Pegasus (MVP) said:
Are you talking about memory (=a bank of RAM chips) or
about a hard disk?
Jonny said:
Yah. Formatting needs a partition to format first. Disk manager will do
both for you, Fraulein.
Jonny
Ruth:
When you speak of "added memory", that's usually a reference to adding RAM
to one's system. We're assuming that you're in the process of adding a new
hard drive to your system. And we're going to assume that the drive in
question is a PATA and not SATA (Serial ATA) hard drive. The PATA hard drive
is the type of hard drive most commonly in use today. Probably the one you
would have picked up at an Office store or one of the mass merchandizing
stores.
As Jonny has indicated, before the system will recognize a new hard drive,
it must be partitioned & formatted. You can easily do this within the XP
operating system by accessing the Disk Management utility - Start >
right-click My Computer > Computer Management > Disk Management.
But before accessing the DM utility, make sure you've correctly
connected/configured your new hard drive, i. e., it's been correctly
jumpered and the data (flat ribbon) cable is properly connected to the drive
and the appropriate motherboard's IDE connector. And that your power plug
(commonly know as a Molex plug) is securely fastened to your drive.
Assuming this is a brand-new drive, i.e., hasn't been previously
partitioned/formatted, you will most likely (but not always) get the
"Welcome to the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard" dialog box. Note that in
the Disk Management window your new HD will be shown probably as Disk 1,
"Unknown" together with its capacity in GB ("Unallocated") and "Not
Initialized". (You'll see a small red-circled icon with a small white bar in
the middle of this icon).
Step through the Wizard to initialize your disk. There are just a few
screens and the process is pretty straightforward. You shouldn't have any
trouble. Just remember that you DO NOT select the option to convert your
disk to a "dynamic" disk. Again, DO NOT SELECT THAT OPTION.
Now you must partition and format your new drive. Again the process is
pretty straightforward. You start by right-clicking on the schematic of your
new disk - the area that shows the disk as "Unallocated", and select from
the sub-menu "New Partition". The "New Partition Wizard" will open and
you'll be stepping through that "Wizard".
On the "Select Partition Type" window that opens, select the option,
"Primary Partition".
The "Select Partition Size" window will open where the maximum size (in MB)
of your new HD will be shown. If you want only a single partition
encompassing the entire capacity of the drive, just accept the figure shown.
If, on the other hand, you want to create multiple partitions on the drive,
so indicate the size in MB for the first partition and you will have a
subsequent opportunity to create additional partitions on that drive.
The next dialog box will allow you to assign a drive letter to your new
drive. It is best to do so at this point (rather than selecting the "Do not
assign a drive letter..." option). Either accept the default letter shown,
or choose one to your liking.
Now you will come to the formatting process...
On the "Format Partition" dialog box that opens, you probably should accept
the defaults shown unless you have good reason to do otherwise. The default
settings will create an NTFS file system with the appropriate "allocation
unit size" (cluster size). The new drive will be given the label "New
Volume". You can change it if you want. It's not really important. (You can
always change that given name at a later date). There's an option to
"Perform a quick format". If you select that option the formatting process
will go very quickly, but it will not be as thorough a process as a regular
format in terms of the system examining the drive for defects. The downside
to a non-quick format is that it it's quite time-consuming depending upon
the size of your HD. In our own case, where secondary drives are involved
and we're working with a brand-new drive, and have no reason to suspect the
drive may be defective, we usually select the "quick format" option. But
many users feel otherwise and select a regular (non-quick) format. So if
time (at least at *this* time!) is not an important consideration for you,
do not select the quick format option.
After you get the "Completing the New Partition Wizard" window showing the
selections you have previously made, the formatting process will begin after
you click the "Finish" button. But before clicking that button, review your
selections to ensure they're the ones you want. You can always go back and
change one or more of your previously selected settings by clicking on the
"Back" button.
Again, if you've selected the "quick format" option, the formatting will go
very quickly. If not, it will take a considerable amount of time. As an
example, the last time I (non-quick) formatted a 120 GB disk, it took about
45 minutes.
If you run into any difficulties, remember that the Help file in Disk
Management is your friend.
Anna
