTFS in the file system. And set the cluster size by default. The "volume label" is the name of the disk that was created. It is necessary to put a tick in front of " Quick format”, But there is no need to apply compression of files and folders. After that, just click "Next" and you will see the inscription: "Completing the wizard to create a simple volume." You need to check everything again and click the "Finish" button.

As a result, we managed to break the HDD using Windows 7 tools. Everything is ready to go. After completing the procedure, you can no longer be afraid that personal information will be deleted during the system recovery.

It should be remembered that one hard disk allows you to create only 4 main partitions.

What to do if Windows 7 disk fails to partition?

When partitioning a disk in Windows 7, difficulties may arise due to the presence of files on it (hidden and system ones) that could not be moved to another location.

In this case, you need to use the utilities third party manufacturers(Akronis or Paragon), which also allow you to split the disc. You can also boot any OS from the boot disk, and then defragment the department.

To partition a disk in Windows 7, you need to have administrator or archive operator rights on this PC. Thanks to Windows tools 7, you can shrink the volume to the size of files that cannot be moved.

There is a way that allows you not to wander through the folders, but with a single command to call the service "Disk Management".

"Command line" is a powerful tool for calling absolutely all services on your computer, launching applications and executable files. Disk Management is no exception.

For this you need:

Why won't the Disk Management service open?

A rare situation, but still it takes place. This can happen in two cases:

• the service is disabled;
• the service has been removed.

If for some reason the "Disk Management" service is disabled for you, then it is quite simple to fix it:

The service can be removed if your antivirus has deleted the dmserver.dll file. This happens when an emulator program interferes with this service. Then you will have to restore this file from your antivirus quarantine. It is possible that this file did not originally exist. Some pirated assemblies flounder with their unreliability in the work of some Windows services... Reinstalling the system to a more reliable one can help here.

How hard disk partitions are managed

Windows 7 allows you to carry out some procedures with hard disk volumes: shrink and expand space, rename, etc. This can help make using your computer more comfortable and even faster. After all, if you do not need to search in one large section for a movie that is buried behind seven folders, you can save time.

How to create a hard disk partition correctly

So, let's imagine that you have unallocated space on your hard drive that you would gladly put into another partition. And there is no point in keeping unused space on the hard drive.

To create a new section:

1. Right-click the unallocated disk space where you want to create a partition and click the Create Simple Volume button. The Create Simple Volume Wizard will start.
   The "Create Simple Volume" command allows you to create a hard disk volume from unallocated space
2. Press "Next".
   Simple Volume Wizard - a service that performs operations to create a new volume
3. Check the future size of the new volume and click Next.
   Setting that chooses the size of the new volume
4. Check the drive letter that will be assigned to the new volume (it should be different from those already used on your computer), click the "Next" button.
   The settings window that sets the name and path to the volume
5. Make sure that the quality file system indicated NTFS format, and click the "Next" button.
   A setting that specifies the file system parameter in which the new volume will be formatted
6. Click the Finish button.
   Confirms all settings and starts creating a new volume
7. Formatting of the volume will begin, and all settings will be applied after completion.
   Newly created volume in "Disk Management"

Compressing space on a hard disk partition

The procedure for compressing a partition allows you to detach from it an area that is not in use at the moment. This space on the HDD becomes unallocated, that is, available for creating a partition and further using it as an independent local disk.

To compress space on the drive you need:

Video: the process of compressing a hard disk partition

How to merge and expand disks

The standard system for merging partitions of HDD disks from Windows 7 is not ideal, since it has a flaw - the attached partitions will completely lose the information that is stored on them. Therefore, take care of saving important information in advance.

Video: how to expand a hard disk partition

Other Disk Functionality

You can also change the letter that denotes this and that partition of the hard disk. To do this, just select the item "Change letter or path to disk" and specify a free letter of the Latin alphabet. It should be remembered that if programs or games are installed on this disk, the actual path to them will change. This means that shortcuts and other systems for accessing these programs will no longer work correctly.

The Change Volume Letter command allows you to change the volume letter and path

In the menu "Disk Management" you have the option: "Make a disk active". It implies that the computer will try to load the operating system from this particular partition. And if there is none on it, it will try to download from each volume alphabetically until it finds the necessary download files.

It is very functional, it has more than 10 operations with disks in its asset, it is completely free. All changes that you make are virtual until you confirm them, which means you have room for “mistakes” and viewing the result. Among the minuses, perhaps, only the fact that the program does not have a Russian interface.

Acronis Disk Director is the most popular disk management software. It has huge and powerful potential, the ability to work from a bootable disk and many other advantages. It is a long-term leader in working with hard disk partitions. For home use, it is distributed free of charge.

Acronis Disk Director interface for promptly resolving issues with hard drives

Our instructions will help you in mastering and saving information on your computer, make working with hard drives more convenient and comfortable.