What is a New Simple Volume and How to Create a New Simple Volume [2 Reliable Methods]

Table of Contents:

What is a Simple Volume?
Create a New Simple Volume with Windows Disk Management
Create a Simple Volume with Partition Master Tool
Conclusion

What is a Simple Volume? A Simple Volume is a type of disk partition in the Windows operating system. It is the most basic form of a volume, consisting of a contiguous physical space without utilizing any advanced disk management features such as mirroring, striping, or RAID configurations. On a Simple Volume, data is stored in a single location and can be extended to span across one or more hard disk drives. The process of creating a Simple Volume is relatively straightforward, making it suitable for individual users and small businesses as it provides basic storage needs without requiring advanced data protection functionalities.

Simple volumes are physically independent drives that operate independently and provide Windows with functionality ranging from basic to advanced. This is why they are so widely used today.

For example, you can run Windows on a basic disk with a simple volume or manage simple volumes to store data on a dynamic disk.

But what is a simple volume? You need some basic knowledge about data storage. A simple volume is a unit of data storage that you can use on both basic and dynamic disks. Each has its own advantages and limitations, depending on your goals and the type of disk you're using. They were first introduced in Windows 2000, initially for dynamic disks.

Starting with Windows Vista, the term simple volume has a broader meaning, and is used to define a partition on a basic disk or a simple volume on a dynamic disk.

For more details, click here.

#1. Create a Simple Volume with Partition Master

Does the process of creating a simple volume disk in Windows frustrate you every time?

Disk Partition Software Partition Master can easily create simple volume disks. From basic to advanced tools, it provides you with a complete solution for managing hard disk space. For example, partitioning, resizing, moving, creating, merging, deleting, formatting, copying, erasing, hiding, and showing volumes. Easy to use while handling both basic disks and dynamic disks.

You can change the partition without having to restart your PC or lose any data, so you'll have the space on your hard disk to create a new simple volume.

Step 1. Launch Partition Master. On the main interface, right-click unallocated space on the hard drive or external storage device and select "Create".

Step 2. Adjust the size of the new partition, the file system (choose a filesystem as needed), label, etc., and click OK to proceed.

Step 3. Click the Run 1 Task button and create the new partition by clicking Apply.

Watch the following video tutorial to learn how to create partitions on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

This is an embedded YouTube video player with the video ID "EudhRqo59bU". It allows features such as accelerometer, autoplay, clipboard write, encrypted media, gyroscope, and picture-in-picture, and it is set to be full-screen viewable. The iframe has a width of 700 pixels and a height of 410 pixels, with a frameborder of 0 and the attribute "allowfullscreen" enabled.

Please feel free to share this tutorial to help more non-technical Windows users create new simple volumes efficiently on their own.

# 2. Create a New Simple Volume with Windows Disk Management

The Disk Management in Windows is used for creating and managing disk partitions. It can delete, format, and create simple volumes.

"What is a simple volume in Disk Management?"

A simple volume is somewhat like a partition, but there are some differences. There are no limits on the size of a simple volume or the number of volumes that can be created on a disk. Windows Disk Management has a new Simple Volume Wizard to help you create a simple volume on a disk.

How to Create a New Volume in Disk Management

To create a simple volume on Windows 10, you'll need to open Disk Management with administrative privileges. Follow these steps.

Step 1. Right-click the "Start" button and select "Disk Management." Or, press Windows + X, then click Disk Management from the menu.

Right-click the menu - Disk Management

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated space on your hard drive and select New Simple Volume. The New Simple Volume Wizard will open.

Step 3: With the help of the New Simple Volume Wizard, select the NTFS file system. You can choose the volume size in MB, or accept the default maximum. Assign a different drive letter to the volume, or accept the default one. Choose your file system, allocation unit size, and volume label.

Click Next. Review the configuration to make sure it meets your requirements. If everything looks good, click Finish.

Related article:

How to Fix "New Simple Volume" Greyed Out in Windows Disk Management

When you try to create a new partition on your computer with Disk Management, don't panic. Below, you'll find the actual solutions to this problem on your computer hard drive or external USB.

This text appears to be an HTML anchor tag, which is used to create a point within a webpage that can be linked to. In the original English sentence, `` does not have any semantic content because it is a marker for reference by other hyperlinks. In Chinese translation, we usually keep technical markup unchanged, as they serve specific functions in programming and web design. Therefore, the translation of this tag would remain: ``

Additional tip: How Simple Volumes work – Size, flexibility, and startup

Simple volumes were introduced with dynamic disks. However, you can now use them on both basic and dynamic disks. A simple volume on a basic disk is either a primary or an extended partition (logical drive).

If you want to use only basic features (such as starting Windows), use a simple volume on a basic disk. To use more advanced features, learn how to use a simple volume on a dynamic disk. A simple volume on a dynamic disk is called a dynamic volume.

For example, you can store your data with the flexibility that you need. Simple volumes let you put all of your data in one easily accessible place. Dynamic volumes are more flexible than partitions. But they don't support multi-boot volumes.

It is not easy to expand a simple volume on a basic disk. However, if you create a simple volume on a dynamic disk, you can easily increase its size. You can increase the size of these simple volumes in one of two ways.

The first is to extend the volume to unallocated space on the same disk. This option is available only if the volume is formatted with NTFS. You can "mirror" a simple volume, but it remains a simple volume. The second is to create a spanned volume. You extend it to unallocated space on multiple dynamic disks.

You cannot delete parts of a spanned volume; you must delete the entire volume. Note that you cannot extend a boot volume.

Simple volumes are not fault-tolerant, which means you can't interrupt any process associated with a simple volume without the risk of losing data. This is why advanced users learn techniques such as mirroring a simple volume, so that you have two copies of your data sharing the workload.

Conclusions

We learned that simple volumes can be used for basic to advanced purposes, and they can be used on both basic disks and dynamic disks. However, each has its characteristics and limitations. The best choice depends on your goals.

Want to run multi-boot operating systems on one drive? Create simple volumes on a basic disk. Need to organize large amounts of data in one place? Use simple volumes on a dynamic disk. That way, you don't have to browse through hundreds of folders to find a file every time you want to access it. Plus, you don't have to copy and paste multiple files.

Because of these differences, you might need to convert a simple volume on a dynamic disk to a partition on a basic disk, or vice versa. This can be a time-consuming process, and depending on the tools you use, it can result in data loss.

With the help of a partition master tool, you can quickly and easily create a simple volume disk without reformatting the disk when resizing, moving, or copying partitions. This is an excellent option if you want to use an existing disk but need more space to create new volumes. It's particularly useful for users who have difficulty adjusting or moving partitions.

New Simple Volume Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will creating a new simple volume erase my data?

Yes, creating a new simple volume will delete the data.

How do I select a new simple volume?

Select the new Simple Volume in Disk Management.

Open Disk Management, right-click the unallocated space, and select “New Simple Volume” from the list. Follow the New Simple Volume Wizard to create the volume.