|
Partitioning A Blank Hard Drive During XP Installation
The assumption here is the partition scheme
will be created on a hard drive using a
bootable Windows XP CD. After booting from the CD and the
initial setup files have loaded the screen in Fig. 01 will
be displayed. If there is no existing operating system on
the drive the space will be listed as Unpartitioned in the
lower half of the screen. If there is an operating system
installed, the existing partitions will be listed in the
lower half of the screen. Selecting an existing partition
and using the D key will delete it, along with any data and
program files it contains. From this point there are a
number of different partitioning possibilities.
If ENTER is pressed the entire unpartitioned space (in
this case, 16379MB) will be used to create a C: partition.
There will be no other options offered and the process will
move forward to where you'll be asked to choose what file
system will be used to format the partition.
Fig. 01
If the C key is pressed to create a
partition in the unpartitioned space you will be taken to
the screen shown in Fig. 02 where a custom size partition
may be created. The minimum and maximum sizes allowed for
the new partition are displayed for easy reference along
with a line where the new partition size is entered. In this
case I changed the default to 5000MB but any size may be
entered that falls between the minimum and maximum allowed.
Pressing Enter completes the creation process for that
partition and returns you to the Fig. 01 screen.
Fig. 02
As you can see in Fig. 03 there is now a C:
partition that is defined as Partition 1 and is 4997MB in
size even though the size I entered in Fig. 02 was 5000MB.
There's a reason why the sizes vary but it's outside the
scope of this article so just accept that this is the way
things work. If it's critical that you have a partition
that's precisely sized, use the D key option to delete the
partition then go in and try a slightly larger/smaller size
than was entered previously. There's no guarantee you'll
ever hit the partition size right on the nose but you should
be able to get relatively close.
Fig. 03
If the partitioning process was stopped at
this point, the newly created C: partition highlighted, the
ENTER key selected and the installation of XP allowed to
complete you would end up with a partitioning scheme as
shown in Fig. 04 below. While this is a very elementary
partitioning scheme it's not without some merit. The most
important aspect of this scheme is that rather than
committing the entire hard drive space to partition C:, it
leaves the balance of the free space as Unallocated so it
can be effectively divided up into additional Primary or
Logical partitions after XP is installed.
Fig. 04
However, suppose you already have a
partitioning scheme in mind that's a bit more extensive?
Rather than merely having a C: partition you'd like to have
additional partitions created. Simple enough. Refer back to
Fig. 03 and rather than selecting the ENTER key, use the
down arrow key to highlight the Unpartitioned Space entry
and then press the C key. Once again you'll enter the size
of the desired partition and hit Enter. Repeat the process
as many times as needed until all the partitions have been
created or you run out of Unallocated space. In Fig. 05 I
have created two additional partitions (E: and F:) and there
remains 4377MB of Unpartitioned Space that could be used for
additional partitions.
Fig. 05
I stopped at this point, highlighted the
newly created C: partition, selected the ENTER key and
allowed the installation of XP to complete, ending up with a
partitioning scheme as shown in Fig. 06 below. If you
compare Fig. 04 with Fig. 06 you'll see some differences
that are worth noting.
-
There is no difference between the C:
partitions. Both are 4.88 GB, NTFS Primary partitions
designated as System.
-
Once the first partition has been
created, in this case C:, subsequent partitions created
will be placed within an Extended partition and created
as Logical drives. In the screen capture below they are
identified by the brighter blue color and assigned drive
letters E: and F:. You have no control over the drive
letter assignment nor the fact the partitions will be
logical drives.
-
Once an Extended partition has been
created any Unpartitioned space left on the drive will
no longer be left as Unallocated as in Fig. 04 above,
but will now be identified as Free Space and contained
within the Extended partition. Again, you have no option
available to modify this default behavior.
Fig. 06
Advantages and Disadvantages of Partitioning Method
Advantages
Disadvantages
Up
What Is A Partition?
One Partition or Multiple Partitions?
Partitioning A Blank Hard Drive During XP Installation
Reassigning Drive Letters
Resizing An Existing Partition On A Single Hard Drive
Creating A Primary Partition In Unallocated Space
Creating An Extended Partition And Logical Drives
Creating Logical Drives In An Extended Partition
Multiple Hard Drive System Partitioning
Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks
|
