Partition (fdisk) your hard drive
FDISK is an extremely powerful tool. Use it carefully as you can easily damage your data.
Make sure that you understand the questions that the program is asking you and be careful to
read each step carefully.
- You need either a bootable Win98 CD-ROM or a Windows 98 Startup Disk.
Follow the procedure below to produce a Startup Disk:
- Insert a blank formatted diskette into the floppy drive.
- Double click on "My Computer" located on the desktop.
- Double click on "Add Remove Programs".
- Click on the "Startup Disk" tab (Win98 CD may be required have it handy).
- Click on "create".
- Copy the following files from the windows/command directory:
FORMAT.COM, XCOPY.* and XCOPY32.*
to this floppy. These are very useful and handy to have on a Startup disk.
- Finally if you are going to create greater than 64 GB partition sizes then
download and copy the latest version of fdisk from Microsoft Website.
See the following MS Knowledge Base article:
Q263044
Solution to Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB
Please note that the above Microsoft fix will add the new Fdisk.exe to the C:\Windows\Command and C:\Windows\Options directories. So if you are going to be using an existing boot floppy, you will need to copy the new version of Fdisk.exe to it. Similarly, if you create a Startup Disk, the new version of Fdisk.exe must still be copied to the floppy, since the Microsoft fix does NOT update the directory C:\Windows\Command\EBD, where the files reside from which the Startup disk is created.
If you are using a startup floppy, then test your Startup Disk.
Once you have created the disk, Test it and ensure that it is working as expected. Check
that it reads your CD-ROM.
- Boot to a DOS (A:\>) prompt.
- Insert a CD into your CD-ROM drive.
- Type in DIR E: (or whatever your CD-ROM drive letter is) and press the Enter key
If it reads the CD and displays its contents, then you are OK to continue.
If not, retry creating a Startup Disk.
Reboot your PC using the Startup Disk or the bootable Win98 CD-ROM. (Note some Win98 CD-ROMs are not bootable in which case you have to use the floppy). Also, if you are going to be creating greater than 64 GB sized partitions, you
should use a Startup floppy with the updated version of fdisk on it.
If you used a startup floppy - The PC will boot off drive A: and the Windows 98 Startup Menu will be displayed giving
you 3 options to chose from as shown below:
Options displayed if booting from Windows 98 Startup Floppy:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu |
| ================================= |
| |
| 1. Start computer with CD-ROM support |
| 2. Start computer without CD-ROM support |
| 3. View the Help file. |
| |
| Enter a choice: 1 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you used a bootable CD-ROM - The PC will boot off the CD-ROM and the Windows 98 Startup Menu will be displayed giving
you 3 options to chose from as shown below:
Options displayed if booting from Windows 98 bootable CD-ROM:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu |
| ================================= |
| |
| 1. Start Windows 98 Setup from CD-ROM |
| 2. Start computer with CD-ROM support |
| 3. Start computer without CD-ROM support |
| |
| Enter a choice: 1 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Start computer without CD-ROM support to boot without CD-ROM support for now. You do NOT need CD-ROM
support for partitioning hard drives. You would need it if you were either installing
from CD-ROM or wanting to access files on a CD-ROM.
Once the boot process completes you will be returned to the A:\> prompt.
Now initiate the fdisk program so you can start to partition your hard drive.
At the DOS (A:\) prompt, type in: FDISK :
A:\> fdisk
Answer Y (Yes) or N (No) to the following prompt:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 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 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. |
| |
| Do your wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)..........? [Y] |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF you answer Y (Yes)
THEN
FDISK will work in FAT32 mode.
The partitions you create will be created as FAT32 partitions. These are NOT
backward compatible with MS-DOS 6.22. However they will allow you to work with
hard drives larger that 4 GB.
IF you answer N (No)
THEN
FDISK will work in FAT16 mode.
The partitions you create will be created as FAT16 partitions. These ARE
backward compatible with MS-DOS 6.22. However you will NOT be able to use
hard drives larger than 4 GB.
NOTE - Microsoft MS-DOS version 6.22 allows FDISK to partition hard disks up to
4 gigabytes (GB) in size. However, the MS-DOS file allocation table (FAT)
file system can support only 2 GB per partition. Because of this fact, a
hard disk between 2 and 4 GB in size must be broken down into multiple
partitions, each of which does not exceed 2 GB.
See Q118335 - Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System
The main FDISK Options menu will be displayed as a result of the above response:
You may have more than one drive. If that is the case, it is most important that
you set the drive selector option in fdisk to the drive number that you are
attempting partition.
If this is the case then first use option 5 (Change current fixed disk drive)
to set the current drive to the one you want to partition and format.
Doing this will result in you being prompted to Change Current Fixed Disk Drive:
"Enter Fixed Disk Drive Number (1-x).......................[1]"
Where x is the number of hard drives in your system.
You can then set the hard drive number to the one you want to partition and format.
Delete any old partitions that exist on the selected hard drive.
You will NOT need to do this for a new hard drive.
Use option 3 (Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive) from the main menu.
Delete all MS-DOS partitions in the following order:
- The logical drives
- The extended MS-DOS partition
- The primary MS-DOS partition
Whether you started with a new hard drive or you have just been through the process of
deleting all partitions on your hard drive, you now have a clean and un-partitioned
hard drive.
Now you are ready to partition your selected hard drive.
You should look at your own requirements and partition accordingly.
When I partition my disks, I always create a Primary DOS Partition and an Extended DOS
Partition with a number of logical drives (at least 1) to suit my needs. This gives the
the greatest flexibility.
The rest of the procedure is based on this view.
First create a Primary DOS Partition.
- From the main FDISK Options menu select option 1 (Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive).
- From the Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive submenu select option 1 (Create Primary DOS Partition).
- You will see a window with a "Verifying Drive Integrity, --% complete" message
until it counts upto 100%.
About the Verifying Drive Integrity message
While using FDISK, each time you create a partition or logical drive, FDISK
displays the following message on the bottom of the screen:
Verifying Drive Integrity, --% complete.
The percentage counts 0 to 100. When verifying the drive’s integrity, FDISK is checking
the tracks where the system files and FAT will be stored. FDISK displays this message
since it has capabilities for setting up very large drives and the process may take
some time.
The check initially verifies the number of tracks necessary to hold the system files
and FAT as if the entire disk were partitioned as one primary partition. If you create
an extended partition it will verify the number of tracks necessary to hold the system
files and FAT as if the remaining portion were partitioned as one logical drive.
Finally, with each logical drive created, FDISK verifies the number of tracks necessary
to hold the system files and FAT as if the remaining portion of the extended partition
were defined as a logical drive. This repeats until you finish creating logical drives.
After the "Verifying Drive Integrity, --% complete" message has finished you will
be prompted with a message that differs slightly based on whether you have one or
more hard drives in your system.
- If this is the only drive in your system then the prompt will be:
"Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS Partition
and make the partition active"
OR If this is NOT the only drive in your system then the prompt will be:
"Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS Partition"
For full flexibility in defining how you want to partition you should answer N
(No) to this prompt.
You will now be prompted to define the partition size:
At the start you will have been prompted with the following prompt:
Do your wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)..........? [ ]
What you see on the display screen and what happens next depends on how you
answered that question at the start.
IF you answered Y (Yes):
THEN
FDISK will be working in FAT32 mode.
Therefore the full capacity of the hard drive will now be available to be selected
as the size of the Primary DOS Partition.
The full capacity of the hard drive will be displayed on the screen.
IF you answered N (No):
THEN
FDISK will be working in FAT16 (MS-DOS 6.22) mode.
Therefore only the first 2 GB (2047 MBytes) of the hard drive will now be available
to be selected as the size of the Primary DOS Partition.
The first 2 GB (2047 MBytes) of the hard drive will be displayed on the screen.
Now select the size of the Primary DOS Partition you want to create.
You will now see the following messages displayed on your screen:
"Total disk space is xxxxx Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)"
"Maximum space available for partition is xxxxx Mbytes (100%)"
"Enter partition size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%) to"
"create a Primary DOS Partition.................................: [xxxxx]"
The partition size shown between the two braces [ ] will by default be the full size of
your hard drive.
- Change the partition size to the size you want to create for your
Primary DOS Partition and then press the "Esc" key.
When you do this the screen will change and it will have a message that reads:
"Primary DOS Partition created, drive letters changed or added"
- Press the "Esc" key once more to return to the main menu.
The screen will return to the main menu. If this is the first or only drive in
your system then the following warning message will be displayed:
"WARNING! No partitions are set active - disk 1 is not startable unless"
"a partition is set active"
If you get the warning message, then you need to set the newly created Primary
DOS Partition to be the active partition.
- To set the newly created Primary DOS Partition to be active, select option 2
(Set active partition) from the main menu.
The screen will change with a message that reads:
"Enter the number of the partition you want to make active"
- Type into the option box the number of the Primary DOS Partition and press the
"Esc" key (this should be set to 1 and may already be set to it by default).
The screen will change giving a readout of the current partitions on the hard drive
The screen will also have a message that reads:
"Partition 1 made active".
- Press the "Esc" key once more to return to the main menu.
Note - Using the Esc key to return to the main menu and then attempting
to create another Primary DOS Partition results in a message that reads:
"Primary DOS Partition already exists".
MS-DOS FDISK does NOT allow creation of more than 1 Primary DOS Partition per hard drive
If after creation of the Primary DOS Partition you still have disk space left to
allocate, then you must select the option for creating an Extended DOS Partition.
If you have still got disk space to allocate then continue with item 11,
Otherwise you have completed partitioning. If so go to item 13.
Create Extended DOS Partition.
- From the main FDISK Options menu select option 1 (Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive).
If a Primary DOS Partition had NOT been defined in disk 1 then
Selecting option 2 (Create Extended DOS Partition) would result
in the following error message being displayed:
"Cannot create Extended DOS Partition without"
"Primary DOS Partition on disk 1"
MS-DOS FDISK does NOT allow the creation an Extended DOS Partition if a Primary DOS
Partition has not been created on disk 1.
MS-DOS FDISK will allow the creation an Extended DOS Partition without a Primary DOS
Partition on subsequent disks, so long as a Primary DOS Partition exists on
disk 1.
- From the Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive submenu select option 2 (Create Extended DOS Partition).
- You will see a window with a "Verifying Drive Integrity, --% complete" message
until it counts upto 100%. After this you will be prompted with the message:
"Total disk space is xxxxx Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)"
"Maximum space available for partition is xxxxx Mbytes (100%)"
"Enter partition size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%) to"
"create a Extended DOS Partition...............................: [xxxxx]"
The partition size shown between the two braces [ ] will by default be the full size
of the remaining un-partitioned portion of your hard drive. You should NOT need to
change this value.
- Press the "Esc" key to accept this value.
The screen will change giving a readout of the current partitions on the hard drive
The screen will also have a message that reads:
"Extended DOS Partition created".
- Press the "Esc" key to continue.
Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition.
As a result of pressing the "Esc" key in the item above the screen will change and
Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition screen will be displayed
indicating "No Logical drives defined" and prompting you to:
"Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percentage of disk space (%)...[xxxxx]"
At the start you will have been prompted with the following prompt:
Do your wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)..........? [ ]
What you see on the display screen and what happens next depends on how you
answered that question at the start.
IF you answered Y (Yes):
THEN
FDISK will be working in FAT32 mode.
Therefore the full capacity of the Extended DOS Partition will now be available
to be selected as the size of the Logical DOS Drive.
The full capacity of the Extended DOS Partition will be displayed on the screen.
IF you answered N (No):
THEN
FDISK will be working in FAT16 (MS-DOS 6.22) mode.
Therefore only the first 2 GB (2047 MBytes) of the Extended DOS Partition will now
be available to be selected as the size of the Logical DOS Drive.
The first 2047 MBytes of the Extended DOS Partition will be displayed on the screen.
You can either accept the default value in the braces [ ] that is all the un-partitioned
space on the hard drive to create only one logical drive.
Alternatively you can replace the default value with the size you want to allocate to
the first logical drive if you want to create more than one logical drive.
- Select the logical drive size required.
- Press the "Esc" key to accept the selected size and continue.
The screen will change giving a readout of the current logical partitions that
have been created on the hard drive upto now.
- If you have still got un-allocated Extended DOS partition to allocate to logical
drives then the screen will also prompt you to:
"Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percentage of disk space (%)...[xxxxx]"
If this is the case, then repeat these 2 steps until all space is allocated to
logical drives.
- Once all the unallocated free space has been allocated and you have no more un-allocated
space left in the Extended DOS partition, then the screen will display the message:
"All available space in the Extended DOS Partition"
"is assigned to logical drives"
If this is the case, then press the "Esc" key to continue.
NOTE - You can select smaller drive sizes for the logical drives and MS-DOS will allow you
to do so until either you have allocated all the available space in the Extended
DOS Partition or you run out of drive letters. MS-DOS stops at drive letter X with
the message "Maximum number of logical DOS Drives installed".
You have now completed partitioning. Your system will have to be rebooted for the
newly created partions to take effect and then after that you will need to format
the hard drives.
Press [Esc] twice to exit.
You will now see a screen displaying the following message:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
| You MUST restart your system for your changes to take effect. |
| Any drives you have created or changed must be formatted |
| AFTER you restart. |
| |
| Shut down Windows before restarting. |
| |
| |
| |
| Press Esc to to continue |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Press [Esc] once more to exit fdisk. You will be returned to the DOS (A:\>) prompt.
WARNING!
Do NOT attempt to format your disk without a restart following fdisk operations.
You will ruin your hard drive if you do.
Format the newly created partitions - After rebooting.
Reboot using the Windows 98 Startup.
Reboot by simultaneously holding down the Ctrl+Alt+delete keys, then release the keys.
The PC will boot off drive A: and the Windows 98 Starup Menu will be displayed giving
you 3 options to chose from as shown below:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu |
| ================================= |
| |
| 1. Start computer with CD-ROM support |
| 2. Start computer without CD-ROM support |
| 3. View the Help file. |
| |
| Enter a choice: 1 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select option 1 to boot with CD-ROM support. You need CD-ROM support if you are
going to be installing Windows 98 after formatting the hard drive(s).
Once the boot process completes you will be returned to the A:\> prompt.
Your hard drive is now partitioned and ready to be formatted.
|
