Partitioning Surface Pro 3

Anonymous

I have a new Surface Pro 3 with Win 8.1 and a 128 GB SSD - love it. But it's all C:, and I really want to partition it as C, D, E and F drives. However, Paragon's Partition Manager 14, which installed without difficulty, won't let that happen. No matter how I try it will not reduce the size of C:\ to make room for the three other partitions.

Is this a Win 8.1 restriction, or a specific Surface Pro 3 limitation? Or is it inherently not possible to partition an SSD (which I find hard to believe)? Can someone identify a way to do the partitioning I desire without obliterating the Win 8.1 installation that came on the machine?

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi Rabnud,

Disk Management is a built-in tool in Windows which enables the users to view and manage the installed drive in their computer and the partitions related with those drives. With the help of Disk Management, you can create partition, format partition, extend partition, shrink partition, delete partition, change drive letter. It nearly satisfies all the demands of the users and is convenient for the users, so it is widely used by the users.

Steps to Partition a hard drive with Windows 8/8.1 Disk Management tool:

Open Windows 8 or 8.1 Disk Management by pressing "Windows + R" and typing "diskmgmt.msc". In the pop-up window, right click on C drive and select "Shrink Volume".
In the pop-up window, enter the amount of space to shrink.
Click "Shrink" and we can preview an unallocated space behind C drive. Then, right click on it and select "New Simple Volume". Follow the on screen directions to complete the process.

Thank you.

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Anonymous

Your comment was the solution to a week long intensive "bug hunt" thank you so much!

I downloaded PerfectDisk Professional Trial
hit the down-arrow below the start button
selected "prepare for shrinking"
Happiness!

I just made an account to express my gratitude.

Thank you!

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi Bohao,

Sorry for the delay in reply.

Your Windows question related to 4K Alignment is more complex than what is typically answered in the Microsoft Answers forums. It is better suited in the TechNet forums. Please post your question in the TechNet forums.

The IT professionals from the TechNet Forums could help you better in this situation.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/home?category=w8itpro

Thank you.

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57 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-06-08T16:34:27+00:00

Hi Paul,

I also have a 512GB SPro3 and got EXACTLY what you got when I "shrank" my C drive. Did you ever get a "workable" solution?

Thanks,

Bob P

I blew the whole thing away, used GParted Live USB to setup my partitions the way I wanted and installed the Windows 10 Tech Preview.
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Anonymous

2015-07-09T16:13:18+00:00

In any event, even if you could reduce Volume 0 to meet your requirements, you can not have more than 4 Primary Partitions on a single physical drive. Four Partitions is the limit.

This is not true for the Surface Pro 3.

This was true for the very old MBR partition table, but the more modern GUID partition table (Which the Surface Pro 3 uses) can have hundreds of partitions. Further, GPT has no concept of primary or logical partitions, they are simply partitions.
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