How do I setup a hard disk drive in Windows 2000 and XP?

Issue

How do I setup a hard disk drive in Windows 2000 and XP?

Answers

Unlike earlier versions of Windows such as Windows 98, users no longer need to setup the hard disk drive through fdisk or format. To setup a new hard disk drive in Windows XP, you must have administrative rights and follow the below steps.

  1. Click Start / Settings / Control Panel
  2. Click Administrative Tools / Computer Management. If you're unable to see Administrative Tools make sure you're viewing Control Panel in Classic View and not Category View.
  3. In Computer Management, click the Plus next to Storage to make it a minus.
  4. Under Storage you should now see Disk Management, click this icon. Which should look like the below example.

    Computer Management Disk Management
  5. Within this window you should see the drives being detected by Windows.
  6. Within this window you should see a drive that is unallocated (probably drive 1), right-click this drive and click Initialize Disk.
  7. Once the drive has been Initialized, right-click the drive and click New Partition. In the partition wizard you should be asked the Partition Type; specify primary, the partition size; specify the full drive capacity, the drive letter; specify the drive letter you wish to have the drive to be, and the format partition; specify NTFS or FAT32.

Additional information

  • See the Disk Management definition for further information and related links.