1. Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive 2. Set Active Partition 3. Delete Partition or Logical DOS Drive 4. Display Partition Information 5. Change current fixed disk drive.
Fdisk, is used to manage and configure partitions on Hard Disk Drives. Before Formatting a HDD, you need to create its partition(s). Partitions are individual sections on the Disk's surface.
FDisk can only be loaded from the Command Prompt (DOS).
On its main menu, Fdisk has four options available if there is one HDD and five if more than one HDDs are present.
Main Menu
1. Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive
The first option is used to create Primary and Extended DOS Partitions and Logical DOS Drives on Extended Partitions.
Option 1 - Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive
The first partition to be created on a HDD, should always be a Primary DOS Partition. No matter how many partitions are going to be created, the Primary DOS Partition goes always first. When FDisk is over, this partition will be assigned with the drive letter C:.
The Extended DOS Partition, is the rest of the HDD's surface which will be used to create other partitions.
The Logical DOS Drives are the rest partitions to be created on the Extended DOS Partition.
HOW TO CREATE DOS PARTITIONS AND LOGICAL DOS DRIVES:
As stated before, the first partition to be made, should be the Primary DOS Partition. When selected, FDisk asks us to enter the size (MegaBytes) or the percentage of the HDD's total capacity to be used for this partition. Then it starts creating it. Most of the times, this procedure takes only a few seconds, depending from the size of the HDD. If only one partition on the HDD is needed, enter 100% of the disk capacity. If two equal partitions are needed select 50% etc.
When done, the partition has been created. If more partitions are needed, you must select the second option "Create Extended DOS Partition". Then select the size of the available capacity and press the Esc button when finished. FDisk then ask us to create Logical DOS Drives on that partition. Do the same thing as you did before with the Primary DOS Partition.
For example, if you want two partitions on the Extended one, enter 50% of the disk capacity for each one. If you want one, select 100% etc.
When done, the partitions have been created. Now, you need to set the Primary DOS Partition active for the use of DOS.
To set an Active Partition, you need to select the second option from the main menu. Simply enter the partition number to be set to active and FDisk sets it.
3. Delete Partition or Logical DOS Drive
The third option is used to delete partitions and Logical DOS Drives. When selected, you can see 4 options available. Delete Primary DOS Partition, Extended DOS Partition, Logical DOS Drives and Non-DOS Partitions.
Option 3 - Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive
The fourth option (Delete Non-DOS Partition) is used to delete partitions used by other Operating Systems and haven't been formatted on FAT16 or FAT32 file systems, such as NTFS, Unix etc.
First, delete the Non-DOS partitions (if any), then the Logical DOS Drives, then the Extended DOS Partition and finally the Primary DOS Partition.
4. Display Partition Information
The fourth option, is used to let us view the partitions present on the HDD, their Status ("A" if they are active), their Type, their Volume Label, their size, their System and their Usage.
Option 4 - Display Partition Information
5. Change current fixed disk drive.
If there are more than one HDDs present, there is a fifth option on the main menu. This is used to switch to another HDD.
Option 5 - Change current fixed disk drive
To switch to another fixed HDD, just enter its Disk Number, press the Esc button and use FDisk as you did before.
