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| Format & Partition Hard Drives: A Primer |
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Clean Installation Tutorials October 2006 • Vol.10 Issue 6 Page(s) 86-89 in print issue |
Format & Partition Hard Drives: A Primer Clear The Slate For A Freshly Installed Operating System | ||
 Many new computers ship with an OS (operating system) stored on a special recovery CD that can reinstall the OS to factory defaults at the click of a button or two. But other PCs include full versions of Microsoft Windows (or another OS) on a CD. In this case, if you want to reinstall a clean version of your operating system, not just overwrite it, you may have to format or create a new partition on your hard drive. You might also want to partition and format a second hard drive after you connect it to your system. This is a much easier process than reinstalling an OS as it can be done from within the operating system itself. We’ll walk you through the steps involved in formatting and partitioning your primary or secondary hard drive, so you have a clean and segregated drive on which to reinstall your operating system or create a well-organized space on a second drive.  Backup, Backup, Backup Formatting prepares a hard drive to accept data. It also erases all data on a hard drive and puts a file system on a drive that determines how the drive will store data. Common file systems are FAT32 and NTFS (FAT stands for “File Allocation Table,” a system that OSes use to store and organize data on a hard drive). FAT32 was used mainly with Windows operating systems up to Windows ME. NTFS (NT File System) is the file system for the current generation of Windows operating systems, including the upcoming Windows Vista. Formatting your hard drive is serious business. There’s no going back once you’ve formatted a drive. That means you need to back up everything you want to save. You don’t have to worry about backing up applications you’ve installed because you can simply reinstall them (as long as you have the discs). But you do need to back up files you’ve created, downloaded, and placed on your computer: office documents, photos and video, emails saved to your system, etc. Unless you perform regular backups, you’ll want to take some time to find any irreplaceable files on your system and back them up. One common way to back up files is to copy them into a single folder and then transfer them to a USB flash memory drive or burn them to CD or DVD. But there are other options, including online storage sites such as Streamload (www.streamload.com) that allow you to upload your files for safekeeping and then download them when you need them. Boot ‘Em Up After you’ve created a backup of all your personal data, you can begin the format process. If you’re running an earlier version of Windows, such as Windows 98 or WinME, you’ll want to create a startup disk. To do so, click Start, Settings, and then select Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, then click the Startup Disk tab and click the Create Disk button. Windows will give you an Insert Disk prompt, so insert a blank floppy diskette into your diskette drive. Make sure you use a blank diskette, or one that stores files you don’t need to save, as any data stored on the diskette will be erased when it’s turned into a startup disk. Click OK, and your computer will create the startup disk.
With newer versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or XP, and a newer computer, you’ll be able to start up your PC (after you’ve formatted the hard drive) from your setup CD. But you need to make sure that your BIOS, the Basic Input/Output System checklist that your computer goes through when it’s turned on, is set to boot from a CD-ROM drive. You can simply put in your Windows setup CD and see if you get a different menu when you reboot or you can enter the BIOS and check for yourself. Entering the BIOS usually involves pressing the DELETE key or one of the Function keys during bootup. In your BIOS menu, search for a Boot or Boot Priority option (you’ll have to use your arrow keys as your mouse won’t function in the BIOS menus) and make sure that the first boot device is set to CD-ROM. Save your settings when you exit by pressing the F10 key. Now your computer is ready to boot up from your Windows CD. If you’re running Win2000 and your system is too old to boot from CD, you can create boot floppy disks for this operating system. You’ll need four blank floppies (or ones with data you don’t mind losing) and the Win2000 CD-ROM. Insert the Win2000 CD into your CD drive, click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type D:\BOOTDISK\makeboot a: and press ENTER. (NOTE: “D” is the letter of your optical drive, so change it to E or whatever letter represents your optical drive on your system if it’s not D:. Also, you don’t have to be running Win2000 to create these boot disks. You can perform this task on any system with a CD drive and a floppy drive.) Format A Startup Disk If you’re trying to format a Win98 or WinMe PC (or an older system running Win2000), insert your startup disk into the floppy drive and restart your system. It will eventually load up to a DOS prompt, a letter for your floppy drive (usually A:) with a blinking cursor behind it. Formatting your drive from this point on is pretty simple. Just type FORMAT C: \S at the prompt (the “S” adds the main system files to the drive after formatting). You’ll get a warning that all data on this nonremovable drive will be lost. If you’re ready to format, press Y for yes and press ENTER.
When the process is complete, you’ll be asked if you want to enter a volume label for your drive. It’s not necessary, so you can just press ENTER. Next, you’ll need to tell your computer to switch over to your optical drive so you can install your operating system. The details of the OS installation process are covered in other articles in this section, but to switch to your optical drive, you can simply type the letter of the drive you want to move to followed by a colon. Your optical drive is most likely E:, so simply type E: and press ENTER to move to that drive. Typing Setup after E: will usually start the OS install process. Format A Boot CD If you’re running Win2000 or WinXP, you’ll be able to boot directly to your operating system CD without creating a startup floppy disk. You might need to make those BIOS changes we mentioned above to make sure your CD drive boots first. You might have to press a key during the boot-up process to boot from CD, so keep an eye on your screen. Formatting your hard drive is part of the Win2000 and WinXP setup process, which will begin automatically after your system boots from your Windows CD. You’ll be shown a blue screen with an option that says To set up Windows 2000 (or XP) now, press Enter. Go ahead and press ENTER and then agree to the license agreement by pressing F8. (NOTE: If you don’t get a response from your function keys, check to see if your keyboard has an F Lock key and press that key first.) If you already have Windows installed on your hard drive, Setup will ask if you want to repair it. Press the ESC key to skip this option. The next screen gives you the option to start installing Windows, create a new partition, or delete a partition. A partition is simply a section of a hard drive. A hard drive that hasn’t been divided into sections is said to have just one partition, but you can have several partitions on a single drive.
At the bottom of the screen you’ll see your current partition or partitions, as well as the unpartitioned space (if there is any). To format a partition, delete it and then recreate it. Highlight the partition you want to format and then press D. If there’s just one partition on your drive, you’ll be given a warning that you’re trying to delete the system partition. Press ENTER if you still want to format that partition. You’ll be given one more chance to change your mind. If you’re still ready to delete, press L. You’ll be taken back to the hard drive setup screen. To format a drive or partition, press ENTER to start the OS installation process. You’ll have to choose between the NTFS and FAT32 file formats for the format of your hard drive. There are many reasons to choose one over the other, but if you have a large hard drive with a newer operating system, such as WinXP, go with NTFS. If you have an older OS and smaller hard drive, you should use FAT 32. After you’ve formatted your hard drive, the operating system install process will start. Partition Your Hard Drive As we mentioned, you can separate a hard drive into multiple sections called partitions. Why would you want to partition a hard drive, you ask? Well, there are lots of reasons. You may want to run multiple operating systems on a single PC. You can have one partition dedicated to WinXP and another to Linux, for example. If you’re not interested in any goals that lofty, you might still want to partition your hard drive for backup and reinstalling purposes. Having several partitions on your hard drive can make it much easier to format and reinstall your operating system. You can keep all your sensitive data, such as documents, emails, photos, etc., on a non-system partition. Then, you can format your main C: partition and reinstall your operating system, and you have a cleanly installed OS. You’ll need to reinstall applications even if you installed them on a non-system partition, as there are a lot of files in the Windows folder for your programs, but it saves you a lot of time if you wipe your system clean occasionally. If you have a second hard drive, you can set up a partition on that drive to be a mirror of your data on your original hard drive. That way, you have a good backup in case your main hard drive crashes. See the sidebar below (“Format & Partition A Second Hard Drive”) for the steps involved in adding a second hard drive to your system. Partition With Fdisk If you’re running Win98 or WinME, you’ll need to use the Fdisk tool to partition your hard drive. Normally, this is done prior to formatting, so hopefully you’re giving this article a full read-through before heading off to the DOS command prompt. Reboot your PC with the startup floppy diskette installed. After you boot up to the DOS prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER. Fdisk will open and ask you if you want to enable large drive support. Press Y for yes. Highlight your new drive from the list that appears and press 1 for the option Create DOS Partition Or Logical DOS Drive. Press 1 again for Create Primary DOS Partition. Now you need to make a choice. If you want your drive to have a single partition, you can simply click Y to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS partition and automatically make it active (so you can install an operating system on it). After Fdisk has finished, you can reboot with your startup disk and then format your new drive. But because you’re using Fdisk, you probably want to make more than one partition. Press N when asked if you want to use the maximum available size for a DOS partition and enter the size that you want to use for your primary DOS partition in megabytes (MB) or percent of overall space. This is where you’ll install your main operating system, so you want a good amount of space.
Partition sizes are up to you. If you have a 100GB drive, you can divide it into two 50GB partitions, four 25GB partitions, one 50GB and two 25GB partitions, etc. Just make sure that there’s enough room in your primary partition for your operating system, at least. A good rule of thumb is to provide at least 10 percent of your overall hard drive space for the primary C partition. Some users like to have a partition just for multimedia files or one for a backup. Think about what types of data you want to store in your partitions and how much space you’d like in each partition before you set them. After Fdisk creates the primary DOS partition, press the ESC key to return to the Options menu. To create more partitions, press 2 for Create Extended DOS Partition. Fdisk will show you the maximum size available. You can use all of this space for a second partition, or enter the amount of space you want to use and create several partitions by repeating these steps until all the space is allocated. Press ESC to return to the main Options menu. Now, you need to set the primary partition to active, so press 2 for Set Active Partition and then press 1 to activate your primary partition and then press ESC. You can now format your partitions. Partition With A Windows Setup CD If you’re running a newer operating system such as WinXP, you can partition your main hard drive with Windows Setup. Follow the steps above to boot from CD-ROM, agree to the license agreement, and skip the Repair Windows step. You’ll be shown your hard drive(s) and all their partitions. If you only have one main partition and you want to split it into multiple partitions, you’ll have to delete the partition first. Highlight the partition with the arrow keys and then press D to delete it. You’ll have to press ENTER and then L to confirm this command if it’s the main system partition. After you’ve freed up space for your new partitions, press C in the main menu to create a new partition in the unpartitioned space. Enter the size of the partition in megabytes and press ENTER. Repeat these steps to create more partitions. Note that Windows can’t adjust the size of partitions without first deleting them, but some third-party applications such as Norton PartitionMagic 8.0 ($69.95; www.symantec.com) allow you to resize partitions on the fly. Formatting and partitioning your hard drive is a necessary step along the path to reinstalling your operating system. It helps you create a clean and streamlined system that will run much more smoothly than a system that’s been bloated with unused files and other junk over the past several months.  by Joel Strauch
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