Hi, Tom - and Steve.
To pick a small nit...
And then right click on the Drive in question, choose format [...]
Then give it a drive letter.
The volume ("drive") must have a "drive letter" BEFORE it can be formatted.
To adapt the oft-quoted legal phrase from TV, "If you don't have a drive
letter, one will be created for you" before the format. Even in MS-DOS
days, we had to say "Format X:", not just "Format the third partition on the
second HD."
Disk Management will handle this, though, asking for a letter before it
offers to format the new volume.
We don't actually "format a hard drive". First we create one to four
partitions on the HD, then we assign each partition a "drive" letter, then
we format each partition individually. We don't format the entire drive
unless we've included all of it in a single partition. If we choose, we may
make ONE of the partitions an "extended partition"; this cannot be assigned
a "drive" letter or formatted, but one or more logical drives may be created
within the extended partition and each logical drive can be assigned a drive
letter and individually formatted. It's less confusing - and more
accurate - to refer to "volumes" and "volume letters", but there's not much
chance of changing common usage at this late date. We really format
volumes, not hard drives or even partitions, sometimes.
In MS-DOS (including Win9x/ME, which required that we reboot into MS-DOS to
do this job), we used FDISK to create the partitions and logical drives and
assign letters to them. Then we used Format.exe to format each volume. In
Win9x/ME, we could use Device Manager to reassign drive letters. In WinXP,
we use Disk Management to create, delete and format volumes, as well as to
assign and reassign "drive" letters.
No operating system will obey an order to commit suicide, or to saw off the
limb it's sitting on. So, to format the System Partition or Boot Volume
(almost always Drive C
, we have to boot from some other source. In
Win9x/ME, we booted from an MS-DOS boot floppy - Drive A: - to format Drive
C:. In WinXP, we boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and have it partition and
format the hard drive. During Setup, we create and format Drive C: and, if
different, the Boot Volume where we will install WinXP. Later, we will use
Disk Management to handle any other volumes.
So, Steve, to ADD your new 80 GB HD to your existing system, just shut down
and physically install it (cables, jumpers, etc.). Then reboot into WinXP
and use Disk Management to create the volume(s) you need on it, assign
"drive" letter(s), and format it (them). But, if you plan to replace your
old HD and use this new one as the boot device, post back for more and
different instructions; that's more complicated.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Tom said:
Click start/run and type
diskmgmt.msc
And then right click on the Drive in question, choose format (make it
NTFS,
not FAT32), then let it rip. if you want to do this fast, check the "Quick
Format" box. Then give it a drive letter. If you don't want it to have a
name, remove it from the box (as to leave it blank), which defaults to
"New
Volume" and click OK.
