How to: Setup FAT hard drive partitions.
Solution:
Run FDISK, create logical drives, and format each logical drive.
WARNING: Electrical shock hazard! Make sure the power is turned off and the external power cables have been disconnected before removing the computer cover.
CAUTION 1: This task should be performed by a qualified computer technician.
CAUTION 2: Please observe steps to reduce the potential damage to computer components from electrostatic discharge.
NOTE 1: The following steps assume that the hard drive has been installed into the computer and BIOS or SCSI host adapter configured to accept the hard drive.
NOTE 2: The following steps assume that the hard drive is not the primary hard disk for the computer.
1) Turn on the computer, and allow Windows 95 to start normally.
2) Open a DOS Window.
3) At the DOS prompt, type the following and press ENTER:
CD\WINDOWS\COMMAND
NOTE: If the Windows 95 directory is not named 'WINDOWS', type the following and press ENTER:
CD\<insert the Windows 95 directory name>\COMMAND
4) At the DOS prompt, type the following, and press ENTER:
FDISK
NOTE 1: The 'FDISK Options' screen appears.
'FDISK Options' menu
5) If the computer has two or more hard disks installed:
a) Type 5 and press ENTER. (The 'Change Current Fixed Disk' screen appears.)
b) Type the number that corresponds to the hard disk to be partitioned, and press ENTER.
c) Press ESC.
NOTE: If 'Option 5. Change current fixed disk' is not present on the 'FDisk Options' screen, the computer has only one hard disk installed or only one hard disk is being recognized by the BIOS.
6) Type 4 and press ENTER. (The 'Display Partition Information' screen appears).
'Display Partition Information'
NOTE: Write down the Volume labels of any existing partitions.
7) Press ESC to exit the 'Display Partition Information' screen.
8) To delete existing partitions on the hard drive:
a) To delete any existing non-DOS Partition on the drive:
1] Type 3 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' screen appears.)
'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
2] Type 4 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete non-DOS Partition' screen appears.)
'Delete non-DOS Partition' menu
3] Type the number that corresponds to a non-DOS partition, and press ENTER.
4] Type Y to delete the partition, and press ENTER.
5] Press ESC.
NOTE: If there is more than one non-DOS partition on the drive repeat steps 8)a)1] through 8)a)5].
b) To delete any existing logical DOS drives on the hard drive:
1] Type 3 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' screen appears.)
'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
2] Type 3 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete Logical DOS drive' screen appears.)
'Delete Logical DOS drive' menu
3] Type the drive letter of the logical DOS drive, and press ENTER.
4] Type the Volume Label of the logical drive, and press ENTER.
5] Type Y to delete the partition, and press ENTER.
NOTE: Repeat steps 8)b)2] through 8)b)4] until all logical DOS drives have been deleted.
6] Press ESC.
c) To delete the Extended DOS Partition on the hard drive:
d) To delete the 'Primary DOS Partition' on the hard drive:
1] Type 3 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' screen appears.)
'Delete DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
2] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Delete Primary DOS Partition' screen appears).
3] Type the number that corresponds to a 'Primary DOS Partition' and press ENTER.
4] Type the Volume Label of the 'Primary DOS Partition', and press ENTER.
5] Type Y to delete the partition, and press ENTER.
6] Press ESC.
9) If there are no existing partitions on the hard drive, do one of the following:
a) To create a single partition on the hard disk:
1] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Create DOS partition of logical DOS drive' screen appears.)
'Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
2] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Create Primary DOS Partition' screen appears.)
'Create Primary DOS Partition' menu
3] Type in the total disk space or 100%, and press ENTER.
NOTE: The default value for the partition size will be the total size of the hard disk.
4] Press ESC.
b) To create multiple partitions on the hard disk:
1] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive' screen appears.)
'Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
2] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Create Primary DOS Partition' screen appears.)
'Create Primary DOS Partition' menu
3] Type the partition size in Megabytes or percent of disk space (%), and press ENTER.
NOTE 1: The default value for the partition size will be the total size of the hard disk.
NOTE 2: When creating the 'Primary DOS partition', enter an amount less than the total disk space for the size of the partition. The remaining space that is not used by 'Primary DOS Partition' will be used to create the additional partitions.
4] Press ESC.
5] Type 1 and press ENTER. (The 'Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive' screen appears.)
'Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive' menu
6] Type 2 and press ENTER. (The 'Create Extended DOS Partition' window appears.)
'Create Extended DOS Partition' menu
7] Type the partition size in Megabytes or percent of disk space (%), and press ENTER.
NOTE 1: The default value for the partition size will be the remaining unused space of the hard disk.
NOTE 2: Type in entire remaining disk space for the partition size.
8] Press ESC. (The 'Create Logical DOS drive(s) in the Extended DOS partition' screen appears.)
'Create Logical DOS drive(s) in the Extended DOS partition' menu
9] To create a single logical DOS drive, enter the maximum space available for the logical drive, and press ENTER.
10] To create multiple logical DOS drives, enter an amount less than the maximum space available for the logical drive, and press ENTER.
NOTE 1: Repeat step 8)b)10] until all of the logical drives have been created.
NOTE 2: Make sure than the last logical drive created using the maximum space available in the 'Extended DOS Partition'.
11] Press ESC.
10) Press ESC to exit FDISK.
11) At the DOS prompt, type the following and press ENTER:
FORMAT <drive letter>:
(where <drive letter> indicates which drive will be formatted).
CAUTION: Make sure you are going to format the correct drive. Using the FORMAT.COM on a logical DOS drive will destroy any data stored on the drive, including Windows 95!
12) Type Y and press ENTER. (To proceed with the formatting the logical DOS drive.)
13) Type a 'Volume Label' for the logical DOS drive, and press ENTER.
NOTE: Repeat steps 10) through 12) to format each logical DOS drive created on the hard disk.
14) At the DOS prompt, type the following and press ENTER:
EXIT
