How to create hard-drive partitions in Windows

It's likely that your hard drives are all formatted with one large partition.

The major advantage to splitting up individual disks into multiple partitions is to soften the blow when you need to reinstall your OS. This is achieved by putting your OS and applications on one partition and your media on a separate one.

For Windows users, there are several third-party programs that you can download/purchase that will assist you with this process. In reality, none of these are really necessary because Windows comes with a built-in (and well-hidden) disk-management system. Let's get started.

Find the disk manager

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Step 1: Open the Start menu and type "disk management" into the search window. Click on the entry that appears labeled Create and format hard-disk partitions.

Create empty space on the hard drive

If didn't build your computer, the chances of having unformatted space is pretty unlikely. If you actually do have unformatted space, or you just bought a new hard drive and are partitioning it, you can skip this part.

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Step 2: Recent versions of Windows are capable of splitting off unused parts of your hard drive into newer partitions (with older versions, as in Windows XP-era, you'll probably need to freshly format the drive). To do this, select the drive from the list in the bottom pane of the window.

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Step 3: Right-click on the main partition of the drive and select Shrink Volume. The program will then calculate how much space it can split off. The time it takes will vary based on the capacity of the hard drive.

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Step 4: In the window that appears, enter the partition size that you want to cut away from the main segment. Note that the size is in MB, and there are 1024 MB in a GB. Click the Shrink button once the size is to your liking.

Select and format your partition

With space cleared on your hard drive available for partitioning, you are ready to set it up for use.

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Step 5: Right-click on the empty partition, labeled Unallocated, from the bottom pane. Select New Simple Volume... from the menu that appears.

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Step 6: A wizard will appear to walk you through the formatting of the partition. It will prompt you for the desired size of the partition, allow you to set a drive letter for the partition, and select the file system (you'll most likely want NTFS). A summary of your choices will be displayed before any formatting occurs.

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Once the format is completed, a new drive will appear for use in Windows.

(Optional) Step 7: Move your media onto the newly partitioned drive!

For best results when splitting your disk into partitions, a nearly empty hard drive should be used. The more data you have, the more difficult it will be for the operating system to separate a partition large enough to be useful. If deleting your data isn't an option, try running the disk defragment program to move space around.

How to share Internet from your laptop to smartphone (and other devices)

Many smartphones or other devices do not support the same network configuration that is easily shared from laptop to laptop.

This guide can show you a free way to share your network connection with these devices without also needing to install any third-party software on Windows Vista or 7 (though it's possible on XP too). Keep in mind that this works best when your laptop is connected via a cable. Ultimately, this method is ideal for sharing the Internet connection in a hotel room (many rooms have only one ethernet cable) from your laptop to other devices.

All you'll need in advance, besides a working network connection, is an up-to-date version of the Java Runtime Environment installed. You can check whether you have JRE, or even get the latest version here. 

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Step 1: Open your browser of choice and navigate to www.virtualaccesspoint.com. Note that this page will need to remain open as long as you want to share your connection.

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Step 2: Once the page is loaded, a small window will open asking for permission to run an app. This is normal, and you'll need to grant it permission to run.

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Step 3: Enter the name for your access point, as well as the desired security key. Click on Turn On Soft AP to create your access point.

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Step 4: Right-click on the network icon in your System Tray. Click Open Network and Sharing Center.

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Step 5: A new network will appear in your list of active networks with the name you chose in Step 3. Click on the link next to Connections.

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Step 6: Click Properties in the window that appears.

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Step 7: Click on the Sharing tab and check the box labeled Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection. Select Local Area Connection from the drop down box and click OK.

You should be able to connect to this new access point with just about any device that supports wireless. Once you're done with the connection, simply press the Turn Off Soft AP button on the VirtualAccessPoint page.