Absolute Beginner's Guide to A+ Certification

Chapter 15. Preparing Hard and Floppy Drives with Windows

In this chapter

• Creating a Boot Disk Suitable for Hard Disk Preparation

• Understanding File Systems and Partition Types

• Preparing a Hard Disk for Use with Windows 9x/Me

• Preparing a Hard Disk for Use with Windows NT/2000/XP

• Using Format with Floppy and Hard Disks

• Troubleshooting Drive Preparation Problems

In the previous chapter, you learned the hardware mechanics behind magnetic and optical storage. In this chapter, you'll learn how data is stored on a disk.

You don't need to do anything to a new floppy disk or Zip disk before you can use it: Just pop it in the drive and copy files to it. Unfortunately, you need to take a few more steps before you can use your new internal hard disk for more ...