In order to execute one of the options, you have to enter the desired number and no matter what you do, the first number should always be "4" to get an idea of whether there are any preinstalled settings on your new HDD. If you get the prompt "no partitions fond on drive" you can skip the next step. If there are any partitions already present, it is necessary to remove them in order to create your own. Press the Esc-key to get back to the previous menu.
Type "3" to execute the "remove partitions" and you will be prompted to select the partition that should be removed. On a new drive, there will only be one partition anyway but in case you inherit an older drive you may have to remove both the primary and the extended DOS partition, starting with the extended partition.
When you think you have done it all, go back and double check by another round of "4, display partition information". Now you can start creating your own partitions.
The next thing to do is to create the primary DOS partition by typing "1". You are now prompted to the question of whether the primary partition should use the maximum available size. Depending on the partition and drive sizes that you have in mind, the answer will most likely be "no"
If you decide not to use the maximum available partition size, you have to tell the system the size of the partition that you want to create. You can enter the size either as a % value of the maximum size or else in kB, that is 1024 kB = 1 Mb.
After that you have a lot of empty space on the HDD left in which you want to place your additional drive letters. However, you have to keep in mind that you can only create one extended DOS partition which is then further subdivided into logical DOS drives.
Therefore, the next step is to create the extended DOS partition which should fill the maximum space available that is the answer to the size question will be [Y].
Before you can use the extended partition, you will need to create as many logical DOS drives within the extended partition as you need to use the space available. This follows the same procedural sequence as the creating of the primary DOS partition. You can answer with either [Y] to use the full amount of space available or [N] and enter the size manually in % or kB.
After that you are pretty much set, the drive letters for each logical drive will be displayed on the fly and you can at the same time already name your new drives as you desire.
The last thing you have to do before you can start using the HDD is to go back to the first screen with options [1]-[4] and select [2] Set partition active. This is necessary because only an active partition can be used as a bootable drive.
press "Esc" to exit fdisk
Your system setting have changed, please remove any disks from the A: drive and reboot.
Now you think you are ready to use the new HDD? Think again (LOL). But the rest is easy. All you have to do is type
format c:
format d:
format e:
until all your drive letters have been formatted
Something strange might now happen. In case you have installed a second HDD and you had your first HDD already partitioned, all of a sudden the drive letters are messed up. D is the first partition of the second HDD and then E is the second partition of the first HDD, which puts a sudden end to all the tediously established shortcuts in the start up manager. The secret is that any primary partition on the second or third HDD will gain priority for the drive letter assignment. The workaround partition the entire drive as extended partition and your drive letters will preserve the sequence of the actual physical drives. The drawback is that you cannot boot from a drive that has no primary partition, so it is a trade off.
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