HARDWARE: TROUBLESHOOTING

COMPUTER HARDWARE AND ORGANIZATION

AMIT

CTEP TECHNOCRAT, KARNAL

SECTION: 3

TROUBLESHOOTING

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INDEX

1. Common Troubleshooting Techniques & Strategies

3

2. Common Troubleshooting Techniques & Strategies

4
3. Troubleshooting Tips for a New Motherboard 5
4. Fax/Modem Troubleshooting Tips 9
5. Trouble Shooting Tips after Installing a New Video Card 10
6. Trouble Shooting Tips after Installing a New Hard Drive 11

7. How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP 14

8. How to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program 16
9. How to Use the Fdisk and Format Tools 18

10. How to Partition and Format a Master Hard Disk 21

11. How to Repartition and Format a Slave Hard Disk 25

12. How to use Disk Management 32

13. How to use the Backup utility to back up files and folders in Windows XP Home Edition
35
14. How to use Backup to protect data and restore files and folders on your computer in

Windows XP and Windows Vista 37

15. How to use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" in Microsoft Windows XP 39

16. How to Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard By Using the Microsoft Windows

XP CD-ROM 40

17. How to use the Windows XP Disk Management snap-in to configure a basic disk
42
18. Windows XP may not recognize all of your available disk space 45
19. Windows XP in a dual-boot environment with Windows 95 or Windows 98 47
20. Maximum partition size limit using the FAT16 file system in Microsoft Windows XP 48
21. How to convert a FAT partition into an NTFS partition 49
22. How to assign, to change, or to remove drive letters on a drive 52

23. How to change a drive letter 53

24. How to use the Recovery Console 55

25. Troubleshooting Tips for a New Sound Card

61
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26. Troubleshooting Tips for a New Network Card 63
27. Troubleshooting Tips for Cases and Power Supplies
65
28. How to Maintain a Computer System? 66

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Common Troubleshooting Techniques & Strategies

The following article is based on years of experience.

Here are five common-sense techniques and strategies to solve common computer hardware problems.

(1) Trial-and-error

Personal computers are highly modular by design. The most powerful trouble-shooting technique is to isolate
the problem to a specific component by trial-and-error. Swap compatible components and see if the system still
works. Try different peripherals on different machines and see if the same problem occurs. Make one change at
a time.

(2) "It's the cable, s-----."

More than 70% of all computer problems are related to cabling and connections. Ensure all cables are
connected firmly. IDE and floppy ribbon cables and power cables can often go loose. Ensure microprocessor,
memory modules, and adapters such as video card and sound card are inserted correctly and didn't "pop-up"
during transportation.

(3) Don't be frustrated!

Don't be afraid of computer problems. It is often the best opportunity to learn. Trouble-shooting is part of the fun
of owning a computer. Imagine the satisfaction you could get by solving a problem yourself.

Of course the fun could ran out quickly once you are frustrated and have spent too much time on the same
problem. If you feel frustrated, it's time to leave it for a while and go back with some new ideas or call someone
who can help. Rule of thumb: You shouldn't spend more than three hours on the same problem at one time.

(4) Take notes!

Take notes of what you have done and all the error messages. You may need to use them later. For instance,
when you see an unusual blue screen with an error message, copy the entire message onto a piece of paper.
In many situations, that message may point to the right direction in getting the problem solved quickly.

(5) Take a look?

It's OK to open a computer case and take a look inside. There is only 5V and 12V DC voltage supplied to the
components outside the power supply. Those who have never seen the inside of a computer are often amazed
by how simple it looks. Of course, still always power down and unplug the power cord first.

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Troubleshooting Tips for New Monitors

Here are some basic trouble shooting tips for new monitors:
1. The picture does not appear
• Check to make sure the signal cable is firmly connected in the socket.
• Check to see if the computer system's power is ON.
• Check that the Brightness Control is at the appropriate position, not at the minimum.
2. The Screen is not synchronized
• Check to make sure the signal cable is firmly connected in the socket.
• Check that the output level matches the input level of your computer.
• Make sure the signal timing of the computer system is within the specification of the monitor.
3. The position of the screen is not in the center
• Adjust the H-Size, H-Phase or V-Size, V-Center controls.
• Check if the signal timing of the computer system is within the specification of the monitor.
4. The screen is too bright or too dark
• Check if the Brightness or contrast control is at the appropriate position, not at the maximum or
minimum.
• Check if the specified voltage is applied
• Check if the signal timing of the computer system is within the specification of the monitor.
• Especially, check the horizontal frequency.
5. The screen is shaking
• Move all objects that emit a magnetic field, such as a motor or transformer, away from the
monitor.
• Check if the specified voltage is applied.
• Check if the signal timing of the computer system is within the specification of the monitor.

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Troubleshooting Tips for a New Motherboard

More than 70% of all computer problems are related to cabling and connections. Ensure all
cables are connected and connected firmly. IDE and floppy ribbon cables and power cables can
often go loose. Ensure microprocessor, memory modules, and adapters such as video card are
inserted correctly and didn't "pop-up" due to vibration.

System has no power at all. Power light does not illuminate, fan inside the power supply does not
turn on, and indicator light on keyboard does not turn on.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION

Make sure power cable is securely
Power cable is unplugged. Visually inspect power cable.
plugged in.
Defective power cable. Visual inspection, try another cable. Replace cable.
Power cable and wall socket are
Power supply failure. Contact technical support
OK, but system is still dead.
Faulty wall outlet; circuit breaker or Plug device into socket know to Use different socket, repair outlet,
fuse blown. work and test. reset circuit breaker or replace fuse.

System inoperative. Keyboard lights are on, power indicator lights are lit, and hard drive is spinning.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Turn off computer. Take cover off
Expansion card is partially dislodged Using even pressure on both ends of
system unit.
from expansion slot on the the expansion card, press down firmly
Check all expansion cards to ensure
motherboard. on expansion card.
they are securely seated in slots.
Turn system off.
Disconnect the cables from one of
Defective floppy disk drive or tape the floppy drives. Turn on the
Contact Technical Support.
drive. system, check to see if the keyboard
operates normally. Repeat until you
have located defective unit.
Turn computer off. Make sure expansion card is secure in
Defective expansion card.
Remove an expansion card. expansion socket.

System does not boot from hard disk drive, can be booted from floppy disk drive.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Check cable running form disk to disk
When attempting to run the FDISK
controller on the board. Make sure
utility described in the HARD DISK
Connector between hard drive and both ends are securely plugged in;
section of the manual you get a
system board unplugged. check the drive type in the Standard
message, INVALID DRIVE
CMOS Setup (in your motherboard
SPECIFICATION.
manual).
Damaged Hard Disk or Disk Format hard disk; if unable to do so,
Contact Technical Support.
Controller. the hard disk may be defective.
Run the FDISK program, format the
Backing up the hard drive is extremely
Hard Disk directory or FAT is hard drive(See HARD DRIVE
important. All Hard Disks are capable
scrambled. section of manual). Copy your
of breaking down at any time.
backup data back onto hard drive.

System only boots from Floppy Disk. Hard Disk can be read and applications can be used, but booting
from Hard Disk is impossible.

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PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Back up data and applications files.
Reformat the Hard Drive as described
Hard Disk boot program has been A number of causes could be behind
in the Hard Drive section of the
destroyed. this.
manual. Re-install applications and
data using backup disks.

Error message reading "SECTOR NOT FOUND" or other error messages indication certain data is not
allowed to be retrieved.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Back up any salvageable data. Then
do a low level format, partition, and
Use a file by file backup instead of
A number of causes could be behind high level format of the hard drive( see
an image backup to backup the
this. Hard Disk section of your manual for
Hard Disk.
instructions). Re-install all saved data
when completed.

Disk formatted on IBM PS/2 will not operate with this system.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Format disk in the AT type computer
The IBM PS/2 uses a different IBM PS/2 disk format will not work in
insert disk into the IBM PS/2 and copy
format than other computers. an AT type computer.
the files you wish.

After install an expansion card (network card, tape drive card, etc.) the system no longer works
properly.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Change the interrupt or RAM address
on the new expansion card. See the
All or part of the system may be
documentation that came with the new
inoperable. The new card may work
No power to monitor. card in order to change pin settings.
but a mouse or COM port may not
many expansion devices come with
work.
proprietary software that will assist you
in doing this.

Screen message says "Invalid Configuration" or "CMOS Failure."

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Incorrect information entered into the Check the configuration program. Review system's equipment. Make
configuration (setup) program. Replace any incorrect information. sure correct information is in setup.

Screen is blank.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Check the power connectors to
monitor and to system. Make sure
Power connectors may be loose or
No power to monitor. monitor is connected to display card,
not plugged in.
change I/O address on network card if
applicable.
Monitor not connected to computer. See instructions above.
Network card I/O address conflict. See instructions above.

System does not boot from hard disk drive, can be booted from floppy disk drive.
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PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
When attempting to run the FDISK Check cable running form disk to disk
utility described in the HARD DISK controller on the board. Make sure
Connector between hard drive and
section of the manual you get a both ends are securely plugged in;
system board unplugged.
message, INVALID DRIVE check the drive type in the Standard
SPECIFICATION. CMOS Setup (in your

Problem
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Reboot computer. Re-install memory,
make sure that all memory modules
Memory problem, display card are installed in correct sockets. Check
jumpers not set correctly. jumper and switch settings on display
card. See display card section for
information of settings.
Use anti-virus programs (McAfee/PC-
Computer virus. cillin, E-port, etc) to detect and clean
viruses.

Screen goes blank periodically.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Screen saver is enabled. Disable screen saver.

Keyboard failure.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Reconnect keyboard. Check keys
Keyboard is disconnected. again, if no improvement, replace
keyboard.

No color on screen.
PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
If possible, connect monitor to another
Faulty Monitor.
system. If no color, replace monitor.
CMOS incorrectly set up. Call technical support.

Floppy drive lights stays on.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Reconnect floppy cable making sure
Floppy Drive cable not connected
PIN1 on the Floppy Drive corresponds
correctly.
with PIN1 on floppy cable connector.

Error reading drive A:

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Bad floppy disk. Try new floppy disk.
Floppy disk not formatted Format floppy disk(type ENTER)

C: drive failure.

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PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Boot from drive A: using DOS system
SETUP program does not have
disk. Input correct information to
correct information.
SETUP program.
Hard Drive cable not connected
Check Hard drive cable.
properly.

Cannot boot system after installing second hard drive.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Master/Slave jumpers not set
Set master /Slave jumpers correctly.
correctly.
Run SETUP program and select
Hard Drives not compatible / correct drive types. Call drive
different manufacturers. manufactures for compatibility with
other drives.

Missing operating system on hard drive.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Run setup and select correct drive
CMOS setup has been changed.
type.

Certain keys do not function.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Keys jammed or defective. Replace keyboard.

Keyboard is locked, no keys function.

PROBABLE CAUSE DIAGNOSIS SOLUTION
Keyboard is locked. Unlock keyboard

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Fax/Modem Troubleshooting Tips

My modem is a 56K, but I can connect to the Internet only at slower speed.
The current copper wired telephone lines are limited only to about 53K. If you are connected only to 33.6 or
28.8K, check the following first:

• Is your modem compatible with the modem used at your ISP?

• Is your modem set up to run at full speed?
• What's the maximum speed your ISP allows?
• How far away are you from your ISP?
• Some modems need special initiation strings to get full speed.
• Some conditions are out of your control, such as weather and conditions of the telephone lines in your
community.
• Problems may occur when you are dialing through a phone system such as one in a hotel.

Modem answers incoming calls and then returns to the on-hook condition, disconnecting the caller:
This occurs most often when connecting to a UNIX system. In most case, the host does not prefer to see any
result or command echo codes. If this is the case, the codes can be disabled by adding E0 Q1 to the modem
configuration string.

The modem dials and appears to complete the connection, but the communications software does not
enter the correct mode. (The screen remains blank)
This is normally caused by an I/O address or IRQ conflict. Verify that the COM port is not in use by any other
serial device and if necessary use another COM port or I/O address settting. Refer to your computer manual on
how to determine what serial ports are installed.

The modem dials and appears to complete the connection, but the communications software does not
enter the correct mode. (The screen remains blank)

• There may be an I/O conflict (see the solution for the previous problem).
• The Result Codes may have been disabled by the software configuration set up. Check if Q1 is in the
configuration or initialization string. If so, change it to Q0.
• Your software may require numeric result codes rather than verbal result codes. Use either V0 for
numeric result codes or V1 for verbal result codes in your initiazation or configuration string.
• Some software require full extended result codes (i.e., CONNECT 33600 instead of CONNECT). This
can be controlled by the Xn command. X0 sends a summarized code (CONNECT) and X4 sends a full
extended code (CONNECT 33600)

The modem does not auto answer

The auto answer mode is determined by the S0 register. If S0 has been set to 0, the modem will not answer.
Asign another value to S0 by entering the following command: S0=n, where n = the number of rings to occur
before the call is answered (ATS0=2, the modem answers after two rings)

The modem always answers the phone.

Set the S0 register to 0. ATS0=0.

The communications software displays, "No Dialtone."

Make sure that your phone cable is working properly and that it is firmly seated to the phone socket at your
phone jack and in the real panel of the modem.

A high pitched squeal is emitted from the external speakers

This phenomenon is "feedback" and occurs when the microphone is pointed at the external speaker or is close
enough to pick up the speaker output. This may be remedied by using a unidirectional microphone, making sure
that it is pointed away and as far from the speaker as functionally possible. Another option is to use a headset
with an attached microphone.

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Trouble Shooting Tips after Installing a New Video Card

The following troubleshooting tips may help if you experience problems.

• Check that the card is seated properly in its expansion slot. Some AGP cards have design flaws and
are "well-known" to "pop out" during transportation. For PCI cards, if the problem still exists, try a
difference PCI expansion slot.
• Ensure the display cable is securely fastened to the card's display connector.
• Make sure that the display and computer are plugged in and receiving power.
• If necessary, disable any built-in graphics capabilities on your motherboard. For more information, see
your computer's manual.
• Make sure you selected the appropriate display device and graphics card when you installed your
enhanced driver.
• If you have problems during start-up, start your computer in Safe Mode. In Windows 98, press the F8
key when "Starting Windows 98" appears; or, in Windows 98, press and hold the CTRL key until the
Windows 98 Startup Menu appears on the screen. Then select the number for Safe Mode, and press
Enter.

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Trouble Shooting Tips after Installing a New Hard Drive

1. Basic Troubleshooting Tips after Installing a New Hard Drive

Based on Seagate IDE hard drives.

If you have installed your drive and it does not function properly, perform the following basic checks:

Warning: Always turn off the computer before changing jumpers or unplugging cables and cards. Wear
a ground strap or use other antistatic precautions while working on your computer or handling your
drive.

• Verify compatibility. Verify that the host adapter and drive are appropriately matched to each
other and to your computer. Refer to the relevant documentation for details.
• Check all cards. Verify that all cards are seated in their slots on the motherboard and secured
with mounting screws.
• Check all connectors and cables. Make sure all ribbon and power cables are securely
connected. Ribbon cables are easily damaged, especially at the connector. Try a new cable
that you know is good. Make sure no connector pins are bent. Verify that pin 1 on the interface
cable is aligned with pin 1 on the drive and host adapter (see Figure 2 on page 6).
• Verify jumper settings. Review the instructions in this guide and in your host adapter
installation guide. Make sure all appropriate jumpers are installed or removed as necessary.
• Check your power-supply specifications. Each time you add a new device to your computer,
make sure your cornputer's internal power supply can support the total power demand. If
necessary, consult your dealer for a new power supply.
• Verify the drive-type settings in the system setup program. The drive-type settings in the
system BIOS must not exceed the physical specifications of your drive. Also, the settings must
not exceed the limitations set by the operating system and BIOS.
• Check for viruses. Before you use someone else's diskette in your system for the first time,
scan the diskette for viruses.

2. After you install your new drive, your computer will not boot, and no error message appears on
the screen.

Check your computer manual or BIOS manufacturer to determine whether your BIOS supports drives
that have more than 4,092 cylinders. If your system has this limitation, use the following procedure to
configure your computer:

α. Turn off your computer, open the case, and remove your new drive.

CAUTION: To avoid electrostatic discharge damage to your computer or hard drive, make sure
you are well grounded before touching the drive, cable, connector or jumpers.

β . Move the jumper on the alternate-capacity jumper, as shown in Figure 6. This causes the drive
to appear to your BIOS as having a 2.1-Gbyte capacity (4,092 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors
per track). You may need third-party partitioning software, such as Disk Manager, to achieve
full capacity of the drive.
χ . Remount your drive in the computer and replace the computer cover.
δ . Insert a bootable system diskette into drive A and turn on the computer. It should boot from
drive A and automatically detect the new drive as a 2.1 -Gbyte drive.
ε . Insert your DiscWizard diskette into drive A and type A:XDM. Then press ENTER. This runs the
Disk Manager program.
φ . Follow the Disk Manager instructions to install the dynamic drive overlay and to partition and
format your new drive to its full capacity.
γ . After Disk Manager is done, reboot your system. You should see the Disk Manager banner and
be able to access the full capacity of your new drive.

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2. The screen remains blank when you power up the system.
If the steps listed above do not remedy this problem, try the following:

• Make sure the monitor is plugged in and turned on.

• Check all cards.
• Make sure the video card is seated in its slot and secured with mounting screws.
• Turn off the computer and remove the drive host adapter. If the screen turns on after you
reboot, the host adapter may be incompatible or defective. If so, see your dealer.

3. The system does not recognize the drive.

• Check all cables.

• Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs.
• Reboot the computer and listen to make sure the drive motor starts up. If the drive is very quiet,
it may be difficult to hear its discs reach operating speed. If the drive motor does not start up,
recheck all drive cables.
• Verify that for each drive, a drive-type is listed in the system setup program.
• Try rebooting your computer by pressing the CTRL, ALT and DELETE keys simultaneously. If
the drive is recognized after you reboot the system, the computer BIOS test may be completing
before the drive is ready.
One solution is to slow the processor speed during startup. If your computer has a turbo switch,
set it to slow speed before turning the computer on. If there is no turbo switch, you may be able
to use keyboard commands; see your computer manual for details. After the computer is up
and running, return the processor to the fast speed.
Another solution is to warm-boot your computer after every power-on.
• Check for I/O address conflicts. To isolate the conflict, verify that the drive and host adapter are
compatible with your computer. Turn off the computer and remove all the peripheral adapter
cards except for the video card and host adapter. If the computer recognizes the drive when
you reboot the computer, turn off the computer. Reinstall the other peripheral cards, one at a
time, until the conflict reoccurs. After you have isolated the source of the address conflict, you
can resolve the conflict by changing the 1/0 address of the peripheral that appears to cause the
conflict.
• If Disk Manager has installed the DDO on your hard drive and you have booted directly from a
diskette, the information in the boot record for the drive may not have been loaded. Make sure
there is no diskette in drive A and reboot. If you want to boot from the diskette, follow the
"Booting with a Diskette" instructions under "Advanced Disk Manager Options" on page 20.

4. The dealer partitioned and formatted the drive for you in the store, but the drive does not
respond when you install it.

• Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up.
• Check all cables.
• Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs.
• Make sure the DOS or Windows version the dealer used to partition and format the drive is the
same version you have installed in your computer. If it isn't, see your dealer.
• Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program. You must install the drive using the
same drive-type values your dealer used to partition the drive.
• Check for 1/0 address conflicts between peripheral cards.
• Check for viruses.

5. The system hangs in FDISK or fails to create or save the partition record.

• Check all cables.

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• Your setup system diskette may be corrupted. Try using a backup diskette.
• Make the partitions smaller.
• Change the interrupt jumper setting on the host adapter.
• Some BIOS have a Track 0 protection feature that protects Track 0 from viruses. This may
cause FDISK to hang the system. You must disable this feature in the system setup program
before you can use FDISK. See your computer reference guide for assistance. Be sure to re-
enable this important feature when FDISK is done.

6. The system error message, "Drive not Ready," appears.

• Check all cable connections. Make sure pin 1 of the drive is connected to pin 1 of the hard-disc
controller or host adapter.
• Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs.
• Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up.

7. The FDISK error message, "No Fixed Disk Present," appears.

• Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs.

• Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program.
• Check for 1/0 address conflicts.

8. The drive does not format to full capacity.

• Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program. One of the following problems may
have occurred:
• The values may be set with an incorrect translation characteristic.
• You may have entered a parameter value that exceeds the physical capacity of the drive.
• You entered a translation characteristic that does not take full advantage of the drive's capacity.
• The drive's physical specifications exceed the translation limits imposed by the BIOS.

CAUTION: If you change the drive-type values in the system setup program, you must partition
and format the drive again. This erases data on the drive.

• If you have partitioned the drive into individual logical drives, you may need to make the
partitions smaller to access the full drive capacity.
• If your computer supports LBA mode, you may need to enable LBA mode in the system setup
program to access the full capacity of the drive. Refer to your computer's reference guide to
find out how to enable LBA.
• Your computer may not support drives that have more than 4,092 cylinders. Follow the
instructions on page 25 for After you install your new drive, your computer will not boot, and no
error message appears on the screen.

9. The DOS message "Disk Boot Failure," "Non-System Disk" or "No ROM Basic - SYSTEM
HALTED" appears.

• Reinstall the DOS system files using the DOS SYS utility.
• Check all cables.
• Use FDISK to verify that the primary partition is active.
• Check for viruses.

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10. The system error message, "HDD controller failure" appears.

• Confirm the jumper settings on the drive.

• Verify the drive-type settings in the system setup program.

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How to format/formating/partition/partioning a hard drive with Windows XP?

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP

IN THIS TASK
This article describes how to partition and format a hard disk with Microsoft Windows XP.
Learn about your partitioning and formatting options, what to consider before you partition or
format your hard disk, and how to partition and format your hard disk. Additionally, this article
contains links to resources that can help you troubleshoot if problems occur.

INTRODUCTION
This step-by-step article describes how to partition and format a hard disk with Windows XP.

Before you can install an operating system, you must first create a primary partition on the first physical hard
disk (Disk 0) on your computer, and then format a file system on that partition. This partition is named the
System partition. Alternatively, you can create a separate partition for the operating system on any physical
hard disk. This is named the startup partition. The System partition on Disk 0 can also be used as a startup
partition

MORE INFORMATION

Options for partitioning and formatting your hard disk

You can use the Microsoft Windows XP Setup program or the Fdisk and Format tools to partition and format
System and startup partitions.

If your computer is already running Windows XP, and you want to create partitions other than the System or the
startup partitions, you can use the Windows XP Disk Management tools.

Important things to consider before you partition and format your hard disk
Consider the following questions before you partition and format your hard disk:

• Have you prepared the hard disk by following the manufacturer's instructions?

Set the jumpers and the cabling according to the role of the hard disk (for example, master or
subordinate) and make any required BIOS (or CMOS) changes. See the documentation that came with
your hard disk and motherboard, or contact the manufacturers.

• What type of file system do you want to use?

You can use either the FAT or NTFS file systems.

Does the hard disk already contain data? If yes, have you backed up all your important data?

If not, back up your data before you continue. When you partition and format a hard disk, all the data on
that partition is permanently deleted. You can view current partition information without deleting your
data.

Does the hard disk have a drive overlay or a disk management program?

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If your computer uses drive overlay software for large hard disk support, do not use the Windows XP
Setup program to partition or to format the drive until you have verified Windows XP compatibility with
the software manufacturer. If you do not know whether you have drive overlay software installed,
contact the software manufacturer before you continue.

• Do you have the floppy disks or the CD-ROMs that you need to reinstall your software?

Make sure that you have the software so that you can reinstall your programs after you partition and
format your drive. If you purchased an upgrade for a program, make sure that you have the full version
of the original program. Many upgrades for programs require a compliance check before you can install
the upgraded product. If you cannot find the original floppy disks or CD-ROMs, contact the software
manufacturer before you continue.
• Do you have updated device drivers backed up on storage other than the drive that you want to format
and partition?

If you have installed an updated device driver for your peripheral devices (for example, modems and
printers), make sure that you back up the new driver for the device to a location other than the drive that
you want to format and partition. Therefore, you can reinstall it after you install your operating system.
• Can you start your computer from the CD-ROM drive?

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How to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup
program

Important If you follow these steps on a hard disk that is not empty, all the data on that hard disk is
permanently deleted. We recommend that you back up your hard disk before you follow these steps.

To partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, or insert the first Windows XP
Setup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer.

Note To start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM (or from the startup disk), your computer must be
configured to start from the CD-ROM drive, the DVD-ROM drive, or the floppy disk drive. In some cases, you
may have to modify your computer's BIOS settings to set this configuration. For information about how to
configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive, the DVD-ROM drive, or the floppy disk drive, see the
documentation that is included with your computer, or contact the computer manufacturer.

2. If you are starting the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, select any options that are required to start
the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do this.

Note If your hard disk controller requires a third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM) driver, press F6
to specify the driver.

For additional information about how to use F6 to supply a third-party OEM device driver while the Windows
Setup program is running, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

314859 Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP Setup If you are starting from the
Windows XP Setup disks, insert each of the additional disks when you are prompted, and then press ENTER to
continue after you insert each disk.

3. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.

4. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

5. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press
ESC.

6. All the existing partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the
ARROW keys to select the partition or the unpartitioned space where you want to create a new partition. Press
D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition by using unpartitioned space. If you press
D to delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this step for each of the existing partitions that
you want to use for the new partition. When all the partitions are deleted, select the remaining unpartitioned
space, and then press C to create the new partition.

Note If you want to create a partition where one or more partitions already exist, you must first delete the
existing partition or partitions, and then create the new partition.

7. Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then press ENTER, or just
press ENTER to create the partition with the maximum size.

8. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to create additional partitions if you want them.

9. If you want to install Windows XP, use the ARROW keys to select the partition where you want to install
Windows XP, and then press ENTER. If you do not want to format the partition and install Windows XP, press
F3 two times to quit the Windows Setup program, and then do not follow the remaining steps. In this case, you
must use a different utility to format the partition.

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10. Select the format option that you want to use for the partition, and then press ENTER. You have the
following options:

• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)

• Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system
• Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

The option to leave the current file system intact is not available if the selected partition is a new partition. The
FAT file system option is not available if the selected partition is more than 32 gigabytes (GB). If the partition is
larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to confirm).
If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT16 file system.

Note If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different
partition, you will be prompted to select a file system for both the System and startup partitions. 11. After the
Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to continue.
After the Windows Setup program is completed, you can use the Disk Management tools in Windows XP to
create or format more partitions.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition

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How to Use the Fdisk and Format Tools

Before you install your operating system, you must first create a primary partition on the hard disk (disk 1) on

your computer, and then format a file system on that partition. The Fdisk tool is an MS-DOS-based tool that you

can use to prepare (partition) a hard disk. You can use the Fdisk tool to create, change, delete, or display current

partitions on the hard disk, and then each allocated space on the hard disk (primary partition, extended partition,

or logical drive) is assigned a drive letter. Disk 1 may contain one extended partition, and a second hard disk may

contain a primary or extended partition. An extended partition may contain one or more logical MS-DOS drives.

After you use the Fdisk tool to partition your hard disk, use the Format tool to format those partitions with a file

system. The file system File Allocation Table (FAT) allows the hard disk to accept, store, and retrieve data.

Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition

(Me), and Windows 2000 support the FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. When you run the Fdisk tool on a hard disk

that is larger than 512 megabytes (MB), you are prompted to choose one of the following file systems:

• FAT16: This file system has a maximum of 2 gigabytes (GB) for each allocated space or drive letter. For

example, if you use the FAT16 file system and have a 6-GB hard disk, you can have three drive letters (C,

D, and E), each with 2 GB of allocated space.For additional information about the FAT16 file system, click

the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

118335 Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System

• FAT32: This file system supports drives that are up to 2 terabytes in size and stores files on smaller

sections of the hard disk than the FAT16 file system does. This results in more free space on the hard

disk. The FAT32 file system does not support drives that are smaller than 512 MB.For additional

information about the FAT32 file system, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft

Knowledge Base:

154997 Description of the FAT32 File System

When you run the fdisk and format commands, the Master Boot Record (MBR) and file allocation tables are

created. The MBR and file allocation tables store the necessary disk geometry that allows hard disk to accept,

store, and retrieve data. For additional information about MS-DOS partitioning and a hard disk geometry overview,

click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

69912 MS-DOS Partitioning Summary

Important Considerations Before You Use the Fdisk and Format Tools

Consider the following questions before you use the Fdisk and Format tools:

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• Is the hard disk new? If not, view the second question.

o Is this hard disk the only hard disk on your computer (master) or is this hard disk a second hard

disk (slave)?
o Have you prepared the hard disk by following the manufacturer's instructions? It is important to

set the jumpers and cabling according to the role of the hard disk (master or slave).
o Have you checked your basic input/output system (BIOS) to verify that it supports the hard disk

or the second hard disk? If not, check the documentation that came with your motherboard, or

contact the manufacturer. Typically, the BIOS has an auto detect hard disk setting that configures

the drive, but you should verify this before you continue.
o What type of file system do you want to use? You can use either the FAT16 or the FAT32 file

systems. If you are not sure which file system that you want to use, view the following articles in

the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

118335 Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System

154997 Description of the FAT32 File System

• Does the hard disk already contain data?

o Have you backed up all of your important data? If not, back up your data before you proceed.

When you run the fdisk command to create, delete, or change a partition, all of the data on that

partition is permanently deleted. Note that you can view current partition information without

deleting your data.

For additional information about how to install the MSBackup utility, click the article number

below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152561 How to Install Microsoft Backup

View the Help file in the MSBackup utility for information about how to use this utility. If you want

to use the MSBackup utility with a removable media device, view the following article in the

Microsoft Knowledge Base:

188575 How to Back Up to Removable Media Device Using Microsoft Backup

Note that a backup utility is not included with Windows Me.

o Does the hard disk have a drive overlay or a disk management program? If your computer uses

drive overlay software to enable large hard disk support, do not use the Fdisk tool until you have

checked with the software manufacturer. If you are not sure, view the following Microsoft

Knowledge Base article or contact the software manufacturer before you proceed:

186057 How to Tell If Drive Overlay Program Is Installed in Windows

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o Do you have the floppy disks or the CD-ROMs that are necessary to reinstall your software? Make

sure that you have the software so that you can reinstall your programs after you partition and

format your drive. If you purchased an upgrade for a program, make sure that you have the full

version of the original program. Many upgrades for programs require a compliance check before

you can install the upgraded product. If you cannot find the original floppy disks or CD-ROMs,

contact the software manufacturer before you proceed.

o Do you have updated device backed up on a device other than the drive that you are about to

format and partition? If you have installed an updated device driver for your peripheral devices

(for example, modems, printers, and so on), make sure that you back up the new driver on a

device other than the drive that you are about to format and partition so that you can reinstall it

after you install your operating system.

• Do you want to combine multiple extended partitions in one extended partition? If so, view the "How to

Repartition and Format the Extended Partition and Logical Drives on a Hard Disk" section in this article.

• Do you have a Startup disk? Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me

prompt you to create a Startup disk during Setup. If you do not have a Startup disk:

a. Insert a blank floppy disk in the floppy disk drive (drive A).
b. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove
Programs.
c. Click Create Disk on the Startup Disk tab.
d. After you create the Startup disk, you should test it. To test the Startup disk, insert it in the
floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer. If you are using a Windows 98-based

computer, the Startup menu is displayed. If you are using a Windows 95-based computer, a

command prompt is displayed.

• Do you need Real-mode CD-ROM support? Some CD-ROM drives require Real-mode device drivers. If you

are planning to use Windows 98 on your computer, the Startup disk contains generic, Real-mode ATAPI

CD-ROM and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drivers that can enable CD-ROM drives after you

boot from the Windows 98 Startup disk. Note that these CD-ROM drivers may not work with all CD-ROM

drives; they may work as a replacement if the Real-mode CD-ROM drivers that are included with your CD-

ROM drive are not available.

NOTE: If you insert your Windows 98 Startup disk, restart your computer, you may not be able to change

to the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive (usually one drive letter ahead of where the drive letter typically

resides because there is a random access memory [RAM] drive created by the Startup disk), because

these drivers do not work with your CD-ROM drive. View the documentation that is included with your

hardware, or contact your hardware manufacturer to obtain the CD-ROM device drivers.

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How to Partition and Format a Master Hard Disk

IMPORTANT: If you use the following steps on a hard disk that is not empty, all of the data on that hard disk

is permanently deleted.

How to Partition a Master Hard Disk

To partition a master hard disk, run the fdisk command:

1. Insert the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, restart your computer, and then use one of the following

methods, depending on your operating system. For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or

Windows Me Startup disk:

a. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, select the Start computer without

CD-ROM support menu option, and then press ENTER.

b. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.

c. View step 2.

For a Windows 95 Startup disk:

a. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.

b. View step 2.

2. If your hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the following message:

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

designated 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 you wish to enable large disk support?

If you want to use the FAT32 file system, press Y and then press ENTER. If you want to use the FAT16 file

system, press N, and then press ENTER.

3. After you press ENTER, the following Fdisk Options menu is displayed:

4. 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

5. 2. Set active partition

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6. 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
7. 4. Display partition information
5. Change current fixed disk drive

Note that option 5 is available only if you have two physical hard disks in the computer.

8. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option, and then press ENTER.

9. Press 1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

10. After you press ENTER, you receive the following message:

Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition?

After you receive this message, use one of the following methods, depending on the file system that you

selected.

For a FAT32 File System

a. If you press Y for the FAT32 file system (in step 2) and you want all of the space on the hard

disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press ENTER.

b. Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt.

c. View step 7.

For a FAT16 File System

If you press N for the FAT16 file system (in step 2), you can accept the default 2 GB size for the

partition size, or you can customize the size of the partition.

To accept the default partition size:

a. If you want the first 2 GB on the hard disk to be assigned to drive C, press Y, and then press

ENTER.

b. Press ESC to return to the Options menu, and then view step d in the following "To customize

the partition size" section.

To customize the partition size:

a. If you want to customize the size of the partitions (drive letters) on the hard disk, press N, and

then press ENTER.

b. A dialog box is displayed in which you can type the size that you want for the primary partition in

MB or percent of disk space. Note that for computers that are running either Windows 98 or

Windows Me, Microsoft recommends that you make the primary partition at least 500 MB in size.

Type the size of the partition that you want to create, and then press ENTER.

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c. Press ESC to return to the Options menu.

d. To assign drive letters to the additional space on the hard disk, press 1, and then press ENTER.

e. Press 2 to select the Create Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

f. You receive a dialog box that is displays the maximum space that is available for the extended

partition. You can adjust the size of the partition or use the default size. Note that the default

maximum space is recommended, but you can divide the space between multiple drive letters.

Type the amount of space that you want, press ENTER, and then press ESC.

g. The Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition menu is displayed. This is

the menu that you can use to assign the remaining hard disk space to the additional drive letters.

Type the amount of space that you want to assign to the next drive letter in the Enter logical

drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%) box, and then press ENTER.

h. A table that lists the drive letter that you created and the amount of space on that drive is

displayed. If there is free space on the hard disk, it is displayed near the bottom of the table.

Repeat steps e through g until you receive the following message:

All available space in the Extended DOS Partition is assigned to local drives.

i. After you receive this message, press ESC to return to the Options menu.

j. To activate the partition from which you plan to boot (usually drive C), press 2 to select the Set

active partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

k. When you receive the following message, press 1, and then press ENTER:

Enter the number of the partition you want to make active.

l. Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt,

and then view the following "How to Format a Hard Disk" section in this article.

How to Format a Hard Disk

After you create the partitions, you must format the partitions:

1. Restart your computer with the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive.

NOTE: If you are using a Windows 95 Startup disk, a command prompt is displayed and you can skip to

step 2. If you are using a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk, select

the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option when the Windows 98 Startup menu is

displayed.

2. When a command prompt is displayed, type format c: /s, and then press ENTER. This command

transfers the system files and should only be used when you format drive C (or your "active" drive). For

all other partitions, type format drive: (where drive is the letter of the partition that you want to format).

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NOTE: If you receive a "Bad command" or "Bad file name" error message, you may need to extract the

Format.com tool to your boot disk. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt, and

then press ENTER:

extract ebd.cab format.com

After the Format.com tool is extracted to your boot disk, type format c: /s t a command prompt to

format your active partition, or type format drive: if you want to format a partition that is not your active

partition.

3. When you successfully run the Format.com tool, you receive the following message:

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed with Format?

4. Press Y, and then press ENTER to format drive C.

5. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

NOTE: This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the drive. You can either type an

11-character name for the drive, or you can leave it blank by pressing ENTER.

For information about how to repartition the extended partition and logical drives, view the "How to Repartition

and Format the Extended Partition and Logical Drives of a Hard Disk" section in this article.

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How to Repartition and Format a Slave Hard Disk

How to Repartition a Slave Hard Disk

If you want to add a second hard disk (slave drive) to your computer, you need to make sure that the jumpers

on both the master (original) and slave (new drive) are set according to the manufacturer's instructions first so

that your computer can detect the hard disks. Verify that your hardware is installed correctly, and then follow

these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Run, and then type command (Note that the cmd command only works on Windows

2000-based computers).

2. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER. The following menu is displayed:

3. 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

4. 2. Set active partition
5. 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
6. 4. Display partition information
5. Change current fixed disk drive

Note that menu option 5 is available only if you have two physical hard disks on your computer.

7. Press 5, and then press ENTER. When you do this, the selection changes from the physical disk 1 (master)

to the physical disk 2 (slave).

8. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option, press ENTER, press 2 to

select the Create Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER. When you make your

slave drive an extended MS-DOS partition, your drive letters does not change. For example, if the first

drive contains partition C and partition D, your slave drive becomes D unless you set the slave drive as an

extended partition. If you skip this step and just create another primary MS-DOS partition for the slave

drive, the new drive becomes drive D and what used to be drive D, changes to drive E.

9. You can partition the slave drive to make other logical drives just as you did with the original master

drive. If your computer cannot detect the new drive, you may need to add the following line to your

Config.sys file, where drive is a letter that is greater than the last drive letter on the computer (including

the CD-ROM drive):

lastdrive=drive

10. After you finish using the Fdisk tool, format the new partitions so that you can use them. After you press

ESC to quit the Fdisk tool, restart your computer to start Windows.

How to Format a Slave Hard Disk

To format your new partition or partitions, use one of the following methods, depending on your file system.

For a FAT16 file system:

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a. Double-click My Computer, right-click the partition that you just created, click Format, click Full, and

then click Start.

b. After the format procedure is complete, click OK to close the dialog box.

For a FAT32 file system:

a. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click Drive Converter

(FAT32), and then click Next.

b. In the Drives box, click the drive that you want to convert to the FAT32 file system.

c. Click Next, and then click OK.

d. Click Next, click Next, and then click Next again.

e. When the conversion procedure is finished, click Finish.

NOTE: Do not use the /s switch that you used when you set up drive C. All you need to do is to format the drive

or drives so that you can use them (for example, if you created two new drive letters, you need to format both

drives).

For information about how to repartition the extended partition and logical drives, view the following "How to

Repartition and Format the Extended Partition and Logical Drives of a Hard Disk" section in this article.

How to Repartition and Format the Extended Partition and Logical Drives of a Hard Disk

Use the steps in this section to resize or combine your extended partition and logical drives. Make sure that

you have a reliable backup of any important data that you have on your extended partition and logical drives

before you proceed. If you want to combine your entire hard disk in one partition, use the steps in the "How to

Partition and Format a Master Hard Disk" section in this article.

How to Repartition the Extended Partition and the Logical Drives

NOTE: When you use this method, two or more partitions are left on your hard disk, a primary partition

(usually drive C) and an extended partition. Even if you use the FAT32 file system, there is an 8-GB partition

limitation unless you obtain a BIOS upgrade that fully supports interrupt 13 extensions. For additional information

about why there is an 8-GB limit, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge

Base:

153550 Hard Disk Limited to 8-GB Partition

If you have a hard disk that is larger than 8 GB and you are not using a disk overlay program or disk management

software, you need to partition and format the space that is remaining after you create each 8-GB partition:

1. Place the Startup disk in your floppy disk drive, restart your computer, and then use one of the following

methods, depending on your operating system. For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or

Windows Me Startup disk:

a. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, select the Start computer

without CD-ROM support menu option, and then press ENTER.

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b. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.

c. Go to step 2.

For a Windows 95 Startup disk:

a. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.

b. Go to step 2.

2. If your hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the following message:

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

designated 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 you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)?

If you want to use the FAT32 file system, press Y and then press ENTER. If you want to use the FAT16 file

system, press N, and then press ENTER.

3. After you press ENTER, the following Fdisk Options menu is displayed:

4. 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

5. 2. Set active partition
6. 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
7. 4. Display partition information
8. 5. Change current fixed disk drive
9. (this option is only available if you
have two physical hard disks in the computer)

10. Press 3, and then press ENTER. The following menu is displayed:
11. 1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
12. 2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
13. 3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

14. Press 3, and then press ENTER.

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15. The Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition screen is displayed with a chart that
describes the attributes of your hard disk, as shown in the following example.

Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage

D: (User Defined) 2047 FAT16 100%

E: (User Defined) 2047 FAT16 100%

F: (User Defined) 2047 FAT16 100%

G: (User Defined) 2047 FAT16 100%

H: (User Defined) 2047 FAT32 17%

I: (User Defined) 1498 UNKNOWN 13%

Total Extended DOS Partition size is XXX Mbytes (1 MByte = 1048576 bytes).

WARNING! Data in a deleted Logical DOS Drive will be lost.

What drive do you want to delete? Type the letter for the drive that you want to delete, and then press

ENTER.

16. When you are prompted to type the volume label for the drive, type the volume label if the drive has a
volume label.

NOTE: You must type the exact label or press ENTER if there is no volume label. If you type an incorrect

label name, you receive the following message:

Volume label does not match.

Enter Volume Label?

If you type the correct volume label, you receive the following message:

Are you sure (Y/N)?

The default answer to this message is N. You must press Y, and then press ENTER to delete the drive. The

words "Drive deleted" are displayed in the chart next to the drive letter that you deleted.

17. Repeat steps 3 through 7 until you have deleted all of the drives that you want to delete. When you are
finished, press ESC. If you remove all of the logical drives, you receive a "No logical drives defined"

message and a chart of drive letters that you changed or deleted. Press ESC to continue.

NOTE: If you want to resize the logical drive or drives by making them larger or smaller, do this now. If

you want to remove the extended partition, view step 11.

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18. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option from the Fdisk Options
menu, press 3 to select the Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition menu option

from the Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu, and then press ENTER. When you do this,

you receive a "Verifying drive integrity" message with a percentage-complete counter.

NOTE: When you use this step, the extended partition is not deleted, only the logical drive or drives in

the extended partition are deleted. You do not need to remove the extended partition to resize the logical

drives. For example, if you have one logical drive in the extended partition and you want to make two

logical drives, delete the logical drive and create two logical drives in the extended partition first. Note

that you are still limited to the total space in the extended partition.

19. After the drive verification procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

Total Extended DOS Partition size is XXX Mbytes (1 MByte = 1048576 bytes)

Maximum space available for logical drive is XXX Mbytes (X%)

Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%).

The "maximum Mbytes available" is the default size, however, you can change the number if you type the

number for the partition size that you want to create, and then pressing ENTER. Press ESC, press ESC to

quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt, and then view step 11.

20. If you want to remove the extended MS-DOS partition, press ESC to return to the Fdisk Options menu.
Press 3 to select the Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option, press ENTER, press 2 to

select the Delete Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

21. The screen shows the current fixed disk drive and information about it. The extended partition is listed in

the Type column. For example:

22. Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
23. C: 1 A PRI DOS (your label) 1200 FAT16 50%
24. 2 EXT DOS (your label) 1200 UNKNOWN 50%
25.
Total disk space is 2400 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

You also receive the following warning message:

WARNING! Data in the deleted Extended DOS Partition will be lost.

Do you wish to continue (Y/N)?

26. Press Y, and then press ENTER to delete the partition. You receive the following message:

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Extended DOS Partition deleted

Press ESC to continue

NOTE: If you try to delete your extended MS-DOS partition before you remove all of the logical drives,

you receive the following error message:

Cannot delete Extended DOS Partition while logical drives exist.

If you receive this error message, repeat steps 3 through 6, and then follow steps 9 and 10 to delete the

extended MS-DOS partition.

The Fdisk Options menu is displayed. If you leave disk space unpartitioned on your hard disk, Windows

may not display the full size of your hard disk, only the amount of space that is available.

IMPORTANT: After you change the Fdisk options or delete partitions, the data that was on the partition

is deleted and cannot be retrieved. Be very sure that you understand this procedure before you attempt to

follow it. If you want to start with a clean configuration or if you want to redo your current configuration,

back up everything that is important to you before you use the Fdisk tool.

27. If you want to use the unpartitioned space on your hard disk, you must format the drives. When you

successfully run the Format.com utility, you receive the following message:

WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE X: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed with Format (Y/N)?

Press Y, and then press ENTER to format the drive.

28. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

NOTE: This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the hard disk. You can either type

an 11-character name for the drive, or leave it blank and press ENTER.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Why does the Fdisk tool only partition 2 GB of space at a time?

Answer: If you can only partition 2 GB of space at a time, you may have pressed N when you were

prompted to enable large disk support, or you may be running a version of Windows that does not support

FAT32. If you are running Windows 95 or earlier on your computer, you must create multiple partitions to

use the full drive size.

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NOTE: If you are running a retail version of Windows 95 you cannot upgrade to Windows 95 OSR2.

Question: I have software that is larger than the 504-MB limit. Should I use it?

Answer: To ensure compatibility, check with the software manufacturer before you use any disk

management software.

Question: I have software or utilities that support drives larger than the 504MB limit, should I use it?

Answer: Yes, you can copy the Windows 95 or Windows 98 installation from your old hard disk to a new

hard disk. For additional information about how to duplicate your Windows 95 or Windows 98 installation

on a new hard disk

Note that you cannot use the method described in this article to copy Windows 95 or Windows 98

installations to multiple computers. Microsoft only supports the standard Setup procedure as described in

the Windows 95 and Windows 98 product documentation.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

• Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition

• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

• Microsoft Windows 95

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This step-by-step article describes how to use the Windows XP Disk Management snap-in to configure a basic disk

and prepare it for use. This article also describes how to create and delete partitions, and how to format volumes

with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file systems.

MORE INFORMATION

Basic disks and volumes

Basic disk storage supports partition-oriented disks. A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary

partitions, extended partitions, or logical drives. Partitions and logical drives on basic disks are also known as basic

volumes. You can create up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition, that

contain logical drives.

If you are running Windows XP Professional and one or more of the following operating systems on the same

computer, you must use basic volumes, because these operating systems cannot access data that is stored on

dynamic volumes:

• Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or earlier

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)

• Microsoft Windows 98

• Microsoft Windows 95

• MS-DOS

How to use Disk Management

To start Disk Management:

1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.

3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and

volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in

the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the

view that you want to use.

NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you create a full back up of your disk contents before you make any changes

to your disks or volumes.

How to create a new partition or a new logical drive

To create a new partition or logical drive on a basic disk:

1. In the Disk Management window, complete one of the following procedures, and then continue to step 2:

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o To create a new partition, right-click unallocated space on the basic disk where you want to

create the partition, and then click New Partition.

o To create a new logical drive in an extended partition, right-click free space on an extended

partition where you want to create the logical drive, and then click New Logical Drive.

2. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next.

3. Click the type of partition that you want to create (either Primary partition, Extended partition, or

Logical drive), and then click Next.

4. Specify the size of the partition in the Partition size in MB box, and then click Next.

5. Decide whether to manually assign a drive letter, let the system automatically enumerate the drive, or do

not assign a drive letter to the new partition or logical drive, and then click Next.

6. Specify the formatting options you want to use by using one of the following procedures:
o If you do not want to format the partition, click Do not format this partition, and then click

Next.
o If you want to format the partition, click Format this partition with the following settings,

and then complete the following procedure in the Format dialog box:

a. Type a name for the volume in the Volume label box. This is an optional step.

b. Click the file system that you want to use in the File system box.

You can change the disk allocation unit size, and then specify whether to perform a quick

format, or enable file and folder compression on NTFS volumes.

Click Next.

7.

2. Confirm that the options that selected are correct, and then click Finish.

The new partition or logical drive is created and appears in the appropriate basic disk in the Disk Management

window. If you chose to format the volume in step 6, the format process now starts.

How to format a basic volume

To format a partition, logical drive or basic volume:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want to format (or

reformat), and then click Format.

2. In the Format dialog box, type a name for the volume in the Volume label box. This is an optional step.

3. Click the file system that you want to use in the File system box. If you want, you can also change the

disk allocation unit size, specify whether you want to perform a quick format, or enable file and folder

compression on NTFS volumes.

4. Click OK.

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5. Click OK when you are prompted to format the volume. The format process starts.

How to view the properties of a basic volume

To view the properties of a partition or logical drive:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want, and then click

Properties.

2. Click the appropriate tab to view the appropriate property.

How to delete a partition or a logical drive

To delete a partition or logical drive:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want to delete, and then

click Delete Partition or Delete Logical Drive.

2. Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the partition or logical drive. The partition or logical drive is

deleted.

Important

• When you delete a partition or a logical drive, all the data on that partition or logical drive, and the

partition or the logical drive, are deleted.

• You cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or a partition that contains the active paging

(swap) file.

• You cannot delete an extended partition unless the extended partition is empty. All logical drives in the

extended partition must be deleted before you can delete the extended partition.

Troubleshooting

Disk Management displays status descriptions in graphical view and under the Status column of list view to

inform you of the current status of the disk or volume. Use these status descriptions to help you detect and

troubleshoot disk and volume failures. The following is a partial list of disk and volume status descriptions:

• Online

This is the normal disk status when the disk is accessible and functioning correctly.

• Healthy

This is the normal volume status when the volume is accessible and functioning correctly.

• Unreadable

The disk is inaccessible because of possible hardware failure, corruption, or I/O errors.

To troubleshoot this issue, restart the computer or rescan the disk to try and return the disk to Online

status. To rescan the disk, open Computer Management, and then click Disk Management. On the

Action menu, click Rescan Disks.

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How to use the Backup utility to back up files and folders in
Windows XP Home Edition
Things that you should know before you use the Backup utility

What to include in your backup

If you want to back up your computer, we recommend that you back up all the data on your computer,
including the System State data. The System State data includes the registry, the COM+ class registration
database, files under Windows File Protection, and boot files. You can only back up the System State data on a
local computer. You cannot back up the System State data on a remote computer.

What is not supported

If you use Backup in Windows XP Home Edition, Automated System Recovery (ASR) is not a supported feature.
You can use the current version of Windows XP Home Edition to start the configuration process for ASR, but you
cannot complete the process. For more information about errors that occur if you try to use the ASR feature with
Windows XP Home Edition,

Volume considerations

You can use the Backup utility to back up and restore data on either FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS volumes.
However, if you back up data from an NTFS volume that is used in Windows XP, we recommend that you restore
the data to an NTFS volume that is used in Windows XP. If you do not, you can lose data and some file and folder
features.

Some file systems might not support all the features of other file systems. For example, the following features are
lost if you back up data from an NTFS volume that is used in Windows XP, and then restore the data to a FAT
volume or an NTFS volume that is used in Windows NT 4.0:

• Permissions
• Encrypting File System (EFS) settings
• Disk quota information
• Mounted drive information
• Remote Storage information

SUMMARY

This article describes how to use the Backup utility that is included with a default installation of Windows XP, but

not with a default installation of Windows XP Home Edition. However, the Backup utility is included in the Valueadd

folder of the Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM. Therefore, to use the Backup utility in Windows XP Home Edition,

you must first install it

How to back up files and folders by using the Backup utility

After you install the Backup utility from the CD-ROM, follow these steps to create a backup of your files and

folders.

In order to back up files and folders, you must be logged on to the computer as an administrator or with a user

that is part of the Administrators group.

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/admin

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Note The following steps explain how to create a backup manually by using the Backup Utility. You can also create

a backup by using the Backup and Restore Wizard. However, the steps will be slightly different from those that are

listed in the following section.

1. Start the Backup utility and select the files and folders that you want to back up.

a. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click

Backup.

b. Click Advanced Mode.

Note If the Backup and Restore Wizard starts, the utility is running in Wizard mode. You can click

to clear the Always start in wizard mode check box, and then restart the Backup utility. If you

continue to use the Backup and Restore Wizard, your steps will vary slightly from what is listed in

this procedure.

c. Click the Backup tab.

d. On the Job menu, click New.

e. Select the check boxes next to the drives that you want to back up. If you want to select specific

files or folders, expand the drive where these files or folders are located. Then, select the check

boxes next to the files or folders that you want to back up.

2. Select the System State check box that is located under My Computer in the navigation pane.

3. If the Backup destination list is available, click the backup destination that you want to use.

Notes

o If you selected File in this step, type the full path and file name for which you want to back up

data in the Backup media box or in the file name box.

o You can specify a network share as a destination for the backup file. Typically, backup files have

the .bkf file name extension. However, you can use any file name extension that you want.
2. Click Start Backup to open the Backup Job Information dialog box.
3. Under If the media already contains backups, do either of the following:
o If you want to append this backup file to previous backup files, click Append this backup to the

media.

o If you want to overwrite previous backup files with this backup file, click Replace the data on

the media with this backup.

4. Click Advanced.
5. Select the Verify data after backup check box.
6. In the Backup Type box, click the type of backup that you want to create. For a description of a backup
type, click a backup type and the description appears under Description. You can select any of the

following backup types:

o Normal

o Copy
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o Incremental

o Differential

o Daily
7. Click OK, and then click Start Backup.
8. When the backup is complete, click Close.

How to use Backup to protect data and restore files and folders on
your computer in Windows XP and Windows Vista
INTRODUCTION

This article contains information about how to use the Backup program in Windows XP and in Windows Vista to

help protect data and restore files and folders on your computer.

The Backup utility in Windows XP and in Windows Vista helps you protect your data if your hard disk stops working

or your files are accidentally erased. With Backup, you can create a copy of all the data on your hard disk, and

then archive it on another storage device, such as a hard disk or a tape.

If the original data on your hard disk is accidentally erased, overwritten, or becomes inaccessible because of a

hard disk malfunction, you can restore the data from the disk or the archived copy by using the Restore Wizard or

the Automated System Recovery Wizard.

For more information about how to perform a backup on a Windows 7-based computer, visit the following

Microsoft Web site:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/backup-and-restore

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

How to use Backup to protect data and restore files and folders

Note You must have administrative or backup operator credentials on your computer to back up and restore

files and folders. Backup operators and administrators can back up and restore encrypted files and folders without

decrypting the files or folders.

To make sure that you have the latest information about how to use the Backup program in Windows XP and in

Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Use Windows to back up your computer

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/backup.mspx

Back to the top

APPLIES TO

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• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

• Windows Vista Business

• Windows Vista Enterprise

• Windows Vista Home Premium

• Windows Vista Home Basic

• Windows Vista Ultimate

• Windows Vista Business 64-bit Edition

• Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition

• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition

• Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit Edition

• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition

• Windows Vista Starter

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This article contains step-by-step instructions about how to use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" in

Microsoft Windows XP to transfer files and settings from an old computer to a new computer.

How to use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" in Windows XP

You can use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" in Windows XP to transfer settings for Microsoft Internet

Explorer and for Microsoft Outlook Express. You can also use this wizard to transfer desktop settings, display

settings, dial-up connections, and other types of settings.

Step 1: Get the files and the settings from the old computer

a. On the old computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System

Tools, and then click Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

b. In the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard dialog box, click Next, and then click Old Computer.

c. Click Next, and then select a transfer method, such as Floppy drive or other removable media.

d. Click Next, and then click the option that corresponds to the items that you want to transfer. For

example, you can click Settings only, Files only, or Both files and settings.

e. Click Next two times, and then wait as the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" processes the items to

transfer.

f. Click Finish.

Step 2: Transfer the files and the settings to the new computer

a. On the new computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System

Tools, and then click Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

b. In the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard dialog box, click Next, and then click New Computer.

c. Click Next, and then click I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I have already collected my files and

settings from my old computer.

d. Click Next, and then select a transfer method, such as Floppy drive or other removable media.

Note You must select the same transfer method that you selected on the old computer.

e. Click Next, and then wait as the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" processes the items to transfer.

f. Click Finish.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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This step-by-step article describes how to use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard by using the Microsoft

Windows XP CD-ROM. You can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to transfer settings from one computer

to another. This includes your personalized settings for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook Express,

as well as desktop, display, and dial-up connection settings.

How to Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard By Using the Microsoft Windows XP
CD-ROM

To use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard by using the Microsoft Windows XP CD-ROM, first complete the

steps in the "Collect the Files and Settings from the Old Computer" section of this article, and then complete the

steps in the "Transfer the Files and Settings to the New Computer" section of this article.

Collect the Files and Settings from the Old Computer

1. Start the File and Settings Transfer Wizard on the computer from which you want to collect the files

and settings:

a. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

b. Right-click Start, click Explore, and then open the Support\Tools folder on the Windows XP CD-

ROM.

c. Double-click the Fastwiz.exe file to start the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

2. Click Next.

3. Click Old Computer, and then click Next.

4. Click the transfer method that you want to use, for example, Floppy drive or other removable media,

and then click Next.

5. On the What do you want to transfer? screen, click the selections that you want to transfer, and then

click Next.

NOTE: When you make a selection, a summary of the items to be transferred appears in the Based on

your current selection, the following items will be transferred list. You can use this list to verify

that the settings or files that you want will be transferred.

6. The Wizard collects your files and settings. If you selected Floppy drive or other removable media in

step 3, you are prompted to insert the media (floppy disk, or other removable media) and then click OK.

7. Click Finish.

Transfer the Files and Settings to the New Computer

1. Log on to the Windows XP-based computer as the user that you want to restore settings for.

2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Files

and Settings Transfer Wizard.

3. Click Next.

4. On the Which computer is this screen, click New computer, and then click Next.

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5. Click I don't need the Wizard Disk. I have already collected my files and settings from my old

computer, and then click Next.

6. On the Where are the files and settings? screen, click the same transfer method that you previously

selected. For example, Floppy drive or other removable media.

NOTE: If you click Other (for example, a removable drive or network drive), browse to or type the

location that contains the collected files and settings.

7. Click Next. If you selected Floppy drive or other removable media, you are prompted to insert disk 1

and then click OK.

8. Click Finish.

9. When you receive the following message, click Yes:

You need to log off for the changes to take effect. Do you want to log off now?

10. Log on to the computer to apply your transferred settings.

Troubleshooting
Some settings may not be restored to your Windows XP-based computer. If the computer from which the files

and settings have been transferred contained settings for devices that are either not available on, or incompatible

with Windows XP, these settings will not be transferred. A list of files or folders that could not be restored to their

original locations appears on the Completing the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard screen of the Files and

Settings Transfer Wizard.

The following list includes types of items that may not be transferred:

• Third-party driver files for devices that are not installed on the Windows XP-based computer.

• Network printers that are not available on the Windows XP-based computer.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

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This step-by-step article describes how to use the Windows XP Disk Management snap-in to configure a basic disk

and prepare it for use. This article also describes how to create and delete partitions, and how to format volumes

with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file systems.

MORE INFORMATION

Basic disks and volumes

Basic disk storage supports partition-oriented disks. A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary

partitions, extended partitions, or logical drives. Partitions and logical drives on basic disks are also known as basic

volumes. You can create up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition, that

contain logical drives.

If you are running Windows XP Professional and one or more of the following operating systems on the same

computer, you must use basic volumes, because these operating systems cannot access data that is stored on

dynamic volumes:

• Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or earlier

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)

• Microsoft Windows 98

• Microsoft Windows 95

• MS-DOS

How to use Disk Management

To start Disk Management:

1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.

3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and

volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in

the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the

view that you want to use.

NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you create a full back up of your disk contents before you make any changes

to your disks or volumes.

How to create a new partition or a new logical drive

To create a new partition or logical drive on a basic disk:

1. In the Disk Management window, complete one of the following procedures, and then continue to step 2:
o To create a new partition, right-click unallocated space on the basic disk where you want to

create the partition, and then click New Partition.

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o To create a new logical drive in an extended partition, right-click free space on an extended

partition where you want to create the logical drive, and then click New Logical Drive.

2. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next.

3. Click the type of partition that you want to create (either Primary partition, Extended partition, or

Logical drive), and then click Next.

4. Specify the size of the partition in the Partition size in MB box, and then click Next.

5. Decide whether to manually assign a drive letter, let the system automatically enumerate the drive, or do

not assign a drive letter to the new partition or logical drive, and then click Next.

6. Specify the formatting options you want to use by using one of the following procedures:
o If you do not want to format the partition, click Do not format this partition, and then click

Next.
o If you want to format the partition, click Format this partition with the following settings,

and then complete the following procedure in the Format dialog box:

a. Type a name for the volume in the Volume label box. This is an optional step.

b. Click the file system that you want to use in the File system box.

You can change the disk allocation unit size, and then specify whether to perform a quick

format, or enable file and folder compression on NTFS volumes.

Click Next.

7.

2. Confirm that the options that selected are correct, and then click Finish.

The new partition or logical drive is created and appears in the appropriate basic disk in the Disk Management

window. If you chose to format the volume in step 6, the format process now starts.

How to format a basic volume

To format a partition, logical drive or basic volume:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want to format (or

reformat), and then click Format.

2. In the Format dialog box, type a name for the volume in the Volume label box. This is an optional step.

3. Click the file system that you want to use in the File system box. If you want, you can also change the

disk allocation unit size, specify whether you want to perform a quick format, or enable file and folder

compression on NTFS volumes.

4. Click OK.

5. Click OK when you are prompted to format the volume. The format process starts.

How to view the properties of a basic volume

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To view the properties of a partition or logical drive:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want, and then click

Properties.

2. Click the appropriate tab to view the appropriate property.

How to delete a partition or a logical drive

To delete a partition or logical drive:

1. In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want to delete, and then

click Delete Partition or Delete Logical Drive.

2. Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the partition or logical drive. The partition or logical drive is

deleted.

Important

• When you delete a partition or a logical drive, all the data on that partition or logical drive, and the

partition or the logical drive, are deleted.

• You cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or a partition that contains the active paging

(swap) file.

• You cannot delete an extended partition unless the extended partition is empty. All logical drives in the

extended partition must be deleted before you can delete the extended partition.

Troubleshooting

Disk Management displays status descriptions in graphical view and under the Status column of list view to

inform you of the current status of the disk or volume. Use these status descriptions to help you detect and

troubleshoot disk and volume failures. The following is a partial list of disk and volume status descriptions:

• Online

This is the normal disk status when the disk is accessible and functioning correctly.

• Healthy

This is the normal volume status when the volume is accessible and functioning correctly.

• Unreadable

The disk is inaccessible because of possible hardware failure, corruption, or I/O errors.

To troubleshoot this issue, restart the computer or rescan the disk to try and return the disk to Online

status. To rescan the disk, open Computer Management, and then click Disk Management. On the

Action menu, click Rescan Disks.

For a complete list of disk and volume status descriptions and troubleshooting procedures, see Disk Management

Help. In the Disk Management snap-in or Computer Management window, click Help on the Action menu.

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Windows XP may not recognize all of your available disk space. For example, you may have a hard disk with a

capacity of more than 30 gigabytes (GB), but according to the Disk Management utility or Windows Explorer, you

have only 2 GB of disk space capacity.

As a result, even though you have ample hard disk space, you may receive the following error message:

Low Disk Space. You are running out of disk space on <Drive Letter>.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use the following methods as appropriate. To best determine the method(s) appropriate for

your situation, please read through the entire article before you proceed.

WARNING: The following methods may require that you reinstall Windows XP. Microsoft recommends that you

back up all important data before you use the following methods.

Method 1: Run Windows XP Setup to Determine Whether the Hard Disk Space Is
Accessible

To determine whether all of the hard disk space is accessible, run Setup from the Windows XP installation

media.

1. Insert the Windows XP installation CD into the CR-ROM drive, and then restart the computer. When you

are prompted to start from the CD, press any key.

NOTE: You may need to configure your BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM first, in order to do this step.

2. Press ENTER when the Windows XP Setup screen appears.

3. Press F8 to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA).

4. When the Windows XP Setup screen appears with a list of current Windows XP installations on the

computer, press ESC to continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing.

5. The Windows XP Setup screen appears with partition information. Note the partitions and unpartitioned

space listed. Determine whether all of your available space is listed, and then do either of the following:

a. If you determine that not all of your hard disk space is listed, then you may have a BIOS problem

that is preventing the computer from recognizing your hard disk correctly. If this is true, continue

with Method 2.

-or-

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b. If you determine that all of your hard disk space is listed, you can continue with either of the

following options:

 Select the existing Windows XP partition, and then press D to delete the partition.

NOTE: If you do this, all data on the partition will be lost. Only use this option if you are

sure that you want to completely remove the partition in order to create a new partition

by merging all of the available space.

 Select the unpartitioned space, and then press C to create a new partition.

NOTE: You can use this option without first deleting the existing Windows XP partition.

Use this option if you do not want to lose the data in the existing partition, and you want

to install a second copy of Windows XP in the unpartitioned space.

NOTE: You cannot create a volume larger than 32 GB in size by using the FAT32 file

system in Windows XP. The Windows 2000 FastFAT driver can mount and support

volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits),

but you cannot create one by using the Format tool. This behavior is by design. (See

Method 3 in this article for more information about this issue.)

Method 2: Update the System BIOS or Use a Boot Manager

If the previous method determines that you have a BIOS problem that is preventing the computer from

recognizing your hard disk correctly, do either of the following:

• Update the system BIOS. Contact the manufacturer of your motherboard or your computer for more

information on how to do this.

Use a third-party boot manager to access the extra space on your hard disk. Many hard disk manufacturers

provide utilities to do this. Contact the manufacturer of your hard disk for more information about how to do this.

Method 3: Use Fdisk or a Third-Party Partitioning Utility

If you need to format a FAT32 volume greater than 32 GB, you can use a third-party partitioning utility to

increase the size of the current Windows XP installation partition, or use the Fdisk utility on a Microsoft Windows

Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk or a Microsoft Windows 98 Startup disk to reformat the hard disk entirely.

Once you have created the partitions that you want, continue to reinstall Windows XP by using the Setup program

on the Windows XP installation media.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

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• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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If you start Windows XP in a dual-boot environment with Windows 95 or Windows 98, use the Fdisk tool to delete

a logical drive using the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system, and then restart Windows XP, you may no longer

see logical drives within the Logical Disk Manager in Windows XP.

For example, this behavior may occur if you do the following:

• You configure your computer to dual-boot between Windows XP and Windows 95 with a primary FAT file

system partition as drive C.

• In Windows XP, you configure two logical drives:

o Drive D using NTFS

-and-
o Drive E using the FAT file system

• When you run Fdisk, you can view only the logical drive using the FAT file system (which is labeled drive D

by Fdisk but is drive E in Windows XP).

• When you attempt to delete drive D, you delete the NTFS logical drive instead.

CAUSE

Fdisk cannot recognize NTFS logical drives in an extended partition, and therefore deletes the NTFS logical drive if

it occurs before the logical drive using the FAT file system.

RESOLUTION

Use Logical Disk Manager to make changes to logical drives when you have logical drives using both NTFS and the

FAT file system. Fdisk is not supported for use in this configuration.

To open Disk Manager, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

2. In the Computer Management MMC window, click Disk Management in the tree under Storage.

The Logical Disk Manager will display, showing all available disks and their partition information.

Note that if you run Fdisk a second time, you can successfully delete the logical drive using the FAT file system.

If a primary partition is set to NTFS, Fdisk recognizes the partition as a non-DOS partition in Windows 95, and

recognizes the partition as NTFS in Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) and in Windows 98.

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This article describes the maximum partition size limit using the FAT16 file system in Microsoft Windows XP.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows XP supports the creation of primary partitions and logical drives of up to 4 gigabytes (GB) using the

FAT16 file system. The maximum cluster size is 64K.

The 4-GB partition limit is imposed by the maximum number of clusters and the largest cluster size supported by

the FAT file system. In Windows XP, FAT16 is limited to 64K clusters. Multiply the maximum number of clusters

(64k) by the maximum cluster size (64K), and the result is 4GB. In addition to Windows XP, Microsoft Windows

2000 and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 also support FAT16 volumes up to 4GB in size.

FAT16 volumes larger than 2GB are not accessible from computers running Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

(Me), Windows 98, Windows 95, or MS-DOS. The size limit for FAT16 volumes in these operating systems is 2 GB.

In other words, to maintain compatibility with Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, or MS-DOS, a volume

cannot be larger than 2 GB.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

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Windows XP supports two disk file systems: the file allocation table (FAT) file system and the NTFS file system.

This article explains how to convert a FAT partition into an NTFS partition and discusses the considerations that

you must take into account.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows XP includes the Convert.exe utility for converting a FAT partition to an NTFS partition. Convert.exe is

simple to use, but there are some limitations that you should consider before using the utility.

You should consider the following limitations before you convert a FAT partition to NTFS:

• The conversion is a one-way process. After you convert a partition to NTFS, you cannot convert the

partition back to FAT. To restore the partition as a FAT partition, the partition would have to be

reformatted as FAT, which erases all data from the partition. Data would then be restored from backup.

• Removing Windows XP to revert to Windows 98 or to Windows Millennium Edition (Me) is not an option

after you convert any drive on the computer to NTFS.

• You cannot convert the system partition of a RISC-based computer to NTFS. The ARC specification

requires that the system partition be FAT. It is possible to create a small (1-megabyte) FAT partition for

the system partition and then install Windows on an NTFS partition (the boot partition).

• Convert.exe requires that a certain amount of free space be present on the drive in order to convert the

file system.For additional information about the amount of free space that is required for a conversion,

click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156560 Free Space Required to Convert FAT to NTFS

NOTE: Although there is little chance for corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS, it is a

good idea to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted before you run the convert

command. Before you proceed, it is also a good idea to verify the integrity of the backup.

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. At the command prompt, type CONVERT driveletter: /FS:NTFS.

3. Convert.exe attempts to convert the partition to NTFS.

While Convert is running, you may receive the following error message:

Convert cannot gain exclusive access to the driveletter:, so it cannot convert it now. Would you like to schedule it

to be converted the next time the system restarts (Y/N)?

You receive this error message under any of the following three conditions:

• If you run the CONVERT command while the current directory is on the drive that is to be converted (for

example, if you type CONVERT F: /FS:NTFS at the F:\> prompt).

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To resolve this, either click Yes in the error message and then restart the computer, or change to a

directory on another drive and retype the command.

• If a program has a file open on the drive that is to be converted.

To resolve this, either click Yes in the error message and let the drive be converted next time the

computer is restarted, or close any programs that may be using files on the drive. Remember that this

also applies to users who connect to files over the network and to a paging file that resides on the drive.

• If you attempt to convert the partition from which the operating system is running.

It is not possible to convert the boot partition while the operating system is running. To convert the boot

partition, it is always necessary to run the CONVERT command, click Yes in the error message, and then

restart the computer. The partition is converted the next time the computer is restarted. As an

alternative, you can start the computer in an installation of Windows XP that is on a different partition,

and convert the boot partition from that installation of Windows XP.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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During Setup, if you create a partition, the option to format the hard disk with a file allocation table (FAT) format

is not available.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the partition that you have selected to create is greater than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size by using the FAT32 file system. Windows XP can

mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32

volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool or Windows XP Setup. If you need to format a volume that is

larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system to format it. Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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This article describes how to assign, to change, or to remove drive letters on a drive, a partition, or a volume by

using the Disk Management snap-in in Microsoft Windows XP.

The Disk Management snap-in is an administrative tool for managing hard disks and the volumes or partitions that

they contain. Use the Disk Management snap-in when you want to add, to change, or to remove drive letters on

drives, on partitions, or on volumes on your computer's hard disks, CD-ROM drives, and other removable media

devices.

Your computer can use up to 26 drive letters, from A through Z. Use drive letters C through Z for hard disk drives.

Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives. However, if your computer does not have a floppy disk

drive, you can assign these letters to removable drives.

Before you modify drive-letter assignments, note the following items:

• Changing the drive letter of the system volume or the boot volume is not a built-in feature of the Disk

Management snap-in.

• Many MS-DOS-based and Microsoft Windows-based programs refer to specific drive letters for

environmental or other variables. If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not function

correctly.

How to assign a drive letter

To assign a drive letter to a drive, a partition, or a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

Note If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance

appears in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and

Maintenance does not appear.

3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in

the left pane.

4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter

to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

5. Click Add.

6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, and then either accept the default

drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use.

7. Click OK.

The drive letter is assigned to the drive, to the partition, or to the volume that you specified, and then that drive

letter appears in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool.

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How to change a drive letter

To change an existing drive letter on a drive, on a partition, or on a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in

the left pane.

4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter

to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

5. Click Change.

6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to

use, and then click OK.

7. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

The drive letter of the drive, the partition, or the volume that you specified is changed, and the new drive letter

appears in the appropriate drive, partition, or volume in the Disk Management tool.

How to remove a drive letter

To remove an existing drive letter on a drive, on a partition, or on a volume, follow these steps:

1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in

the left pane.

4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter

to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

5. Click Remove.

6. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the removal.

The drive letter is removed from the drive, from the partition, or from the volume that you specified.

Troubleshooting

• When you try to change an existing drive letter, you receive the following error message:

The volume volume_label drive_letter is currently in use.

If you continue, the new drive letter will be assigned; but you can still use the old drive letter to access

the volume until you restart your computer. The old drive letter will not be available for assignment until

you restart.

Warning: Changing the drive letter of a volume could cause programs to no longer run.

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This error message may appear if there are files that are in use on the drive, on the partition, or on the

volume. These files may be in use by you or by other people on the network. To resolve this issue, use

one of the following methods:

o Click No when you receive the error message. Quit all the programs that are using the files on

the volume, and then change the drive letter. To do this, right-click the volume, click Change

Drive Letter and Paths, and then click Change.

o Click Yes to continue with the drive letter change.

• When you try to remove an existing drive letter, you receive the following error message:

The volume volume_label drive_letter is currently in use.

If you continue, the drive letter will be freed; however, it will still be available for use until you restart

your computer.

Warning: Changing the drive letter of a volume could cause programs to no longer run.

This error message may appear if there are files that are in use on the drive, the partition, or the volume.

These files may be in use by you or by other people on the network. To resolve this issue, use one of the

following methods:

o Click No when you receive the error message. Quit all the programs that are using the files on

the volume, and then remove the drive letter. To do this, right-click the volume, click Change

Drive Letter and Paths, and then click Remove.

o Click Yes to remove the drive letter the next time that you start your computer.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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To recover your operating system when your computer does not start correctly or does not start at all, you may

want to install and use the Windows Recovery Console. However, Microsoft recommends this method of system

recovery for advanced users only. Also, learn about the Recovery Console command prompt, command actions,

rules, how to remove the Recovery Console, and how to install it during an unattended installation.

INTRODUCTION

Microsoft recommends that you use the Recovery Console only after Safe mode and other startup options do not

work. The Recovery Console is recommended only if you are an advanced user who can use basic commands to

identify and locate problem drivers and files. Additionally, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery

Console.

How to install the Recovery Console

You can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available if you cannot restart Windows. You

can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems during startup. Install the

Recovery Console on important servers and on the workstations of IT personnel. This article describes how to

install the Recovery Console to your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer. To install the Recovery Console, you

must be logged on as an administrator.

Although you can run the Recovery Console by starting directly from the Windows XP CD, it is generally more

convenient to set it up as a startup option on your startup menu. To run the Recover Console directly from the CD,

see the "How to use the Recovery Console" section.

To install the Recovery Console, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.

3. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM

drive. In the case of 'Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, type d:\amd64\winnt32.exe

/cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.

4. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console

option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.

5. Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console"

appears on the startup menu.

Alternatively, you can use a Universal Naming Convention (UNC)-established connection to install the Recovery

Console from a network share point.

Note You may receive an error message that is similar the following:

Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.

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How to use the Recovery Console

You can enable and disable services, format drives, read and write data on a local drive (including drives that

are formatted to use the NTFS file system), and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is

particularly useful if you have to repair your computer by copying a file from a disk or CD-ROM to your hard disk,

or if you have to reconfigure a service that is preventing your computer from starting correctly.

If you cannot start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from the Microsoft Windows XP startup disks

or the Windows XP CD-ROM. This article describes how to perform this task.

After Windows XP is installed on your computer, to start the computer and use the Recovery Console you require

the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM.

Note To start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you must configure the basic input/output system

(BIOS) of the computer to start from your CD-ROM drive.

To run the Recovery Console from the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the

CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are

prompted.

2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the

Recovery Console.

4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just

press ENTER.

5. At the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your Windows XP

installation.

For a list of commands that are available in Recovery Console, type recovery console commands or

help at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

For information about a specific command, type help commandname at the command prompt, and then

press ENTER.

6. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the command prompt, and then press

ENTER.

How to use the Recovery Console command prompt

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When you use the Recovery Console, you are working at a special command prompt instead of the ordinary

Windows command prompt. The Recovery Console has its own command interpreter. To enter this command

interpreter, you are prompted by Recovery Console to type the local Administrator password.

When the Recovery Console starts, you can press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver, in case you need

such a driver to access the hard disk. This prompt works the same as it does during installation of the operating

system.

The Recovery Console takes several seconds to start. When the Recovery Console menu appears, a numbered list

of the Windows installations on the computer appears. (Generally, only c:\Windows exists.) Press a number before

you press ENTER, even when only one entry appears. If you press ENTER without selecting a number, the

computer restarts and begins the process again.

When you see the prompt for %SystemRoot% (generally C:\Windows), you can start using the available

commands for the Recovery Console.

Command actions

The following list describes the available commands for the Recovery Console:

• Attrib changes attributes on one file or subdirectory.

• Batch executes commands that you specify in the text file, Inputfile. Outputfile holds the output of the

commands. If you omit the Outputfile parameter, output appears on the screen.

• Bootcfg modifies the Boot.ini file for boot configuration and recovery.

• CD (Chdir) operates only in the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media,

the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

• Chkdsk The /p switch runs Chkdsk even if the drive is not flagged as dirty. The /r switch locates bad

sectors and recovers readable information. This switch implies /p. Chkdsk requires Autochk. Chkdsk

automatically looks for Autochk.exe in the startup folder. If Chkdsk cannot find the file in the startup

folder, it looks for the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM. If Chkdsk cannot find the installation CD-ROM,

Chkdsk prompts the user for the location of Autochk.exe.

• Cls clears the screen.

• Copy copies one file to a target location. By default, the target cannot be removable media, and you

cannot use wildcard characters. Copying a compressed file from the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM

automatically decompresses the file.

• Del (Delete) deletes one file. Operates within the system directories of the current Windows installation,

removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. By default,

you cannot use wildcard characters.

• Dir displays a list of all files, including hidden and system files.

• Disable disables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the

service or driver that you want to disable. When you use this command to disable a service, the command

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displays the service's original startup type before it changes the type to SERVICE_DISABLED. Note the

original startup type so that you can use the enable command to restart the service.

• Diskpart manages partitions on hard disk volumes. The /add option creates a new partition. The

/delete option deletes an existing partition. The variable device is the device name for a new partition

(such as \device\harddisk0). The variable drive is the drive letter for a partition that you are deleting (for

example, D). Partition is the partition-based name for a partition that you are deleting, (for example:

\device\harddisk0\partition1) and can be used instead of the drive variable. The variable size is the size,

in megabytes, of a new partition.

• Enable enables a Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of the

service or driver that you want to enable, and start_type is the startup type for an enabled service. The

startup type uses one of the following formats:

SERVICE_BOOT_START

SERVICE_SYSTEM_START

SERVICE_AUTO_START

SERVICE_DEMAND_START

• Exit quits the Recovery Console, and then restarts the computer.

• Expand expands a compressed file. The variable source is the file that you want to expand. By default,

you cannot use wildcard characters. The variable destination is the directory for the new file. By default,

the destination cannot be removable media and cannot be read-only. You can use the attrib command to

remove the read-only attribute from the destination directory. The option /f:filespec is required if the

source contains more than one file. This option permits wildcard characters. The /y switch disables the

overwrite confirmation prompt. The /d switch specifies that the files will not be expanded and displays a

directory of the files in the source.

• Fixboot writes a new startup sector on the system partition.

• Fixmbr repairs the startup partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that

specifies the device that requires a new Master Boot Record. Omit this variable when the target is the

startup device.

• Format formats a disk. The /q switch performs a quick format. The /fs switch specifies the file system.

• Help If you do not use the command variable to specify a command, help lists all the commands that the

Recovery Console supports.

• Listsvc displays all available services and drivers on the computer.

• Logon displays detected installations of Windows and requests the local Administrator password for those

installations. Use this command to move to another installation or subdirectory.

• Map displays currently active device mappings. Include the arc option to specify the use of Advanced

RISC Computing (ARC) paths (the format for Boot.ini) instead of Windows device paths.

• MD (Mkdir) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable

media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

• More/Type displays the specified text file on screen.

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• Rd (Rmdir) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable

media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources.

• Ren (Rename) operates only within the system directories of the current Windows installation,

removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation sources. You

cannot specify a new drive or path as the target.

• Set displays and sets the Recovery Console environment variables.

• Systemroot sets the current directory to %SystemRoot%.

Recovery Console rules

Several environment rules are in effect while you are working in the Recovery Console. Type set to see the

current environment. By default, these are the rules:

• AllowAllPaths = FALSE prevents access to directories and subdirectories outside the system installation

that you selected when you entered the Recovery Console.

• AllowRemovableMedia = FALSE prevents access to removable media as a target for copied files.

• AllowWildCards = FALSE prevents wildcard support for commands such as copy and del.

• NoCopyPrompt = FALSE means that you are prompted by the Recovery Console for confirmation when

overwriting an existing file.

How to delete the Recovery Console

To delete the Recovery Console:

1. Restart your computer, click Start, click My Computer, and then double-click the hard disk where you

installed the Recovery Console.

2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.

3. Click Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system files check

box, and then click OK.

4. At the root folder, delete the Cmdcons folder and the Cmldr file.

5. At the root folder, right-click the Boot.ini file, and then click Properties.

6. Click to clear the Read-only check box, and then click OK.

Warning: Modifying the Boot.ini file incorrectly may prevent your computer from restarting. Make sure

that you delete only the entry for the Recovery Console. Also, change the attribute for the Boot.ini file

back to a read-only state after you finish this procedure. Open the Boot.ini file in Microsoft Windows

Notepad, and remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It looks similar to this:

C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

7. Save the file and close it.

How to install Recovery Console during an unattended installation

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To install the Recovery Console during the unattended installation of Windows, you must use the [GuiRunOnce]

section of the unattend.txt file.

Command1="path\winnt32 /cmdcons /unattend"

For more information about how to use the Unattend.txt file, see the Deployment Planning Guide of the Windows

2000 Server Resource Kit.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

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Troubleshooting Tips for a New Sound Card

No sound is heard from audio (music) CDs

Various conditions may cause this problem. To troubleshoot, check the following:

• Microsoft Volume Control or your mixer program mute options and volume sliders.
• Connect headphones to the stereo phone jack on your CD-ROM drive’s front panel; adjust the volume
control settings on the drive. If there is sound from your headphones, check the CD audio cable
connection from the CD-ROM drive to the audio card.
• Ensure the speakers are properly connected to the audio card’s output connector.

Joystick port is not working

To troubleshoot, check the following:

• The audio card joystick port conflicts with another joystick port in the system. Disable the audio card
joystick port, and use the system’s joystick port.
• The joystick drivers, MSJSTICK.DRV and VJOYD.VXD, may not be installed. Uninstall the joystick,
then reinstall to load the drivers. The drivers should come with the driver CD or floppy diskette with your
sound card.

Computer hangs or restarts during installation

A hardware conflict may cause the computer to hang or restart during the installation procedure. Check the
following to resolve the conflict:

• A hardware conflict with another device in your system.

• Previously installed sound card hardware or software needs to be removed.
• The audio card is not seated in the slot properly.
• PCI bus mastering devices may be interfering with the operation of the audio card. Temporarily remove
non-essential PCI bus mastering devices.

Resolving hardware conflicts

Hardware conflicts occur when two or more devices contend for the same resources. Conflicts between your
audio card and another device may occur regarding the I/O address, IRQ line, or DMA channel:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select Properties. The System Properties dialog
appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab. In the Device Manager, a plus sign(+) represents an expandable list of
items. A minus sign (-) represents an expanded list. A circled exclamation mark denotes a conflict.
3. Double-click Sound, video, game controllers. A list of multimedia devices appears.
4. Select your audio card.
5. Choose the Propertis button.
6. Click the Resources tab.
7. Uncheck the Use automatic settings option.
8. Change "Settings based on:" if alternate settings are available.
9. Determine the conflict by reviewing the "Conflicting device list".
10. Select the conflicting item in the "Resource Settings" list.
11. Click the Change Settings button.
12. Use the mouse to select a new setting.
13. Select OK to close each of the properties windows, and restart your computer.

Audio card is not automatically detected

To manually configure your audio card for Windows 95/98:

a. Click "Start" on the taskbar, and select Settings from the Start menu.
b. Select Control Panel. The Control Panel group appears.
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c. Double-click the Add New Hardware icon. The Add New Hardware Wizard dialog appears.
d. Select Next to continue.
e. Choose Yes to have Windows search for new hardware, then select Next
f. Select Next to continue.
g. Select Finish, and follow the prompts to complete the new hardware installation.

CD does not automatically run when you insert it in the drive

To enable the "Audio insert notification" feature:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select Properties. The System Properties dialog
appears.
2. Click the Device Manager tab. A list of devices appears.
3. Double-click CD-ROM, and select your CD-ROM drive.
4. Choose the Properties button. The CD-ROM drive properties dialog appears.
5. Choose the Settings tab.
6. Click the "Auto insert notification" option to enable.
7. Select OK until all Properties dialogs are closed, and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

No sound is heard from speakers

Verify the following:

• Check the Microsoft Volume Control or the Audio Mixer Program mute options and volume sliders.
• Ensure the speakers are properly connected to the audio card’s output connector.
• Check the volume control and power connection of the speakers, if they are amplified. (Refer to the
speakers documentation for detailed information).
• Ensure a hardware conflict does not exist between your audio card and another device in your system.
• PCI bus mastering devices may be interfering with the operation of the audio card. Temporarily remove
non-essential PCI bus mastering devices. If the device is a display card, upgrade the display card
drivers, or set the card to the default Windows VGA mode.

If you are experiencing no sound only during audio CD playback, see "No sound is heard from audio (music)
CDs" above.

Static sounds are heard in wave files

Check to see if the static sounds are heard in all wave files. If the difficulty occurs only with certain games, refer
to the software manufacturer’s documentation. To troubleshoot static sounds heard in all wave files:

• Try different resource settings for the audio card, or set the card to use low DMA.
• Move the audio card to another PCI slot. Feedback from the power supply or another device may be
responsible.

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Troubleshooting Tips for a New Network Card

1. If you can't connect to a server or if Windows reports an error after you double-click Network
Neighborhood, try the following first:
• Make sure you're using the drivers that are on the drivers disk that ships with the network
interface card (NIC).
• Make sure the driver is loaded and the protocols are bound. Check the Device Properties list
for trouble indicators (an "X" or "!" symbol).
• Test the NIC adapter with the diagnostic utilities that often came with the driver installation.
• Check with your LAN administrator - you may need to install additional networking software.
2. If the problem persists, follow these guidelines:
• Make sure the cable is installed properly. The network cable must be securely attached at
both RJ45 connections (adapter and hub). The maximum allowable distance from adapter to
hub is 100 meters. If the cable is attached and the distance is within acceptable limits but the
problem persists, try a different cable. If you're directly connecting two computers without a hub
or switch, use a crossover cable.
• Try another network cable.
• Check the LED Lights on the NIC. Before the LEDs can be used for troubleshooting, the
network interface card (NIC) must be connected to the network and the network driver must be
installed. Most NICs come with LEDs near the connection. The meaning of the LED signals
may be different from one manufacturer to the other. Here is a common LED description for
3COM 10/100BT dual speed NIC. Please consult your NIC manual for any difference.

LED Description Flashing Steady (On) Off

Good 10BT No connection between NIC &
10 LNK Green: Link integrity Reversed polarity
connection hub
100 Good 100BT No connection between NIC &
Green: Link integrity Reversed polarity
LNK connection hub
Yellow: Port traffic for either Network traffic
ACT Heavy network traffic No traffic
speed present
3. The computer hangs when the drivers are loaded.
• Change the PCI BIOS interrupt settings. See your NIC and system manuals for more details.
• If you are using EMM386, it must be version 4.49 or newer.
4. Diagnostics pass, but the connection fails or errors occur.
• At 100BT, use Category 5 wiring and make sure that the network cable is securely attached.
• At 100BT, connect to a 100BT hub/switch (not 100Base-T4).
• For NetWare, make sure you specify the correct frame type in your NET.CFG file.
• Make sure the duplex mode setting on the adapter matches the setting on the switch.
5. The LNK LED doesn't light.
• Make sure you've loaded the network drivers.
• Check all connections at the adapter and the hub/switch.
• Try another port on the hub/switch.
• Make sure the duplex mode setting on the adapter matches the setting on the hub/switch.
• Make sure you have the correct type of cable between the adapter and the hub. 100Base-TX
requires two pairs. Some hubs require a crossover cable while others require a straight-through
cable.
6. The ACT LED doesn't light.
• Make sure you've loaded the correct network drivers.
• The network may be idle. Try accessing a server.
• The adapter isn't transmitting or receiving data. Try another adapter.
• Make sure you're using two-pair cable for TX wiring.
7. The adapter stopped working without apparent cause.
• Run the diagnostics program that came with the NIC.
• Try reseating the NIC in its slot, or try a different slot if necessary.
• The network driver files may be corrupt or missing. Remove the drivers and then reinstall them.
8. The Wake on LAN (WOL) feature is not working.
• Make sure the WOL cable is attached and that power is being applied to the computer.

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• Check the BIOS for its WOL setting. Some computers may need to be configured for WOL.
• Make sure the network cable is fully attached to the adapter.
9. Crossover cable troubleshooting tips. When you work with network cabling, concentrators (hubs or
switch), and NICs from different venders, it is possible to connect everything and still have no
communication between file servers and workstations.
When there are several unknown variables, it is difficult to determine which component is broken. Use
these tips to isolate the problem.
• Determine whether your equipment complies with the 10Base-T or 100Base-TX standard.
This is particularly important for hubs and switches.
• Connect a straight-through cable from the PC to the hub. The hub performs an internal
crossover so that the signal can go from TD+ to RD+ and TD- to RD- (see How to Make
Network Cables). When you look at an RJ-45 connector from the front, pin 1 is identified on the
left-hand side when the metal contacts are facing up.
• Make sure that the TD+ and TD- wires are twisted together , and that the RD+ and RD-
wires are twisted together. Using wires from opposing pairs can cause signals to be lost. For
a 100Base-TX cable, pins #1 and #2 , and #3 and #6 must be on the same twisted strand.
10. When there is doubt whether a hub is performing correctly, or if the impedance settings are in
question, a crossover cable can help you isolate the failing component:
• Connect a file server and a client PC back to back with a crossover cable to verify that the NIC
and network operating system are properly configured.
• To make a crossover cable, simple connect TD+ to RD+ and TD- to RD-. The cable performs
the crossover that is usually performed by the hub. Make sure that two twisted-pair wires are
used. If the file server and client PC function together as a small network, then either the
existing cabling or the hub is the problem.
• If there is a proper crossover, the appropriate LED comes on. If there is a straight-through
connection, the LED does not light. A blinking LED indicates that there is a polarity mismatch
(that is, TD+ to RD- instead of TD+ to RD+).

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Troubleshooting Tips for Cases and Power Supplies

 The most important part of a computer case is its power supply. Unfortunately, it's also the part that has
most of the problems for a case. There are two situations when a new power supply may appear dead on
arrival (DOA) when they are actually working as described below:

 Most cases and power supplies these days are made and tested in China and other Asian countries where
220V electricity is used. Desktop computer power supplies do not switch the power voltage automatically. (Most
notebook computers do!) If the factory forgets to turn the manual switch back to 110V for the North American
market after testing, the power supply would appear DEAD if you use on a 110V-outlet. Therefore, always
check the voltage setting on the back of a new power supply FIRST if it appears dead.

 Do not expect an ATX power supply to work by simply plugging the power and turning on the switch. ATX
power supplies are soft-switched on and off by the motherboard and BIOS. Therefore, you must plug it to a
working motherboard with a working microprocessor, memory and video card to work. If your computer does
not turn on after you turn on the power switch, it may not necessarily mean a dead power supply. The problem
might be with the motherboard, microprocessor, memory or video card instead. You must examine all
these components to isolate the problem.

 The most effective technique to tell if a power supply is causing any problem is to use a different one to see
if it solves the problem. If everything works with a different power supply, then the new power supply is most
likely the troublemaker. Alternatively, you can plug the new power supply to an existing, working computer to
see if it works there.

 Computer cases are highly modular. If your computer case is still under warranty, you don't have to send the
entire case back if only one part of it is defective. For instance, send only the power supply back for exchange if
only power supply is dead. The same is true for the face panel and cover. This would save you quite a bit of
shipping and sometimes downtime.

 More than 70% of all computer problems are related to cabling and connections. Ensure that you all the
power plugs are connected firmly, including power connections to your motherboard and all the drives.

 Make sure the cooling fan inside the power supply is working all the time. Reach out to feel the fan behind
your case often. Clean the fan if necessary. If your case feels warmer than room temperature, check the power
supply fan first. Most power supply fans are difficult to replace. You are better off to replace the entire power
supply since the new one comes with a brand-new warranty.

 Before ATX form factor became popular, the compatibility between a power supply and a specific
motherboard could be problematic. However, this problem nowadays does not happen very often any more.

 The rest of a case is mostly mechanical. You should be able to find a way to get around most of the
problems if you are mechanically inclined.

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How to Maintain a Computer System?

• If you use your computer more than a few hours per day, we suggest you not to turn off your computer
at the end of the day. Instead turn off only the monitor to save electricity. Daily power up and down
makes the components exposed to high and low temperature cycles that are not good for the life-time
of the components, particularly the critical ones such as hard drives, CPU, and memory. The
temperature cycle would result in expansion-shrinking cycle for the components. The life-time of
electronic components would be increased if they are run at constant temperature with adequate
ventilation.

• If your area experiences a few times of power outage per year, it is necessary to use a UPS. Sudden
power downs while the system is running may cause severe damage to hard drives.

• A tape backup and a lock to make systems hard to move are worthy investment for critical data.

• Use your hand to touch and feel the cover of your computer at least once a week. The cover should be
at room temperature. If it feels warm there may be a problem! Check to make sure that the cooling fans
on the power supply and CPU are working properly. Clean the air pathway on the back of the power
supply on a regular basis.

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