Select fdisk at the command prompt to setup your disk

I would like to reformat my hard drive but i have a problem, i don't what to do exactly.

I know you go to doss and type format c: . But what i would like to know is the hole procedure. From what i need to do before i format and what i need to do after i format. Also the windows disk i have is not a system disc so what do i do to get the OS back onto the machine after it has been unitstalled. I would prefer to do this with as little cost as possible.

This question was answered on September 16, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

I'm sure you know this, but when you reformat your hard drive

YOU WILL ERASE ALL THE DATA ON THE HARD DRIVE.PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU DON'T WANT THAT DATA THAT IS ON THE HARD DRIVE, BECAUSE THE DATA WILL BE ERASED.follow the following steps in setting up your disk:

1 go the command prompt (start, run, type in cmd and hit ok.

2 at the command prompt type fdisk(this is the command that will

start your disk partioning)

3 setup your primary partion, then any extended partions that you want typically your c partion will be your primary partions d and e

drives will be your logical drives or extended partions a dive is typically your floppy drive partion.The screen will prompt you for how big you want the c partion to be, choose maybe 50% of the disk capacity.Do the same thing for the D and E drive, if you want to set up a d and e drive.

4.go back to your c drive to determine whether you want to do a dual boot partion(two operationg systems) or NTFS which is for security or encription.do the same thing for the d and e drive The d and e drives are typically the CD ROM drives.

This is pretty much what you need to know when setting up the disk drives the screen will prompt you too As far as the operation system you will probably have to do what is called a clean install a clean install is just installing an operating system in a machine that doesn't have an operating system already installed.In a nutshell,you will have to re-install your operating system

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Posted by Dan of Mesa Community College on September 16, 2002

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