Posted:
11nov2000

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This FDISK guide comes to you compliments of "the Doc": a friend who lives in Germany. It has since become one of the site's more popular features. [Only the Ghost guide and the ASPI guide are downloaded more frequently.]

You will find this guide helpful even if you prefer to use other partitioning utilities, such as the one that comes packaged with Windows XP.

The 'F' in FDISK stands for Fixed. FDISK is a utility used to partition Fixed DISK drives. The Create screen looks like this:

This tutorial teaches you the mojo on how to partition a hard disk drive (HDD) using Microsoft's DOS-based partitioning utility. FDISK runs from DOS, so it offers no pretty graphical user interface [GUI]. The stark DOS interface intimidates some people.

But FDISK is really simple and straightforward .. once you understand a few, basic concepts.

Just because FDISK has no pretty GUI doesn't mean we can't use a graphical representation of hard drive partitions to help us understand how they work.

The image located at the top of this page comes from Partition Magic: a powerful Windows-based partitioning program. PM sports a slick GUI.

This graphic you see there represents a single 120-GB drive. This drive contains 3 NTFS partitions: one primary, and two logical DOS drives in an extended partition [light-blue outline].

Yellow areas contain data. White areas are empty. This image should help you form a mental representation of how partitions work.

Introduction

FDISK's #1 strength is compatibility. Other partitioning utilities [such as the wonderful Partition Magic] offer far more features, such as the ability to modify partitions non-destructively.

Their GUI's make them easier to use. And they certainly look prettier. But none offer better compatibility .. with the infinite number of configurations possible .. taking into account both hardware & software.

I use PM myself. Everyone should keep a copy handy. But I only use it when FDISK is not an option. And I *always* use FDISK to partition new hard drives.

Microsoft's FDISK is the closest thing there is to a partitioning standard. It has been around since the days when dinosaurs walked the earth .. well, almost. It is the least likely to generate quirky compatibility issues.

This guide is designed for the noobie, for those with no prior partitioning experience. Everything is spelled out, using plain language. It even identifies common problems to avoid.

Doc's guide is referenced in the course syllabus by several universities and by disk manufacturers such as Samsung. It has become surprisingly popular since search engine's found it. [Try searching for the term "FDISK" in either Google or Yahoo & you'll see what I mean.]

For your <hypertext> convenience, this guide can be found at both these fine Radified URLs:

[http://fdisk.radified.com/]
[http://fdisk.radified.com/fdisk.htm]

Before we begin, you might want to take a peek at some Partitioning Strategies. This guide will give you some ideas on the best way to divvy up your new drive.

Partitioning is best done correctly the first time. You can always repartition afterwards, but that can cause problems [as we'll discuss later].

When you decide how you want to divvy up your new drive, write down this information on a piece of paper, or on a 3x5 card. While you're doing that, I want to mention <shameless plug> a few other Radified guides you might find helpful:

The [Guide to Ripping & Encoding CD audio] receives more kudos than any other.
The [Guide to Booting from a SCSI hard drive] is my personal favorite, espousing a hybrid approach to disk storage.


Mr. Magoo's [BitTorrent guide] has been contributed by a Rad reader, and will help you configure that popular file-sharing program.
The [Guide to Norton Ghost] is the site's single most popular feature.


Or maybe you know somebody who would benefit from a [Guide to PC Mainteinence].
There's also a feature containing all our [Favorite Freeware].


And a [Windows XP Installation guide].
And [several others]. </shameless plug>

Hard Drive Configuration Primer

All motherboards come with two IDE/ATA controllers: one primary and one secondary. Each IDE/ATA controller supports two channels: one master and one slave. Master/slave settings are configured with jumper settings on the hard drives themselves. The legend for these settings is usually printed beside the jumpers, or you can visit the manufacturer's web site to find how to set them.

Primary/secondary configuration depends on which IDE/ATA channel the device [cable] is plugged into. Therefore, each motherboard supports a total of four IDE/ATA devices [more can be added by installing an optional PCI card] like so:

primary-master
primary-slave
secondary-master
secondary-slave

Typical hardware configuration for a system using of all four IDE/ATA channels might look something like this:

primary-master: boot/system hard drive
primary-slave: CD or DVD-ROM drive
secondary-master: CD or DVD burner/writer
secondary-slave: storage hard drive

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On the next page, we'll get into FDISK and partition our hard drive.