Reinstalling Your Windows Nt System; Partitioning And Formatting The Hard Drive; Partition Formatting With Fat File System - Gateway Solo 5100 Maintaining & Troubleshooting

Warning!
Partioning and formatting
erases all files on the hard
drive. Before partitioning or
formatting the hard drive,
make sure any software that
you may need is backed up.
26 Maintaining and Troubleshooting Your Solo Notebook
Reinstalling Your
Windows NT System
This chapter includes the process of reinstalling Windows NT. We recommend that
you use the Windows NT Workstation CD-ROM to partition and format the hard
drive and install Windows NT. Once you've installed Windows NT, you'll need to
install some device drivers to get all the system hardware working.
The Windows NT setup program steps you through the process of partitioning
and formatting your hard drive. Use the Solo boot disk to start your system
from the A: drive.
Make sure you have the necessary diskettes and/or CDs available before starting to
install Windows NT and the device drivers on the hard drive. You'll need:
Windows NT Workstation Start Here guide for further information on
installing Windows NT.
Windows NT Workstation CD to continue the Windows NT install process.
Windows NT Service Pack CD to install the device drivers. In some cases,
newer drivers may be shipped on additional diskettes.
Windows NT Setup Diskettes to partition and format the hard drive and
begin the operating system load. (Optional. The instructions in this chapter
instruct you to install Windows NT using the Windows NT CD-ROM only.)

Partitioning and formatting the hard drive

For an operating system such as MS-DOS or Windows to store files on a hard
drive, the hard drive must be partitioned and formatted. Windows NT steps you
through the process during the Windows NT setup process. Refer to the
Windows NT manual for more information about partitioning, formatting and
setting up Windows NT.

Partition formatting with FAT file system

Your system has been installed from the factory to operate using the File Allocation
Table (FAT) file system. This provides access to other operating systems and
supports a wider variety of software.