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Tips & Tricks for Windows Operating Systems.
How to Partition and Format a Master Hard Disk
IMPORTANT:
If you use the following steps on a hard disk
that is not empty, all of the data on that hard disk is
permanently deleted. How to Partition a Master Hard
Disk. To partition a master hard disk, run the fdisk
command:
Insert the Startup disk in the floppy disk
drive, restart your computer, and then use one of the
following methods, depending on your operating system.
For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows
Me Startup disk:
When the Microsoft Windows 98
Startup menu is displayed, select the Start computer
without CD-ROM support menu option, and then press
ENTER. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press
ENTER.
For a Windows 95 Startup disk: At a command
prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.
If your
hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the
following message:
Your computer has a disk larger
than 512 MB. This version of Windows includes improved
support for large disks, resulting in more efficient use
of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2
GB to be formatted as a single drive.
IMPORTANT:
If you enable large disk support and create any
new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access
the new drive(s) using other operating systems,
including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as
well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In
addition, disk utilities that were not designated
explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able to
work with this disk. If you need to access this disk
with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do
not enable large drive support. Do you wish to enable
large disk support?
If you want to use the FAT32 file
system, press Y and then press ENTER. If you want to use
the FAT16 file system, press N, and then press ENTER.
For additional information about the FAT32 and FAT16
file systems. After you press ENTER, the following Fdisk
Options menu is displayed:
1. Create DOS partition or
Logical DOS Drive
2. Set active partition
3.
Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
4. Display
partition information
5. Change current fixed disk
drive
Note that option 5 is available only if you
have two physical hard disks in the computer.
Press 1
to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
menu option, and then press ENTER.
Press 1 to select
the Create Primary DOS Partition menu option, and then
press ENTER.
After you press ENTER, you receive the
following message:
Do you wish to use the maximum
available size for primary DOS partition?
After you
receive this message, use one of the following methods,
depending on the file system that you selected. For a
FAT32 File System If you press Y for the FAT32 file
system (in step 2) and you want all of the space on the
hard disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then
press ENTER.
Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit
the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt. For a
FAT16 File System.
If you press N for the FAT16 file
system (in step 2), you can accept the default 2 GB size
for the partition size, or you can customize the size of
the partition. To accept the default partition size:
If you want the first 2 GB on the hard disk to be
assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press ENTER.
Press ESC to return to the Options menu, and then view
step d in the following "To customize the partition
size" section. To customize the partition size: If you
want to customize the size of the partitions (drive
letters) on the hard disk, press N, and then press
ENTER. A dialog box is displayed in which you can type
the size that you want for the primary partition in MB
or percent of disk space. Note that for computers that
are running either Windows 98 or Windows Me, Microsoft
recommends that you make the primary partition at least
500 MB in size. Type the size of the partition that you
want to create, and then press ENTER. Press ESC to
return to the Options menu.
To assign drive letters
to the additional space on the hard disk, press 1, and
then press ENTER.
Press 2 to select the Create
Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press
ENTER.
You receive a dialog box that is displays the
maximum space that is available for the extended
partition. You can adjust the size of the partition or
use the default size. Note that the default maximum
space is recommended, but you can divide the space
between multiple drive letters. Type the amount of space
that you want, press ENTER, and then press ESC. The
Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS
Partition menu is displayed. This is the menu that you
can use to assign the remaining hard disk space to the
additional drive letters. Type the amount of space that
you want to assign to the next drive letter in the Enter
logical drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space
(%) box, and then press ENTER. A table that lists the
drive letter that you created and the amount of space on
that drive is displayed. If there is free space on the
hard disk, it is displayed near the bottom of the table.
Repeat steps e through g until you receive the following
message:
All available space in the Extended DOS
Partition is assigned to local drives. After you receive
this message, press ESC to return to the Options menu.
To activate the partition from which you plan to boot
(usually drive C), press 2 to select the Set active
partition menu option, and then press ENTER.
When you
receive the following message, press 1, and then press
ENTER:
Enter the number of the partition you want to
make active.
Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit
the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt, and then
view the following "How to Format a Hard Disk" section
in this article.
How to Format a Hard Disk
After you create the
partitions, you must format the partitions:
Restart
your computer with the Startup disk in the floppy disk
drive.
NOTE:
If you are using a Windows 95 Startup disk, a
command prompt is displayed and you can skip to step 2.
If you are using a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second
Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk, select the Start
computer without CD ROM support menu option when the
Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed. When a command
prompt is displayed, type format c: /s, and then press
ENTER. This command transfers the system files and
should only be used when you format drive C (or your
"active" drive). For all other partitions, type format
drive: (where drive is the letter of the partition that
you want to format).
NOTE:
If you receive a "Bad command" or "Bad file name"
error message, you may need to extract the Format.com
tool to your boot disk. To do this, type the following
command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER.
extract ebd.cab format.com. After the Format.com tool is
extracted to your boot disk, type format c: /s t a
command prompt to format your active partition, or type
format drive: if you want to format a partition that is
not your active partition. When you successfully run the
Format.com tool, you receive the following message:
WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE
LOST!
Proceed with Format? Press Y, and then press
ENTER to format drive C.
After the format procedure
is finished, you receive the following message:
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
NOTE:
This is an optional feature that you can use to
type a name for the drive. You can either type an
11-character name for the drive, or you can leave it
blank by pressing ENTER.
How to Repartition and Format a Slave Hard Disk
How to Repartition a Slave Hard Disk
If you
want to add a second hard disk (slave drive) to your
computer, you need to make sure that the jumpers on both
the master (original) and slave (new drive) are set
according to the manufacturer's instructions first so
that your computer can detect the hard disks. Verify
that your hardware is installed correctly, and then
follow these steps: Click Start, point to Run, and then
type command (Note that the cmd command only works on
Windows 2000-based computers). At a command prompt, type
fdisk, and then press ENTER. The following menu is
displayed:
1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS
Drive
2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition
or Logical DOS Drive
4. Display partition information
5. Change current fixed disk drive
Note that menu
option 5 is available only if you have two physical hard
disks on your computer.
Press 5, and then press
ENTER. When you do this, the selection changes from the
physical disk 1 (master) to the physical disk 2 (slave).
Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical
DOS Drive menu option, press ENTER, press 2 to select
the Create Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then
press ENTER. When you make your slave drive an extended
MS-DOS partition, your drive letters does not change.
For example, if the first drive contains partition C and
partition D, your slave drive becomes D unless you set
the slave drive as an extended partition. If you skip
this step and just create another primary MS-DOS
partition for the slave drive, the new drive becomes
drive D and what used to be drive D, changes to drive
E.You can partition the slave drive to make other
logical drives just as you did with the original master
drive. If your computer cannot detect the new drive, you
may need to add the following line to your Config.sys
file, where drive is a letter that is greater than the
last drive letter on the computer (including the CD-ROM
drive): lastdrive=drive. After you finish using the
Fdisk tool, format the new partitions so that you can
use them. After you press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool,
restart your computer to start
Windows.
How to
Format a Slave Hard Disk
To format your new
partition or partitions, use one of the following
methods, depending on your file system. For a FAT16 file
system: Double-click My Computer, right-click the
partition that you just created, click Format, click
Full, and then click Start. After the format procedure
is complete, click OK to close the dialog box.
For a
FAT32 file system: Click Start, point to Programs, point
to Accessories, point to System Tools, click Drive
Converter (FAT32), and then click Next. In the Drives
box, click the drive that you want to convert to the
FAT32 file system.
Click Next, and then click OK.
Click Next, click Next, and then click Next again.
When the conversion procedure is finished, click Finish.
NOTE:
Do not use the /s switch that you used when you
set up drive C. All you need to do is to format the
drive or drives so that you can use them (for example,
if you created two new drive letters, you need to format
both drives).
How to Partition and Format Your Hard Disk by Using Windows XP Setup
IMPORTANT: If you follow these steps on
a hard disk that is not empty, all of the data on that
hard disk is permanently deleted. Insert the Windows XP
CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, or
insert the first Windows XP Setup boot disk into the
floppy disk drive if you are starting from Setup boot
disks, and then restart the computer.
NOTE:
To start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM
(or from the Setup boot disk), your computer must be
configured to start from the CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM
drive (or the floppy disk drive). In some cases, you may
have to modify your computer's BIOS settings to do this.
For information about how to configure your computer to
start from the CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive (or the
floppy disk drive), see the documentation that is
included with your computer, or contact the computer
manufacturer. If you are starting the computer from the
Windows XP CD-ROM, select any options that are required
to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are
prompted to do so.
NOTE:
If your hard disk controller requires a
third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
driver, press F6 to specify the driver. If you are
starting from the Windows XP Setup boot disks, insert
each of the additional disks when you are prompted, and
then press ENTER to continue after inserting each disk.
At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER to continue.
Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you
are prompted to repair it. Press ESC (do not repair).
All existing partitions and unpartitioned spaces are
listed for each physical hard disk. Use the arrow keys
to select the partition or unpartitioned space where you
want to create a new partition, and then press D to
delete an existing partition or press C to create a new
partition using unpartitioned space. If you press D to
delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or
press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the
partition. Repeat this process for each of the existing
partitions that you want to use for the new partition.
When all the partitions are deleted, you can then select
the resulting unpartitioned space and then press C to
create the new partition.
NOTE:
If you want to create a partition where one or
more partitions already exist, you must first delete the
existing partition or partitions and then create the new
partition. Type the size (in megabytes, or MB) that you
want to use for the new partition, and then press ENTER,
or just press ENTER to create the partition using the
maximum size.
Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to create
additional partitions if you want to.
If you want to
install Windows XP, use the arrow keys to select the
partition you want to install Windows XP on, and then
press ENTER. If you do not want to format the partition
and install Windows XP, press F3 two times to quit
Setup, and then do not continue with the following
steps. In this case, you must use another utility to
format the partition. Select the format option that you
want to use for the partition, and then press ENTER. The
options are:
Format the partition by using the NTFS
file system (Quick)
Format the partition by using the
FAT file system (Quick)
Format the partition by using
the NTFS file system
Format the partition by using
the FAT file system
Leave the current file system
intact (no changes)
The option to leave the current
file system intact is not available if the selected
partition is a new partition. The FAT file system
options is not available if the selected partition is
more than 32 gigabytes(GB). If the partition is larger
than 2 GB, Setup uses the FAT32 file system (you must
press ENTER to confirm). If the partition is smaller
than 2 GB, Setup uses the FAT16 file system.
NOTE:
If you deleted and created a new System
partition but you are installing Windows XP on another
partition, you will be prompted to select a file system
for both the System and Boot partitions at this point.
After Setup formats the partition, follow the on-screen
instructions to continue Setup. After Setup is complete,
you can use the Disk Management tools in Windows XP to
create or format additional partitions.