How Many Partitions Can Be Made in a Hard Drive in Windows?

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Roxanne· Answered on May 16, 2024

Before going through the details, I'd like to give you additional knowledge about partitions. In total, there are two types of partitions, primary and logical partitions. A primary partition contains a crash dump for the OS and booting process. A logical partition is strictly for storage purposes and aims to store your data. To facilitate your understanding, I will answer your questions in three parts as follows:

Part 1. How Many Partitions Can Be Made in a Hard Drive

In Windows, the maximum number of partitions that can be made on a hard drive depends on what partition style your drive is - MBR or GPT. If the size of your hard drive is less than 2 TB, your drive must be MBR. If it is more than 3 TB, your drive will likely be GPT. Check how many partitions can the two partition styles create:

MBR: A MBR drive can create at most four primary partitions, or you can create three primary and one extended partition. (The extended partition can be used to create multiple logical partitions.)

GPT: You can make 128 primary and countless logical partitions on the GPT drive.

You May Like: MBR VS GPT | What's the Difference and Which Is Better

Part 2. Ideal Number of Partitions

Usually, creating two to four partitions can gain optimized performance. Based on my experience, most users with partitioning needs will choose to make four partitions. They can categorize their data into four parts: the Operating System, games, videos/photos, and personal files. Thus, the users can access their data faster and back up an individual partition instead of choosing many files in the one-partition disk.

Part 3. A Reliable Way of Disk Partitioning

Now, you may make up your mind and be ready to learn how to partition your hard drive. EaseUS Partition Master can meet your requirements by creating disk partitions efficiently and safely. Download and launch EaseUS Partition Master and follow the simplified steps below: