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).

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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.