Hard Disk Preparation for Windows XP - Tips

If you need a drive to have more or less equal sized partitions, divide the said drive size by & then use 950 as the multiplier. For the 'so-called' 60 Gig drive this would be 30 x 950 (28500) for the first partition size & the remainder for the second. This gives you 27.83 Gig drive & 28.05 Gig drive - close to a 50/50 split.

But let's assume for now that they need a single partition. Leave the default maximum value in the box & click on the Next button. You will then see the Assign Drive Letter screen.

Here you can specify what drive letter you need this partition to have. I always leave this section exactly as it is & click on Next - you can always alter it later in case you need to.

The final screen is the Format Partition screen. A partition has to be formatted at some point before Windows can use it, so you might as well do it now.

Leave the Format option on & don't alter the File process - leave it as NTFS for Windows XP, Vista & Windows 7. Windows 95 & earlier versions of Windows didn't support NTFS so only for those operating systems would you pick FAT32.

You can also leave the Allocation unit size as Default.

You can however alter the Volume label to whatever you need. For example, in case you are going to store your MP3 collection on this drive, you could enter 'Music' for the label.

Finally, put a tick in the 'Perform a rapid format' box. I only ever leave this option off for a full format if I am trying to revive an older drive that is been playing up. With it on, the formatting process takes seconds... in lieu of forever!

Click Next & you will notice a summary of what is going to happen in case you continue, with the choice to cancel in case you chose a wrong setting. Click on the Finish button.

The drive letter & 'Formatting' appears for a few seconds & if all goes well, you ought to see the volume label you typed & the word 'Healthy'.

That is all you need to do!

Close the Computer Management program & the Administrative Tools window (if it is still open) & run Windows Explorer (or select Start...My Computer).

Look down the list of drives & you ought to see your new drive somewhere on the list & you can start moving your knowledge onto it.