Partitioning The Hard Drive - Gateway Solo 5100 Maintaining & Troubleshooting

A Primary DOS partition contains the essential files to start your system from
the hard drive (system files). To start Windows from your hard drive, you must
have a primary DOS partition and it must be set to active.
An Extended DOS partition is a portion of a hard drive where non-system
files can be stored. Unlike a primary DOS partition, you cannot start your
system from an extended DOS partition. Y our system does not require an
extended partition to function.
A Logical DOS Drive is an area of an Extended DOS partition that you can set
up to group directories and files. It does not increase disk storage capacity.
You must set up an extended DOS partition before you can establish a logical
drive. You can create up to 23 logical drives in an extended DOS partition.
Formatting a hard drive prepares the partition(s) to receive files. Windows uses the
MS-DOS file format.com to format disks. Y ou may use format.com to format
your hard drive or your hard drive automatically formats when using the
Operating System On Your Hard Drive
"Installing Windows 95" on page 19. for further information.

Partitioning the hard drive

Partitioning your hard drive using fdisk.exe lets you set up hard drives larger than 2
GB by setting up a primary DOS partition, extended DOS partition, and logical
drives within the extended DOS partition.
To configure a hard disk using fdisk.exe you will complete the following tasks:
Delete DOS partitions, logical drives, any extended DOS partitions, and the
existing primary DOS partition.
Create a new primary DOS partition
Create an extended partition and logical drives, if you want any.
Formatting the partition with FAT16 file system
When partitioning the hard drive using fdisk.exe you may be provided the option to
use the FAT16 or FAT32 file system. Your system has been shipped from Gateway
with the FAT16 file system. To reinstall your system as it shipped from the factory,
use the FAT 16 file system. FAT 16 provides access to other operating systems. You
must have Windows 95B or Windows 95C as your operating system to use FAT 32.
option on the Solo Boot Disk menu. See
Install An
To help ensure a clean
installation, we recommend
that you partition and format
the hard drive before
reinstalling Windows 95.
However, if you are want to
preserve valuable data by not
erasing files on the hard drive,
you can first try installing the
operating system using the
procedure "Installing
Windows 95" on page 19. If
you continue to have difficulty
with the operating system
working properly, then return
to the partitioning and
formatting procedures before
installing Windows 95.
Chapter 2: Reinstalling Windows 95 System Software
Note:
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