Tag Archives: logical drive

Formatting Partitions using “FORMAT” (FAT32)

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KB ID 0000083

Problem

Before starting the hard drive must be formatted, refer to the PARTITIONING section for more details. You CAN format a partition that is ALLREADY formatted to “wipe it clean”.

WARNING: Formatting a Partition that contains information will DESTROY that information.

This section deals with FAT32 formatting, this is required for operating systems like Windows 95/98/ME but can also be used by Windows 2000 and XP – The only time I would recommend using FAT32 for 2K and XP, is if you are dual booting your PC with two operating systems, and still want to see ALL the drive from either operating system.

Solution

Formatting a Partition

1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE

2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive.

3. When The PC has booted simply type format c: {enter}.

4. You will get a warning that you are about to “Wipe” your drive and erase all the data. Press Y then {enter}.

5. The drive will now start formatting, depending on the drive size, this may take a while – time for a coffee :0)

6. The system will now create the File Allocation Table – This is like a “routemap” for your operating system so it can find all its files.

7. You will now be asked to enter a Volume Label, if you have a lot of partitions to do this is a good idea, i.e. Music, WorkStuff etc.

8. If you don’t want a Volume Label, just press {enter} I’m calling this one PETESDRIVE.

9. This will tell you some information about the drive, for example how big it is, this one is approx 4Gb. And that’s it finished.

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Removing Multiple Partitions from your Hard Drive Using FDISK

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KB ID 0000082

Problem

This section assumes you have multiple partitions, and goes through the steps needed to remove them using FDISK

WARNING: Removing partitions DESTROYS all the data in those partitions, make sure you have a backup of your important information.

For this example the hard drive in question has a PRIMARY partition (approx 2Gb) and two LOGICAL DRIVES (each approx 1Gb) if I’ve just confused the hell out of you CLICK HERE

Solution

Deleting Partitions

1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE

2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive.

3.To launch FDISK simply type fdisk {enter} at the command prompt, when the program launches press the Y key and {enter} to enable large drive support.

4. This is the main FDISK menu, as we are Deleting partitions we need to change the selection from the default [1] to [3] “Delete partition or logical DOS Drive” Press 3 then {enter}

5. Now remember the LOGICAL drives must be deleted FIRST so we need to select “Delete logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended partition” Press 3 then {enter}

6. Now the system will display the logical drives, work your way BACKWARDS, the last drive letter here is E so simply push E then {enter}.

7. FDISK will ask you for the volume label – ours does not have one so we can simply press {enter} if yours does it will be listed above in the volume label column.

8. At this point you must confirm by pressing Y then {enter}

9. The default view will change to show you that E: drive has been deleted, and you can continue to delete the D: drive, simply press D then {enter}.

10. Again it will prompt for volume label (See step 8 above).

11. You will be asked to confirm press Y then {enter}.

12. You will now see the Logical drives are BOTH deleted, press Esc to exit.

13. At the confirmation page just press Esc.

14. Back at the main menu! Now the LOGICAL drives are gone you can delete the EXTENDED partition. Press 3 then {enter}.

15. To remove the EXTENDED partition press 2 then {enter}.

16. There is only one EXTENDED partition so press Y then {enter}.

17. More confirmation! Just Press Esc.

18. Now the EXTENDED Partition is gone you can remove the PRIMARY partition press 3 then {enter}.

19. Well we know we want the PRIMARY gone so press 1 then {enter}.

20. Its the only one there :0) Press 1 then {enter}.

21. If you have a volume label enter it, if not press {enter}.

22. Press Y then {enter}.

23. Confirmation screen, just press Esc.

24. Nearly done! Press Esc.

25. Press Esc to exit FDISK, when you are back at command line press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot the PC. All your partitions are now removed.

Now you’re done you can either repartition the drive OR if you’re installing Windows 2000 or XP let it do it for you as part of the install process.

To set up simple partitioning (One Partition, one Drive Letter) CLICK HERE

To set up complex partitioning (multiple partitions, multiple drive letters) CLICK HERE

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Creating Multiple Partitions from your Hard Drive Using FDISK

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KB ID 0000081 

Problem

This section assumes you want multiple partitions, and goes through the steps needed to create them using FDISK.

For this example the hard drive in question will have a PRIMARY partition (approx 2Gb) and two LOGICAL DRIVES (each approx 1Gb) if I’ve just confused the hell out of you CLICK HERE

Solution

Creating Partitions

1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE

2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive.

3.To launch FDISK simply type fdisk {enter} at the command prompt, when the program launches press the Y key and {enter} to enable large drive support.

4. This is the main FDISK menu, as we are creating partitions we need to create a DOS partition press 1 then {enter}.

5. Now remember that PRIMARY partitions MUST be created first so press 1 then {enter}.

6. FDISK does a drive check, just wait.

7. At this point we DON’T want the default setting or the PRIMARY partition would take up the whole drive, press N then {enter}.

8. FDISK does another drive check, just wait.

9. You need to type in the size (In Megabytes) that you want the PRIMARY partition to be, this is a 4 Gb drive so I’ve typed 2048 Mb (2Gb) then press {enter}.

10. This just confirms the partition was created, press Esc.

11. Now we are back at the main menu, we need to start creating an EXTENDED partition, so press 1 then {enter}.

12. EXTENDED partition is number two so press 2 then {enter}.

13. Yet another drive check, more waiting :0)

14. Now we want to use the rest of the drive for the EXTENDED partition and by default it will show us this value. Press {enter}

15. Just a confirmation screen, we can see our nice new partitions now, press Esc.

16. Now because we’ve got an EXTENDED partition and no LOGICAL DRIVES, it gets us to create them by default, after another drive check of course :0)

17. Now by default it will try and use the whole EXTENDED partition, as we want two logical drives, we don’t want it to do this, so type in the size (In Megabytes) of the drive you want, in this case I’ve used 1024Mb (1Gb) then press {enter}.

18. And there she is! time for FDISK to do yet another drive check, just wait.

19. Now it wants us to use up the rest of the EXTENDED partition, if you want a LOT of LOGICAL DRIVES you can keep going, as we only want two just press {enter}.

20. OK there’s our two LOGICAL DRIVES and FDISK is telling us that we have used up all the EXTENDED partition, just press Esc.

21. Now the last thing we need to do is make the PRIMARY partition active (so you can boot from it) press 2 then {enter}.

22. There’s your PRIMARY partition at the top, so press 1 then {enter}.

23. Now FDISK tells us the partition is active, press Esc.

24. Back wherewe started :0) Press Esc.

25. Press Esc to exit FDISK, when you are back at command line press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot the PC. All your partitions are now created.

Once the PC has rebooted you can format each drive using the format c: command (substitute c for all your other drives. If you’re going to install windows 2000 or XP you won’t need to do this it can be done from the operating system setup.

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Deleting Simple Partitions on your Hard Drive Using FDISK

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KB ID 0000080

Problem

You want to remove the partitions form your carved up hard drive.

Solution

Deleting a Partition

1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE

2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive 3.To launch FDISK simply type fdisk {enter} at the command prompt, when the program launches press the Y key and {enter} to enable large drive support

4. This is the main FDISK menu, as we are Deleting a single partition we need to change the selection from the default [1] to [3] “Delete partition or logical DOS Drive”

5. Press 3 then {enter}

6. As there is only one partition leave the default setting of [1] and press {enter}

7. You will now see the partition displayed (In this case called partition 1) as this is the only partition it is selected by default, just press {enter}

8.You will now be asked to type in the “Volume Label” this drive is blank so you can just hit {enter} if yours has a label it will be shown in the volume label column (above)

9. You are asked to confirm (Last chance to change your mind :0)

10. Press Y then {enter} to confirm

11. This confirms the partition is deleted (You can now Exit FDISK if you do not want to create a partition, by pressing Esc) When you are back at command line press Ctrl+Alt+Esc to reboot the PC.

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Simple Partitioning of your Hard Drive Using FDISK

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KB ID 0000079

Problem

You want to carve up the space on your hard drive.

Solution

Creating a Partition

1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE

2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive

3.To launch FDISK simply type fdisk {enter} at the command prompt, when the program launches press the Y key and {enter} to enable large drive support

4. If its not allready selected change the choice to [1] Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive. and {enter}

5. You now want to create a primary DOS partition press 1 then {enter}

6. FDISK will do a quick drive check.

7. You will be asked if you want to use the maximum space available, as we only want one partition accept the default of “Y” and press {enter}

8. FDISK will perform another drive check.

9. Hurrah! We’re done, Press Esc to exit FDISK then at command line press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to rebootand the partition is in place.

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Hard Drive Partitioning

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KB ID 0000078

Problem

This page deals with “Simple Partitioning” though reference will be made to how newer operating systems use partions.

Common Misconceptions

“All Partiions have a drive letter” NO

“All drive letters are a separate partition” NO

Solution

OK then! Take a hard drive, I will show it below as a “large block of space”

If you are only going to have one partition and its going to be your only drive letter then you would simply put in a PRIMARY PARTITION and set it to ACTIVE (So it can be booted from) once it has been formatted it will be the only drive (Usually C:)

However if you want the hard drive to appear as multiple drive letters c: d: etc then you need to partition it differently, you will still need your primary partition but it WONT fill up the entire drive space.

Now comes the confusing bit, if you want any more drives you need to create an EXTENDED partition. An extended partition will have NO drive letter assigned to it and cannot be formatted (Bear with me :0)

It is in the EXTENDED partition you can create further drives, create them one by one to fill up the extended partition – unless you want to leave some space for the future. Each of these drives are called LOGICAL DRIVES, and when formatted each will have its own drive letter.

This system is used by Operating systems like Windows 95/98/ME modern Operating systems like Windows 2000 and XP can utilise up to 4 Primary partitions, but lets keep things simple.

To set this up you would normally use the command line utility FDISK, Remember partitions MUST be created in this order Primary, Extended then Logical. And if your deleting partitions you MUST delete them in reverse order, Logical, Extended then Primary.

For a walkthrough on creating Primary partitions CLICK HERE

For a walkthrough on creating Primary/Extended Partitions, and Logical drives CLICK HERE

For a walkthrough on deleting Primary partitions CLICK HERE

For a walkthrough on deleting Primary/Extended Partitions, and Logical drives CLICK HERE

 

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