How to partition and format the DataLocker on Windows Vista
Windows Vista
To partition and format the drive with Disk Management, please follow these steps:
- Open Disk Management by right-clicking on Computer and left-click on Manage. If you don’t have Computer on your Desktop, it should be located in your Start Menu.
- You will see two panes, on the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management. This will load the right pane and you will see the drives show up.
- In the lower right pane, you will see a list of all available drives/devices. Find the drive listing that corresponds to the DataLocker drive that you want to partition and format. It usually has a black bar indicating unallocated space.
- Right-click on the black bar to see a menu of available options. Left-click on New Simple Volume.
- The Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard will show up. Left-click on Next to proceed to the next screen.
- This is where you can set a partition on the drive. By default Windows chooses the whole drive so you can left-click on Next.
- Choose the drive letter that you want the DataLocker to have. By default Windows will choose the next available drive letter. Then click on Next.
- This is the format screen. Make sure that the File System is set to NTFS. The Allocation Unit Size can be left at Default. In the Volume Label field you can give the DataLocker a name if you want. Check the box that says Perform a Quick Format so that Windows will format the drive quickly. Then click on Next.
- The next screen gives you a confirmation of all the steps that you just went through. Click on Next.
- The listing for the drive (Disk 1 in the picture below) will say Formatting as it formats the drive.
- When the drive is done (Disk 1 in the picture below) the bar will be blue and the drive will say Healthy.
Important: You may need to initialize the drive. If so, please see the Initialization drive here.
If there is a blue bar, then the drive has already been partitioned and formatted. Make sure, that if you have data on the DataLocker, you back it up before proceeding. Once you are ready to proceed, right-click on the blue bar and choose Delete Volume… You will see a pop-up window asking you if you really want to delete the partition. Click Yes. The bar should turn black.
Note: To create multiple partitions on the DataLocker, you will have to type in a smaller amount in megabytes, and it will partition and format only that amount. For example, if you have a 500 GB hard drive and you want to divide the drive into two partitions, you could type in 250000 (for 250 GB’s) in the Simple volume size in MB area.
Once you finish formatting the first partition, you will need to go back and repeat these steps again to partition and format the left-over unallocated area of the DataLocker. The result will be two partitions on the DataLocker. Remember, when you change, or add partitions it will destroy any data on the DataLocker. So be sure to plan out ahead how many and what size partitions you want before creating any.
