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How to Fdisk (partition) and Format a Hard Drive
I have written these instructions for those who have wanted to install a "new" and/or additional hard drive into their computer. Follow the manufacturers instructions for the hard drive you purchase on how to set the jumpers and cabling. Make sure your system BIOS (Basic Input Output System) can "see" the drive. Most newer BIOS's have an auto detect hard drive setting that will configure the drive properly. Also, most newer drives are very large (4GB to 8+GB) and if using the FAT16 allocation system (which this document pertains to) you will have to partition these drives. Enter the system BIOS and choose the LBA (Large Block Addressing) setting for the hard drive. This will allow the system to use all of the space available on the hard drive. The largest size per partition will be 2048MB's. If your system BIOS is prior to 1994 chances are it won't use the LBA feature to allow this size partition and you will have to upgrade the BIOS or use the Disk Manager software that comes with the drive. This is free for the asking when you buy the drive. If you are using the FAT32 allocation table you can use these drives as one large partition. This conserves "slack space" that is common with the FAT16 table. To find out what to do about FAT32, see my Windows 95/98 page.
It's best to have an idea on how you wish to fdisk your drive into partitions. Once this is done, there's no turning back once data is written to the drive and it is formatted. There are several utility programs that allow resizing the partitions "on-the-fly". Partition Magic (by Power Quest) is my preference because of the added features that come with the software. Boot Manager for running multiple OS's and Magic Mover for safely moving programs from one drive to another.
Fdisking and Formatting a hard drive.
You need a DOS bootable disk. You can make one on a DOS machine by typing: format a: /s The /s will install Command.com to the disk. You also need format.com, fdisk.exe, qbasic.exe, himem.sys and edit.com. These files will be in the DOS directory and help you get the hard drive ready and allow you to configure the autoexec.bat and config.sys files you will need.
From Windows95, go to Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs-select the Startup Disk tab and with a diskette in the A drive, hit the Create Disk...button. This will give you all the files needed to setup your drive(s).
Another file to put on the disk would be the cd rom executable file, mscdex.exe. This is needed to tell the computer to load the cd rom driver. Load your cd rom driver as well on this disk. Some cd rom manufacturer's include this with their setup disk. If you don't have one, check the manufacturer's website and download the drivers.
Install your DOS bootdisk or Windows95 Startup Disk, in the A: drive and boot up the computer. When you get to the dos prompt, type (fdisk) and it will take you to the FDISK program.
1. Create Dos partition or Logical Dos Drive
2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or Logical Dos Drive
4. Display partition information
You need to select 1. create a dos partition or logical dos drive. This menu will show up.
1. Create primary DOS partition
2. Create extended DOS partition
3. Create Logical Dos drive in the extended dos partition
Choose #1. Create primary DOS partition. This brings up another menu asking you if you want to use the maximum size for the primary DOS partition and make the partition active (Y/N)? If you are using a large drive, I suggest you answer N to the question in order to utilize more space and partition the drive into smaller ones.
You will be asked to enter the partition size in megabytes or percentage (%). Remember, when setting size in percentage to indicate the % sign after the number amount to divide, or DOS will assume you just want that much in megabytes. I.E. 80%
When finished, you will be taken back to the original menu. Fdisk will then ask you to set the active partition. Select #2 Set active partition. Another menu screen will appear and show the partitions available. You should see the C: partition and the number 1 after it. Select the number when asked and the partition will be set active.
At the main FDISK menu, select 1. Create Dos partition or Logical Dos Drive again. Select 2. Create extended DOS partition. A message asking for the partition size will appear. If you don't enter the entire amount remaining, you will lose some drive space. Enter the partition size you want. Remember to enter the size in megabytes or percentage. The message that an extended dos partition was created will appear. Press escape. The message "no logical drive set active" will appear. You must "enter logical drive size in megabytes or percentage (%)" just as you did before. You will then select 3. Create Logical Dos drive in the extended dos partition from the second menu. You can divide the extended partition as much as you like within the limits of that partition. When finished, you can select 4. Display partition information, to view the limits of the partitions you created.
After completing the partitioning, you will escape back to the dos prompt (A:\) and format the drives. First format the C: drive by entering the command: format c: /s This will install the system files to the drive. When completed, format the remaining drives you created. DO NOT use the /s switch on these. From the A: prompt type in: copy *.* c:\ Answer No to overwrite the command.com file. Remove the bootdisk and reboot the computer. Press <enter> to pass the date and time messages and you should now be at the C:\> prompt.
Create your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Make very simple ones. When you install Windows95 it will modify them if necessary. Type "edit autoexec.bat" (no quotes) at the C:\> prompt. This will give you the edit screen. On the first line type: echo off, the second line: dos=umb, the third line: prompt $p$g, the fourth line: set dircmd=/o (that's not a zero), at the fifth line: cls Press Alt - Enter and arrow down to Exit and press Enter. Press Enter again to save the file. Type "edit config.sys" (no quotes) at the C:\> prompt. The edit screen will appear. On the first line type: device=c:\himem.sys, on the second line: files=30, on the third line: buffers=15 Press Alt - Enter and arrow down to Exit and press Enter. Press Enter again to save the file. Remove any disks and reboot the computer. You should boot to the C:\> prompt.
You need to install your CD Rom drivers if you are loading Windows95 (or another OS) from a CD. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for installing the CD Rom. If you plan to dual boot your machine, you should make a DOS directory on the C: drive and install the DOS files. If you just want to install Windows95, you have enough DOS files on the hard drive to continue without installing all of DOS or Win3.x (see Installing Windows95 without DOS).
Remove all floppy disks and reboot your computer. Your computer should now boot up to the C:>\ prompt. You can then start using your new drive and install your operating system. Once this is done, it's time to install all your favorite programs and games. Make it easy on yourself and try to keep items of like usage on the same drives. Example: games on one drive, word/spreadsheet applications on another, and so on. This will make it easy for you to find your files as well.
Removing partitions from your hard drive using the fdisk program
Yes, I finally got it here. I wanted to make sure it worked and it was easy to follow. One quick note: you can't, or I should say, shouldn't use this unless you're sure you want to resize the extended partitions. Notice I did say Extended partitions. The only way or time you would want to redue the primary partition is if you plan on starting from scratch all over again. These instructions are to be used when you want to resize the existing extended partitions and logical drives to make better use of your drive or just get more organized.
This information tells how to REMOVE or DELETE extended and/or logical drives using the FDISK program in DOS or Windows. You can use the FDISK program from your DOS bootdisk or the MS DOS Prompt in Windows95. To start the program, type FDISK at the dos prompt.
The familiar menu will appear when you enter fdisk.
1. Create Dos partition or Logical Dos Drive
2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or Logical Dos Drive
4. Display partition information
You need to select 3. Delete partition or Logical Dos Drive The following menu will show up.
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
Choose item 3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
Below you see a chart that will describe the partition you choose.
Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
D: Test 1200 UNKNOWN 100%
Along with the chart you'll see some information about the partition and questions you will have to answer to delete it.
Total Extended DOS Partition size is...(total amount)...Mbytes.
You will be asked to choose a drive to delete, followed by this neat message:
WARNING! Data in a deleted Logical DOS Drive will be lost. What drive do you want to delete..............................? [ ]
You must enter the drive letter [ ] in this space (in this example the letter is D)
Enter the letter of the drive and press the ENTER key. You'll be asked to enter the volume label of the drive if you or someone else had given it one. You must type the exact label shown (if any) or press ENTER if none exist. If you press ENTER or type the incorrect label name, a message comes up: Volume label does not match.
Enter Volume Label.................................? [ ]
If correct, a message asking you: Are you sure (Y/N)..........................? [ N ] will appear with N as the default. You must type in Y (yes) and press the enter key to delete the drive. When completed the message:
All logical drives deleted in the Extended DOS Partition will show if all the logical drives were deleted.
If you have more than one drive in the Extended DOS Partition, this message will not show. Instead you will be taken back to the screen showing the partition (drive) deleted and asking if you wish to delete another drive. If you have no other drive to delete you will press the ESC key to continue.
No logical drives defined message will appear along with Drive letters have been changed or deleted This is because the extended partition still exists. Press ESC to continue...
NOTE: If, at this point, you want to resize the logical drive(s) by making them larger or smaller, this is the time to do this. You will be returned to the FDISK Options screen and should pick Create Dos partition or Logical Dos Drive. From there you would choose Create Logical Dos drive in the extended dos partition just as you did when you first made the partition. You did not delete the extended partition yet, just the logical drive within the extended partition. There is no need to remove the extended partition just to resize the logical drives. In other words, if you had one logical drive in the extended partition and you wanted to make two logical drives. You would first delete the logical drive and at this point, recreate two logical drives within the extended partition. You are still limited to the total space in the extended partition.
You will return to the FDISK Options screen and will now remove the Extended DOS Partition. Select number 3 from this menu. Delete partition or Logical Dos Drive. After the choice is made you'll select number 2 from the next menu. Delete Extended DOS Partition.
The screen shows the Current fixed disk drive and information regarding it. The extended partition will be shown under the Type column.
Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1 A PRI DOS (your label) 1200 FAT16 50%
2 EXT DOS (your label) 1200 UNKNOWN 50%
Total disk space is 2400 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)
Again, you will get a warning. WARNING! Data in the deleted Extended DOS Partition will be lost. Do you wish to continue (Y/N).....................? [ N ] You will have to enter Y (yes) and press Enter to delete the partition.
You will get a message: Extended DOS Partition deleted
Press ESC to continue
You are now back to the FDISK Options main screen. Remember, once you change the FDISK options or delete partitions, that data is gone and can't be retrieved. Be sure you know what you're doing before attempting this. If your plans are to start fresh or redue your current configuration, I advise you to back up everything important to you before starting this. Use this method only if you intend on resizing your extended partitions.
Adding
a second (slave) hard drive to your system.
I'm sure we've all thought that just a little more room and we could load that neat game or program to enhance our well being or conquer the toughest of foes! Well, there's no time like the present. A couple of things to do before starting. First, make sure you have room to install the drive in your case. Second, you may need to set jumpers on both the Master (original) and Slave (new drive) so they can "talk" to the system. Be sure to check these two items before starting. Connect these two drives together on the same ribbon making sure to keep the colored (usually red) stripe to the #1 pin on both drives. These instructions apply to IDE type hard drives.
The next step is to enter your system BIOS and make the needed changes. With today's auto-detect BIOS's it may be just a matter of installing the drive and then checking to make sure the BIOS has seend the drive properly. Your system motherboard should tell you how to enter your BIOS. IF your BIOS is not auto-detect, you'll have to tell it what you have for the drive installed.
If you plan to install another drive and are using Windows95, run fdisk from within the Windows95 Dos prompt by selecting: Start / Programs / MS Dos Prompt and type fdisk and press enter. If you are using DOS, run fdisk as you did from the floppy, only if you don't have an Operating System installed. You will see a new option on the menu labeled "5. Change current fixed disk drive". This is what you'll choose to select the correct drive. This will keep you from fdisking the wrong drive. Use fdisk as before only make the new drive an Extended Dos Partition. This will keep all your drives in order.
Example: Your C: drive also has a D: partition. Your new drive will become D: unless you specify the extended partition. In other words, if you create another Primary Dos Partition for the slave drive, the new drive will become the second physical drive (D:) and change the old D: to E:. Your system would look like this: The primary drive would be C: and E: and the new slave would be D:.
If you continue to partition the new drive, you can also partition that drive to make other logical drives just as you did with the original Master Drive (see info above). If you have problems not "seeing" the new drive, you will have to add a line to your config.sys file that says: lastdrive=? Where question mark (?) should be greater than the last drive on the computer (including the cd rom drive).
Once you have finished fdisk, you will need to format the drive to be able to use it and have the system recognize the new drive(s) created. After exiting the fdisk program, type format (and the letter of the drive to format) at the command prompt. DO NOT use the /s switch as was done when setting up the (C:) boot drive. All that is needed is to format the drive(s) for use.
Example: If you have created two new drive letters, you will need to format both drives. Let's assume you added an additional hard drive and made a D: and E: drive assignment. You will type at the command prompt: format d: and press enter. Give that drive a label name if you wish, then do the same for the E: drive by typing: format e: and press enter. Label the drive and when done, shut down Windows (or reboot DOS computers) and start the computer again. Your new drive letters will be recognized by your system and ready for use.
For Windows95 systems, if you just fdisk the drive(s) and do not format them from the Dos prompt, you can restart the computer after fdisk and go to My Computer, right click on the new drive(s) letters that were established and format them with the drop down menu.
NOTE: Your CD rom drive will now take the last letter available after all hard disk drives have been assigned letters. So, if your cd rom was D and you installed three extra drive letters, they would become D, E and F, your cd rom will change to G. Any program you have on your computer that had to "look" for D as the cd rom will now have to be changed to the new drive letter G. You can edit the program's .ini file (if any) or do a uninstall and reinstall for it to locate the new drive letter. Be sure to save any data you made before doing the uninstall method. I wouldn't want you to lose information.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for your system crashes (if any) and the problems you may encounter by following the instructions on this site. Neither am I at fault for hard drive errors or system boards that don't recognize your hard drive or any other peripheral device you may attach or install to your computer. You take responsibility for installation and the setup of your drives. I have done my best to insure these instructions do work if followed, but some problems may arise that I have no control over and therefore will not be held liable. Boy, was that a mouthful!
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Created on August 1, 1998
Updated on January 31, 2005