There are several Windows and DOS programs and commands to use to control and configure hard drives. When you are dealing with the only hard drive on a system, you are limited to what you can do in Windows. The reason for this is that Windows files are in use. In many cases, major changes won't be made until the computer is rebooted. The following sections are overviews of the programs.

FDISK

FDISK is a program that runs in DOS, and is useful mainly in 9x. Very old versions of FDISK aren't compatible with FAT32; if you run into this problem, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain a newer version from a Windows 98 or Me boot disk. No version of FDISK is compatible with NTFS. FDISK allows you to view partition information, create or delete a partition or logical drive, and set a partition to active status. FDISK is available on all 9x boot floppies, and in 95 and 98 by booting to DOS from the hard drive. When you get the command prompt, type FDISK. The first thing you'll see, unless you have a tiny hard drive, is a message asking if you want to enable support for large disks (larger than 504MB). Always answer yes (Y) to this prompt. The main menu then appears. You should usually start by viewing partition information by selecting number 4 from the menu. If you are installing a new hard drive, partition the drive as desired. Unless you have a compelling reason to have multiple partitions, such as setting up a dual- or multiple-boot system, create a single partition.

Note Partitioning with FDISK effectively deletes all data on the drive. If you are working with a used drive, make sure that the data is either backed up or unneeded before doing anything with FDISK other than viewing partition information or setting the partition as active.

FORMAT

Once you have completed partitioning with FDISK, your drive is not yet usable. The drive must be formatted with a file system. You do this with the FORMAT command. From the DOS command prompt, type FORMAT. For a list of switches, type FORMAT /?. Here is the syntax to use when formatting the C drive as FAT32:

FORMAT C: /FS:FAT32

After you press <Enter>, drive C, as shown in FDISK's partition information, will be formatted as a FAT32 partition. This will take some time, but when it is done, the partition will be usable. If you have set it active, you can install Windows on it. If you haven't set it to active, you can always run FDISK again and do so.

Note Any time you format a partition you necessarily delete all data on it. There are, however, programs such as Norton Unformat that can sometimes retrieve data from a formatted drive.

CONVERT (2000 and XP Only)

CONVERT is a command available in 2000 and XP that is used to convert a partition from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS. This is done in Windows at a command prompt. This cannot be undone in Windows without formatting the drive and deleting the data, although third-party software such as PartitionMagic® can be used to convert the file system back to FAT or FAT32 while preserving the data. The syntax to convert drive C to NTFS is as follows:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

Press <Enter> and if the drive is in use, the conversion will occur at the next reboot; otherwise, it will start immediately.

My Computer
My Computer is available in all versions of Windows. If you select a partition and right-click it, you can perform a few tasks, which vary a bit from version to version. If you select Format from the menu that appears, you can format a partition. Naturally, you won't want to do this on a drive that you want to continue using, as this will delete all data on it. If you select Properties from the menu, the General tab shows you a pie chart showing used and free space on the drive. If you see a check box to enable DMA support, select it. DMA is a system that increases performance by reducing the amount of work done by the processor). If the drive doesn't support DMA, the box will be cleared at the next reboot. The Tools tab gives you access to error checking (ScanDisk), backup, and defrag programs.

Disk Management (2000 and XP Only)

All available disk-related tasks can be done in Disk Management. You can get there through Administrative Tools in Control Panel, and opening Disk Management from Computer Management, or by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Manage from the menu that appears, and opening Disk Management from Computer Management. This will show you a graphical depiction of all disks and partitions on your system. Note that by right-clicking a drive, you have access to certain commands.

Hard Drives and Motherboards

All standard PC motherboards today come with two EIDE channels, primary and secondary, as evidenced by connectors on the board. Each channel can handle two EIDE devices, one as the master and one as the slave. In this context, the terms master and slave really don't mean much, as everything a master drive can do, a slave drive can do also, although traditionally, the hard drive with the OS/boot files is installed as the primary master. This is not a rule, however. If the BIOS is set to detect any device as a boot device, then any one of the four can have the OS. The only restriction is that each channel cannot have more than one master and one slave drive. EIDE devices that can be connected to the EIDE connectors include hard drives, optical drives (CD and DVD), and Zip drives. Additional EIDE drives can be added to motherboards by using an EIDE expansion card (one manufacturer is Promise Technology, Inc. at promise.com). To use SCSI devices, a SCSI controller expansion card must be installed.

As we said before, many newer boards come with SATA connectors as well. With this interface, there is no such thing as master and slave, and only one device can be attached to each SATA connector.