Partitioning a hard drive

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Partitioning a hard drive

    This is a general guide / overview on the procedure to create a partition on your hard drive.  If you have special problems not covered in this document, please ask your questions on PCBUILD mailing list.

       1. Removing an existing Partition
       2. Creating a new partition

     



     

    Removing an existing Partition

    Now to begin, you will need a MS Dos6.xx or Windows9x boot disk.

    Step One
    Insert your Windows95/98 Startup Disk (or DOS 6 boot disk) in the A: Drive. Turn on the computer with the floppy disk drive in the A: drive.

    When the computer has finished booting you should be at the A: Prompt. (If your computer still boots to the C: drive or continues to load into Windows, then you make sure the boot sequence of the computers BIOS/CMOS is set to boot from the floppy drive, (A,C) first.)

    Step Two
    From the A: prompt type: FDISK [Press-Enter]

    Windows95b(OSR2) and Win98 will give you this prompt:

    Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)..?   [Y]

    (Yes is 32bit fat and NO is 16bit fat) If you wish a partition larger than 2gigs, choose [Y].  See our FAQ 16bit partitions vs 32bit partitions.

    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 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.

        Now this screen will appear:

    Main FDISK Window

    Press 3 and then press [Enter].  At this point it is all very simple.  Just begin by selecting the partition you wish deleted and follow the instructions on the screen.

    Creating a New Partition

    Step One
    Insert your Windows95/98 Startup Disk (or DOS 6 boot disk) in the A: Drive. Turn on the computer with the floppy disk drive in the A: drive.

    When the computer has finished booting you should be at the A: Prompt. (If your computer still boots to the C: drive or continues to load into Windows, then you make sure the boot sequence of the computers BIOS/CMOS is set to boot from the floppy drive, (A,C) first.)

    Step Two
    From the A: prompt type: FDISK [Press-Enter]

    Windows95b(OSR2) and Win98 will give you this prompt:

    Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)..?   [Y]

    (Yes is 32bit fat and NO is 16bit fat) If you wish a partition larger than 2gigs, choose [Y].  See our FAQ 16bit partitions vs 32bit partitions.

    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 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.

    Now this screen will appear:

Main FDISK Window

     

    STEP THREE
    First thing to do is determine if you have a partition on the hard drive.  Choose 4 and [Press Enter]  If you are ready to proceed, this screen will display a message of: "No paritions defined."  [Press Esc] to return to the previous screen.  NOTE: If any partitions are displayed you will need to delete them to proceed.

    Now, we have no partitions on the drive, Choose 1 and [Press Enter].

    Now this screen will appear:

Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive

    Choose 1 and [Press Enter].

     

    STEP FOUR
    Now, a screen will appear with this question:

    Do you if you want to partition the full size of the drive? Choose [Y] and [Press ENTER]

     You will be asked "Do you wish to Set the Partition as Active?"  Choose [Y] and [Press Enter]

    When FDISK has finished creating the partition:
      [press ESC] and exit FDISK.  Your system must reboot inorder for it to use the new partition.  Time now to REBOOT.