•  Partition information

•  FDISK, General Information

•  DOS rules/limitations for partitioning a hard drive

•  Using FDISK

•  Deleting partitions

•  Creating partitions

•  Activating the primary DOS partition

•  Rewrite the Master Boot Record

NOTE: FDISK is a DOS utility, which is used to partition sectors on a hard disk. This is a useful tool for managing large amounts of disk space; however, this process will delete all data stored on the hard disk.

Partitioning a hard drive defines areas of the disk for the operating system to use as volumes. To DOS, a volume is an area of the disk denoted as a drive letter (for example, drive C is volume C, drive D is volume D, and so forth).

A hard drive must be partitioned even if it contains a single volume. All system hard drives (IDE, SCSI, and others) can handle up to 24 partitions either spread out on a single drive or on many drives within the system. This means that a system can have up to 24 different drive letters according to DOS. The limiting factor is the availability of alphabetic letters.

Each partition must have an assigned letter. Since 26 letters are in the alphabet, and A: and B: are reserved for floppy drives, and a system can include additional drives such as CD ROM drives and internal Zip drives, this leaves the remainder of the letters available for partition usage.

If using Windows 95 OSR2 or Higher, it is possible to partition using the FAT32 file system. This will enable smaller clusters and will allow partition sizes up to 2 terabytes (TB) (2,000GB). Earlier versions of Windows require using FAT16, which uses 32-KB clusters and limits partition sizes to 2 GB.

FDISK only shows two DOS partitions: the primary partition and the extended partition. The extended partition is divided into logical DOS volumes, each a separate partition. The minimum partition size is one megabyte (MB). DOS versions earlier than 4.01 are limited to partitions of 32 MB or smaller. DOS 5.x, 6.x, and Windows 95 OSR1 have partition limits of 2 GB max. With DOS 7.x, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 , Windows 98 Second Edition,  and Windows XP the max partition size is up to 2TB (2TB = 2048GB = 2,097,152MB = 2,147,483,648KB = 2,199,023,255,552 bytes).

The minimum size for a partition is 1 MB.

NOTE: It is recommended that the Primary Partition size is at least 2 GB to accommodate Windows.

FDISK can be run from the DOS prompt:

The following choices appear at the FDISK options screen:

• At the FDISK options screen, type, 4, then press ENTER. If the hard drive has any existing partitions, they will be displayed. Example: Partition Status, Type, Volume label, System Usage

NOTE: The volume label and disk space (in megabytes). One megabyte = 1048576 bytes (1024 kilobytes)

• If an extended DOS partition is on the hard drive, a message will appear stating, "The Extended DOS Partition contains logical drives, do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)?" Press Y and ENTER to view the logical drive information.

• Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.

• At the main FDISK options screen, type 3, then press ENTER. The following options will appear:

• At the main FDISK options screen, type, 3, then press ENTER.

• The following options will appear:

• At the FDISK options screen, type, 1, then press ENTER.

• The following options will appear:

• Type, 1, and press ENTER to select [1], "Create Primary DOS Partition."

• A message will appear asking for a decision to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS partition and to make the partition active. Press ENTER to select Yes. The primary DOS partition is created.

NOTE: If using DOS or Windows 95 OSR1, the primary DOS partition is limited to a maximum of 2048MB.
With DOS 7.x, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 , Windows 98 Second Edition,  and Windows XP the max partition size is up to 2TB (2TB = 2048GB = 2,097,152MB = 2,147,483,648KB = 2,199,023,255,552 bytes).

• Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.

At the FDISK options screen, type, 1, then press ENTER.

• The following options will appear:

• Type, 2, and press ENTER to select [2], "Create Extended DOS Partition."

• Partition information will be displayed. Press ENTER to accept the default partition size shown. The extended DOS partition is created.

• Press ESC. A message will appear, "No logical drives are defined."

• Press ENTER to assign all the space in the extended DOS partition to a logical drive.

• Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.

• At the FDISK options screen, type, 1, then press ENTER.

• The following options will appear:

• Type, 1, and press ENTER to select [1], "Create Primary DOS Partition."

• A message will appear asking for a decision to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS partition and to make the partition active. Type, N, and press ENTER.

• The total disk space available on the hard drive and the maximum space available for the primary DOS partition will appear.

• Type the percent (%) of disk space to use for the primary DOS partition. Example: 50%, then press ENTER.

NOTE: The recommended primary partition size is at least 2 GB to accommodate Windows.

• The primary DOS partition information will appear. Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.

• At the FDISK options screen, type, 1, then press ENTER.

• The following options will appear:

• Type, 2, and press ENTER to select [2], "Create Extended DOS Partition."

• Partition information will appear. Press ENTER to accept the default partition size shown. The extended DOS partition is created.

• Press ESC. A message will appear, "No logical drives are defined."

• To create multiple Logical drives in the extended DOS partition, decide on the number and sizes of drives to create. Example: If 1225 MB is available in the extended DOS partition, it is possible to create two logical drives using 50 percent of the space available, or approximately 612 MB, for each. You may also choose to create three logical drives using 33 percent of the space available, or approximately 408 MB, for each.

• Once you have decided on the number of logical drives to create, type the percentage (%) of disk space to use for the first logical drive, then press ENTER (for example, 50%, 33%, or 90%).

• A logical drive (with a drive letter) will be created using the percentage of space selected, and you will be prompted to enter the percentage to use for the next logical drive. Repeat Step 6 and 7 until all space has been allocated to Logical drives.

• Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.

• At the main FDISK options screen, type, 2, then press ENTER.

• Type, 1, and press ENTER to make the primary DOS partition active.

• Press ESC to return to the FDISK options screen.