questions about hard drive partitions

[haus_kat]

JJ 3000: Thank you for helping!! The process was a lot quicker than I expected to make the partitions.

I installed Windows 2000 and everything seems okay.

How do I go about formatting and using the D: drive/partition?

I attached a screen capture of the disk management so you can see how it looks on Windows 2000 and which drives are there (please ignore F: drive thats listed there. I forgot I had the Sandisk SD card plugged in when I took the screen capture).

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[JJ 3000]

The first thing you want to do after installing windows is make sure that all of your drivers loaded. Click Start then Run and type in devmgmt.msc and press enter. This will take you device manager. If you see any yellow question marks or exclamation points you will need a driver for that device.

After that go to windows update and get all of the updates that are available for your computer.

After you've done that, then you can move onto setting up your new partition.
Just right click that new partition and select format. Use the NTFS file system.

Good luck!

[haus_kat]

I have gone into the device manager as you suggested. I only saw two question marks but I don't know if I even use the items which the question marks had appeared next to. I took a screen capture so you could see.

I also checked at Windows updates and downloaded everything they said was a high priority update. There were a few other after that but I didn't know if should install them because I don't know if they're security-related. I took a screen capture of that too.

After that, I formatted the D: drive. When I right-clicked on it the little window had two other boxes which said "Perform a quick format" and "Enable file and folder compression". I formatted D: drive but did not check either of those boxes. Was that correct?

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[patio]

You need to re-install your MBoard chipset drivers...
The missing PCI device drivers can cause a whole host of issues with that machine's performance...

[cyrusrynlee]

creating partitions/volumes on the same disk to save backup copies is not a good solution. when you create backups of your files, transfer them to a separate disk or media and ALWAYS save them in a format that a common malware does not touch or cannot normally modify. For example: .ISO, .NRG files; these files can be burned to a DVD-RW/DVD9-RW as well. You can schedule backups.

You can also use NT backup or disk images to backup your files (you can use DVD-RW or DVD9-RW if you dont have a separate disk) - they're easy to create and restore. That way you don't have to reformat and manually reinstall everything (your apps, your OS,your drivers, your files, etc.). All it takes is a 5-15 minute wait - that's the fastest way to recover your files and OS state. You have to create backups on a regular basis. Make it your habit.




 

[haus_kat]

Patio: the PCI thing is the motherboard? I thought it was one of those cards like you plug into the slot on the side of the computer (like a modem card). I'll have to check and see if I have a driver for that. I'm not using the original software for this computer so it didn't load drivers for it when I installed Windows. I had to get them from Dell's website.

[haus_kat]

cyrusrynlee: The files I wanted to put on D: are all my personal files from my computer (photos, music, etc.) They're the original files not a backup. Only the OS and programs are on C: drive. I don't have DVD-ROM drive and never had made those type of files mentioned. If I back up my personal files, I just save them to CD-ROM and Sandisk SD cards. My computer does not play or burn DVDs (it's an older model).

I was thinking of getting an external DVD writer but haven't yet. Do they come with programs to make the ISO files you mentioned? When you make those to you have to use a new disk every time or does the updated version overwrite the older one?