In the age of information technology, the concept of a hard disk is becoming more and more relative every day: virtual storages, databases and special services have become available to anyone. And without the intervention of the World Wide Web, the hard drive is becoming more and more like a constructor. It can be split into several virtual disks, sectors reserved, formatted, defragmented … However, not all of the above can be done using one operating system with its standard sets of utilities.
Necessary
- - additional information carrier;
- - a special utility for working with hard drives;
- - skills in installing and using special programs.
Instructions
Step 1
To "remake" a hard drive, be sure to have a hard drive utility installed on your computer. If it is not available, install the appropriate program to get started. Currently, the number of such programs is very large, many of them are not free. In addition, do not forget that free versions may not have full functionality, which can make it difficult to rebuild the hard drive to the required parameters. Any version of Partition Magic is recommended for Windows hard drives.
Step 2
After installing the utility for working with the hard disk and before starting work, be sure to make a backup copy of the most important information stored on the hard disk. This does not mean a complete copy of the system disks or the operating system, but the most important documents can be temporarily transferred to a removable disk or flash drive. Such a safety net will help to avoid problems in the future when deep cleaning the ROM.
Step 3
When using the recommended Partition Magic, close all active programs, then start the program and select the "Disk Wizard" button in the main menu. The work usually begins with partitioning the disk into several virtual ones. It is worth remembering that one computer must have the C drive, the rest of the drives can be assigned the desired letters, except for the system ones (for example, A is a floppy disk).
Step 4
When optimizing an existing hard drive for your own needs, remember the golden rule of the system administrator: before you do something, check the need for this action. However, Partition Magic has the ability to preview the changes made, which will help the novice user achieve the desired result.
Step 5
One of the main issues when working with hard drives is the question of choosing a data storage format. Possible options include FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and HPFS, each of which has a number of advantages and disadvantages. FAT, for example, does not support a hierarchical directory system, and NTFS uses specialized data structures to store information about files to improve performance, reliability, and disk space efficiency. For the correct choice of the file system, answer yourself to the question of what the hard disk will be used for. Those who are not used to dealing with this kind of issues are usually advised to use NTFS.
