How to
Partition and Format a Hard Drive.
Page 13






IMPORTANT:
If you use the following steps on a Hard Drive that is not empty, all of the data on that hard disk will be permanently deleted.

You will also need a Windows Startup Disk.
You can have a friend make one for you if they are running the same Operating System you are going to load.
Windows 98,,,98SE,,,ME,,etc.
Or you can go to your local Neighborhood Computer Store and see if they can make one of you.
Easy As Pie.


Partitioning a hard drive is Pretty Easy to do.
Just Think of a Pie.
Take out a chunk of the pie and put it aside. That will be the Primary DOS Partition or Drive C.

Now the rest of the pie is called the Extended DOS Partition. Now you can take the rest of the pie and cut it up into smaller pieces. Those are called the Logical Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition.

And those will be Drive D,,,Drive E,,,Drive F,,,ETC.

Example.
A 20 GIG Hard Drive. Drive C you will give it 5 GIGS. This is called the Primary DOS Partition.
you have 15 GIGS left. This is called the Extended DOS Partition.
Take the 15 GIGS and split it 3 times. This will give you the Logical DOS Drives which will be called Drive D,,,Drive E,,,Drive F.

Just thought I'd throw that in for ya.
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 95 Startup disk:

Insert the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, restart your computer. At a command prompt, type in fdisk, and then press ENTER.

For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk:

Insert the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, restart your computer.

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 in fdisk, and then press ENTER.
If your Hard Drive is larger than 512 MB, you will receive the following message on your screen:

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 designed 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.

Note:
Just remember if you use a 10 gig or larger Hard Drive for FAT16 the Drive will be split up into 2 GIG drives.
10 GIGS ÷ 2 GIGS = 5 Drives.

For FAT32 you can use the 10 GIGS or larger as one Drive or Partition it the way you want.
Description of the FAT32 File System.

After you press ENTER The following Fdisk Options menu is displayed:
Fixed Disk Setup Program

(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp. 1993 - 1998

FDISK Options

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1

 Choose one of the following:
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.

Then you will get a screen like this one:

Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive

Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1.Create Primary DOS Partition
2.Create Extended DOS Partition
3.Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
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 above and you want ALL of the space on the Hard Drive to be assigned to drive C, press Y and then press ENTER.
Restart the Computer by hitting reset and then your Done. But:
If you want to Make Multiple Partitions on the Hard Drive then scroll down to Customize the partitions size.


For a FAT16 File System
If you press N for the FAT16 file system above, 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:

  1. If you want the first 2 GB on the hard disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press ENTER.

  2. To Customize the partition size press ESC to return to the Options menu, and then scroll down to the "Customize the partition size" section.

Customize the partition size:

  1. If you want to customize the size of the partitions (drive letters) on the hard disk, press N and then press ENTER.

  2. 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.



  3. Press ESC to return to the Options menu.

  4. To assign drive letters to the additional space on the hard disk, press 1, and then press ENTER.

  5. Press 2 to select the Create Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. A table that lists the drive letter that you created and the amount of space on that drive is displayed. If the're 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.
  9. After you receive this message, press ESC to return to the Options menu.

  10. 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.

  11. When you receive the following message:
    Enter the number of the partition you want to make active.
    press 1, and then press ENTER:

  12. Press ESC, and then press ESC again to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt.

    Now if you messed up and made a partitions too big or too small you can go to Delete a Partition
    HERE
How to Format a Hard Drive.

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 just type in
format c: /s
Note the space between the C: and the /s.
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
Note the space between the C: and the /s.
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).

You MUST Format all the Partitions for them to work if you Partitioned your Hard Drive.
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 at the 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.

Go get a sandwich cause it's gonna take a while.
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.
Multiple Partitions.

If you made Multiple Partitions you can Format your other Drives you have created by typing this at the A Prompt:

A:\>FORMAT D:
Do not use the /S switch this time - a Logical DOS Drive cannot be booted from so you don't need it on the other Drives. Again, after formatting is complete, we’ll be asked if we wish to assign a volume label and again, we’ll leave it blank.
If you have Created any more Drives just use the same Procedure but just change the Drive letter each time you Format. C,,,D,,,E,,,ETC.

Now If you now take out the boot disk and restart the computer, it should boot up from the System Files on the hard drive and should go to the familiar C:> prompt.
Note that if you get an error such as "NO ROM BASIC, SYSTEM HALTED" or "No boot device found" at this stage, this means you forgot to set the primary DOS partition "active". Reboot from the floppy, run FDISK again and use option 2 to set the primary partition active Which would be Drive C. then reboot.
If you get an error like "No operating system", this means you probably forgot the "/s" parameter when formatting the C: drive.
Turn off the computer Put the floppy disk back in the drive start it back up, wait for the A Prompt and then type in

format c: /s
Note the space between the C: and the /s.

Now it should go to the familiar C:> prompt.
Delete a Partition.

Now this section is only if you made a mistake in making a Partition and want to make the partition larger or smaller.
If your happy with the size Please just skip this section.

Here is how to delete a partition:

Let’s look at FDISK’s Delete menu
From FDISK’s main menu, choose Option 3.
You should then see the menu below:

Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive


Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1.Delete Primary DOS Partition
2.Delete Extended DOS Partition
3.Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4.Delete Non-DOS Partition



Enter choice: [1]
The're are several options for deleting things.
The first one is used to delete Primary DOS Partitions.
The second is used to delete Extended DOS Partitions.
The third option is use to delete those Logical DOS Drives.

Note:
You Have to Delete the Logical DOS Drivers First.
Then you can Delete the Extended DOS Partitions. It will not let you do that. I know I've tried.

Does your screen look like the one above? GOOD.
Then choose option 3 to Delete a Logical DOS Drive.

It will give you the drive Letters in the Logical DOS Drives in the Extended DOS Partition.

And you will also get the Famous Warning like this:

WARNING: Data in a deleted Logical DOS Drive will be lost. What drive do you want to delete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? [ ]

At the prompt, you enter the letter of the drive you wish to delete. Press ENTER.
If you put a Volume Label on the Partition you will have to put that is also. If not Just Press ENTER.
Then it will ask you Are you sure (Y/N).......................? [ ]. Press Y and then just Press ENTER.

Say BYE,,,BYE to that Drive!!!
If you have any more Drives you would like to delete it will just keep asking you the same ole questions as above until the're all gone.

After the're all gone you can go back to the Main Menu by pressing ESC and choosing Option 3 again to get rid of the Extended DOS Partition.
And then after that's gone you can get rid of the Primary DOS Partition and then you can start from scratch.

I like to write it down on a piece of paper first to see how big I want to make mine.
That way you only have to do it once.
Now off to Format the Drive!!!
Go
HERE

Now that you have the hard drive Formatted and Partitioned we can now Load the Operating System!!!


Lets go on to
Page 14



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