Disk Management Quick Overview
Disk Management is an extension of the Microsoft Management Console that allows full management of the disk-based hardware recognized by Windows. It’s used to manage the drives installed in a computer—like hard disk drives (internal and external), optical disk drives, and flash drives.
How to open disk management?
To open Disk Management, you can follow these steps:
- Right-click the Start button and select Disk Management.
- Alternatively, open Command Prompt and execute
diskmgmt.msc. - You can also make a shortcut: Right-click desktop, New > Shortcut. Type
diskmgmt.msc, select Next. Change name, Finish.
Storage task you can perform using Disk Management
Here are 7 tasks you can perform using Disk Management:
- Initialize a new drive
- Extend a basic volume
- Shrink a basic volume
- Change a drive letter
- Partition disk
- Free up Space
- Troubleshoot disk error
You can also open Disk Management from the Command Prompt. Just execute diskmgmt.msc from either of those command line interfaces. If you’re using a keyboard or mouse with Windows 11, 10, or 8, opening Disk Management via the Power User Menu is even faster than via its Run command. Just press WIN + X to bring up the menu, then click Disk Management.