You decide to partition your hard disk, but before going through the process you must first prepare the things needed to complete the process of partitioning.
PROCESS
The most important things in completing the process of partitioning and formatting are the hard disk, cables, computer and the installation CD. When these three are already prepared, the configuration needs changes as well. Configure the PC to boot or start from your existing optical drive such as the DVD or CD. In some cases, you need to modify the BIOS settings of the computer in order to set the configuration. You may need to refer to the documentation or manual that comes with your motherboard.
Hard disk Partitions
The process that is going to be detailed here is partitioning in Windows XP. One can use the setup program of Windows XP in order to successfully partition then format the hard drive.
- Insert the installation CD into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive then restart your computer. This will run the setup program from the CD. Other cases require you to press any key to boot from CD when the computer prompts the user so.
- Around this time, the blue screen appears with the Windows XP Setup. This part is loading some files to start the setup. The Welcome to Setup screen appears when loading is finished. Press the ENTER key.
- Press the F8 key to accept the licensing agreement.
- If there is an existing WinXP OS, setup will prompt the user to repair the OS. Press ESC to avoid this process.
- In this page is a list of spaces non-partitioned and partitioned. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the partition you want to install the fresh copy of Windows XP or create a partition by choosing the space that is not partitioned. Press C to make a partition out of the non-partitioned space.
- Note: If there are already existing partitions yet you want to create a new partition, you will need to delete the partition by pressing the D key. Press the enter key to confirm deleting the partition.
- You are prompted to enter the maximum size of the partition. Enter the size in megabytes then press ENTER. Repeat the latter step when creating additional partition.
- Install the OS on the new partition or select one that you want to install it and then press ENTER.
- You are prompted to select a file system for the chosen partition. There are 5 choices in which you should only choose one. Use the arrow keys to select and then press ENTER. The last choice will not appear if the partition is newly created.
- Wait until Setup completes.
In other operating systems such as PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu, there is an option where you can create partitions manually or leave the installer to create the partitions automatically.