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If you want to know how to format hard drive for Windows XP read
carefully this guide. I will give you step by step instructions on how to perform
partitioning and formatting using nothing more than your original Windows XP
cd.
The whole idea for which you might want to use the Windows XP cd in the first
place instead of the good old Windows 98 boot disk is the fact that this method
will allow you to create those illusive NTFS partitions. As its name suggests
it is file system designed for NT operating systems and provides three major
advantages over FAT systems: first of all you can make your partitions as big
as you like, second this type of partition has an indexing attached which makes
faster response time from it and finally NTFS has a built in encryption, very
useful for hiding stuff from preying eyes. Why would anyone want to hide anything
in the first place that's a total different subject, but nonetheless NTFS was
built with privacy on mind. And that's a good thing.
There are some drawbacks to the NTFS system though. The most important one
is the fact that it does not have any compatibility with the previous Windows
versions or any other operating system for that matter. Now this is a serious
problem and there are some solutions using some obscure third party software,
but if additionally the partition is encrypted it will stay that way and you
won't be able to access it using Windows 98.
But anyway here is how you format hard drive for Windows XP. First boot from
the Windows XP cd, you will probably have to tweak a little bit into BIOS if
your computer still boots in the normal way. Start the setup or to be more exact
allow it to start. If you want a brand new partition you will probably have
to delete some of the older partitions. Choose the one you'd like to delete
press "D" and then "L". You should now see how much disk
space you have available for your brand new NTFS partition. Hit "C"
to create a new partition and hit "Enter". At this moment all the
available space will be allocated to an NTFS partition and guess what? Now you
have the NTFS partition you were dreaming of. From this point on you can safely
install Windows XP on the partition you created.
Of course you can choose just as easy to set up FAT32 partitions instead of
one, big NTFS one. You must keep in mind that one can't be bigger than 32 gigs
though. After you delete the partitions to create some space, don't hit "Enter",
hit "Backspace" instead for as many times as needed until you reach
the first digit. Enter the amount of space you want your first partition to
have and then hit "Enter". Repeat the process until you finish the
non allocated space. This just about covers it. If you format the hard drive
to be used with another operating system make sure that you set it to be in
the FAT32 file system
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When
formatting a hard drive there are many possible approaches
and thus many ways of screwing things up. I will cover with
a great deal of detail all the aspects of what formatting
hard drive really means.
