How do you prepare a hard drive for a new installation of Windows? Myself, I like starting clean and will do a clean Windows installation if at all possible. Clean installations often perform better, and there is no chance of old, unwanted, files or folders clogging up the drive. A clean drive is best achieved by a high-level format rather than attempting to delete the contents manually.
There are several things to check before continuing with the installation. We check the BIOS (see above) and while in the BIOS check the drive parameters if they match the drive itself. I've seen several systems where the drive was radically different from the settings, in one case the settings said the drive was about six times larger than it really was. In another case, the drive was defined in the BIOS as about half its true size, leaving the other half unusable.
If the specifications in the BIOS do not match the physical drive's size, the first thing to try is to force the BIOS to auto-detect the hard drive. Often this will resolve the problems with a minimum of problems. If the BIOS, for some reason, does not auto-detect the drive properly, then consider manually entered drive parameters, however this is not an elegant solution.
Once the drive parameters are properly set, the next thing is to decide whether to use the drive as one large partition, or a number of smaller ones. (My preference is one large partition, which seems to be less wasteful of space on the drive.) Whichever way you go, decide ahead of time the size of the partition(s) and write it down.
Don't forget that though a drive says xxx GB, that xxx can be expressed in either decimal or GB. One GB is not 1,000,000,000 bytes, it is 1,073,741,824 bytes (that's 230). So a drive that is 29,997,559,808 bytes in size (a drive that is nominally called a 30 GB drive when advertised) will be called a 27.9 GB drive sometimes.
So we don't like mashing numbers, right? Well, if you are using FDISK, you can either enter numbers, or percents. So if you want to divide a drive into two equal partitions, just size the first one to 50%, and the second one to the remaining space. Minimal math needed for this.
Do we do a low-level format? And what is a low-level format? Years ago, before IDE/ATA hard drives, every hard drive had to be low-level formatted before it could be used. This step was not optional, and might be redone several times during the lifetime of the drive. Each drive came with a label showing where each bad spot on the drive was (AKA the defect map), so you could tell the low-level formatting software where these defects were. As drives got larger, that defect map sometimes was substantial, and it would have to be manually entered into the low-level formatting program or the drive would not work reliably after the low-level format.
When IDE/ATA drives arrived on the scene drive makers were placing substantially more information into smaller and smaller drives. The defect table might be huge (for example, a large drive might have a hundred defects listed.) At this point the drive makers started putting the defect table on the drive itself, and doing the low-level format at the factory. The results were quite good, the drives were generally reliable, and worked without ever having to be re-low-level formatted.
Today, it is rare to have to low-level format a drive. Drive makers strongly recommend that a drive not be low-level formatted (and with today's disposable drives, the effort to low-level format the drive was not cost effective). However, if you insist, there are low-level formatting programs for most of the more popular brands of hard drives. These can be downloaded from the drive makers web sites, see page 843 in Upgrading and Repairing PCs (16th Edition) for information on low-level formatting software.
The Internet web page about low-level formatting http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-level-format.html has links to each major drive maker's download pages where utilities (including low-level formatting programs) may be downloaded.
Caution
If the maker of your drive doesn't exist anymore, or does not offer a low-level format program, resist the urge to try one from a different drive maker. Each drive maker's low-level formatting is different, and using the wrong software to try and low-level format a drive could cause permanent damage to the drive.
If we are starting with a clean installation, but the hardware (specifically the hard drive) is not new, now good time to re-partition the drive.
There are a number of ways to partition drives. There is the alternative of using the old standby, FDISK. However, FDISK is not always readily available, and as well, it has been shown to have some problems and limitations (such as a separate high level format must also be run on the drive before it is useable.) For this reason, we try to avoid FDISK if possible.
The Windows XP installation setup program has all of the functionality of FDISK built in. There is no real need to run a separate FDISK and then install Windows XP. However, if you are installing a version of Windows 98/SE/Me then running FDISK first is a good idea.
The steps to prepare a drive for usage are:
1. The drive will have a low-level format done already, so we don't have to do this on IDE/ATA drives. For SCSI drives, a low-level format can usually be done using the SCSI BIOS utilities. A low-level format usually will only need to be done on a drive that has never been used.
Caution
If you are formatting a SCSI it is vital that the computer not be interrupted, either intentionally, or by accident (such as a power failure). A SCSI drive can be ruined if a SCSI format is interrupted.
2. The drive next needs to be partitioned, or divided into logical parts (called partitions). The Windows XP setup program is capable of partitioning a drive. Once partitioned, each partition will appear as a different drive to Windows. Even a drive that will be one single logical drive (such as C:) must be partitioned.
3. All partitions must be high-level formatted. The high-level format prepares the drive for the operating system to use. A high-level format creates the file system (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS), the boot sectors, and other preliminary setup work.
Once these three steps are done, then setup can install Windows on the drive.
Note
Most times we have a choice between a quick format, and a full format.
A quick format works when the partition or drive has already been formatted, and this option simply rewrites the file system areas of the drive, and does a consistency check. The actual data on the drive is not changed or deleted. Since the data sectors are not written to, any bad sectors will not be discovered.
A full format initializes all the sectors on the drive, actually erasing the data, and testing the sectors for read/write errors. The full format is slower, but ensures the drive's sectors are all writable.
For an installation of Windows, a full format is best, and is a good investment time wise.
Tip
Years ago, when the operating system was more limited in how large a logical drive could be, users were forced to partition their drives into small sections.
Using multiple partitions did allow some organization of data and applications. The problem with this was when a partition's was full there was no easy way to increase the partition size.
Today, we have the ability to have logical drives of almost any size, so creating multiple partitions is not required. Some users do create multiple partitions (usually creating a partition to hold Windows and application programs, and a second partition for data and files.) However, we have folders to allow this type of organization, and using multiple partitions can lead to problems where the drive's space is inefficiently used.
A computer may have more than one operating system installed at the same time. To have multiple installed operating systems, the drive must be divided into multiple partitions, one for each operating system.
The operating systems may be two different versions of Windows, or Windows and another totally different operating system such as Linux. However there are some restrictions on multiple boot computers.
First, you need to install each operating system in its own partition. One should not even think of trying to put multiple operating systems, especially multiple versions of Windows on the same partition. Some operating systems (Linux) use a totally different disk structure. Many versions of Linux will read and write partitions written by Windows, the converse is not true.
Above, I suggested that there were few reasons to partition a drive into more than one partition. However if you find you must (and I emphasize must) install more than one version of Windows, then create two partitions.
There may be questions on how two operating systems, or two versions of Windows are managed. Both Linux and Windows have boot managers, programs that at the very beginning of the boot process are able to prompt the user to determine which to actually load.
Caution
Do not install multiple versions of Windows if you can possibly avoid it. Eventually you will find that the second (older) version is unnecessary. However removing it can be difficult, requiring modifications to several files, which if improperly changed can affect the computer's ability to boot any version of Windows.
Traditionally the weak link in computers has been the movement of data to and from the hard drive. When PCs first were equipped with hard drives, data rates were typically 100 KB per second (a 1X CD-ROM drive moves about 175 KB per second.) At these speeds takes over 30 minutes to write 200 MB of data. This may not have been a problem when the typical drive held between 10 and 20 MB of data, but today's 100 GB drive would take days (about six) to copy.
Today's ATA-133 drives transfer a maximum of 133 MB of data a second, however there is little expectation that parallel ATA will get any faster. Serial ATA (SATA) 150 can move about 150 MB of data a second, and SATA II will double this speed to about 300 MB per second. SCSI, on the other hand, currently offers speeds of up to 320 MB per second, making them faster than any other solution including the fastest SATA drives.
Added to the mix of drive configurations and types is RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks. (Originally RAID was an acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.) With a RAID array, we are able to take advantage of multiple drives to improve either performance, reliability, data integrity, or a combination of all three.
Striping is the technique where RAID allows computers to write data to multiple drives, so that part of the data goes to each drive. (This markedly improves the transfer rate--two RAID SCSI 320 drives might achieve double the performance of one drive with speeds approaching 600 MB/second.) Even with SATA and ATA drives the performance gains can be substantial for server applications.
Mirroring is another variation of RAID improves data reliability by writing the same data to two different drives at the same time. In the event that one drive fails, the second drive has all the original data, and takes over automatically. The user never sees any change in system performance or data. Then the defective drive can be swapped out, (often without even bring the server down), and the RAID system will instructed to update the new drive by copying the good data to the new drive. This configuration is very reliable, necessary for any mission critical application such as customer/order databases, or other applications that were they to fail could result in substantial losses to the users.
Parity (which may be used with striping or mirroring) allows the system to detect data errors. Properly designed, parity systems can be used to correct data errors as well as detect them.
SCSI has been available for many years. Both Apple computers, and many servers and high end workstations us SCSI, which offers substantial performance gains over the existing PC hard drive technology. PCs using SCSI have been in use for many years. Some SCSI adapter makers (Adaptec, as an example) have created SCSI adapters that are compatible with Windows XP and work well without any need for special drivers. Some other SCSI interface maker's products require special drivers.
RAID is independent from the actual drive technology, RAID drives can be SCSI, IDE/ATA, or SATA. With RAID there is a requirement that the drives be of the same size, and when different sized drives are installed into a RAID system often the space used will be equal to the smallest drive. Some RAID systems allow the unused portion of larger drives to be used, some do not.
RAID can be implemented in hardware, or software. Windows servers and Windows XP Professional Edition have a software implementation of RAID. This implementation makes RAID work without any special hardware, but at a price: software RAID will not normally show the overall gain in performance over RAID implemented using hardware. However, users who are implementing RAID level 1, disk mirroring, to create fault tolerant systems may find that the software implementation of RAID is more than adequate for their needs.
RAID levels and how they affect us.
RAID system configurations are defined as RAID levels. A RAID level is numeric, as this list shows.
Level 0, is a RAID system that spreads the data between multiple drives. An equal amount of data is written to each drive, effectively increasing the speed of the I/O. This is called data striping, and between 2 and the maximum number of RAID drives that your system supports are used.
Level 1, is a RAID system that writes two complete copies of the data to each of two drives. This technique is referred to as mirroring the data. There must be an even number of drives to perform mirroring. The use of hot-swap drives when mirroring can totally eliminate server shutdowns when a single drive fails.
Level 0+1 defines a RAID system where the data is both mirrored and striped (in that order). This improves both performance (striping) and reliability (mirroring).
Level 2 is an error correcting mode of RAID where the data integrity is critical. RAID level 2 is seldom used.
Level 3 is similar to Level 2, in that the data integrity is maintained using parity. This level is handicapped by technical restrictions--it can only handle one request for data at a time.
Level 4 is similar to Level 1, in that the data integrity is maintained using parity, but with a separate parity drive. This level is handicapped by technical restrictions--it can suffer from I/O speed restrictions due to the dedicated parity drive.
Level 5 provides an improved error correction system. Striping is done at a byte level, as is parity. Level 5 offers good performance, reliability, and data integrity, and is very commonly used in commercial server applications.
Level 6 gives us block level (where Level 5 is byte level) striping, with parity.
Level 10 defines a RAID system that is very similar to RAID 0+1, where the data is both striped and mirrored (in that order, which is the opposite order from Level 0+1). This improves both performance (striping) and reliability (mirroring).
Level 7, and RAID S are propriety RAID techniques, and you are unlikely to encounter them on Windows PCs.
Which RAID level should you choose? No RAID system offers all of these levels. Since RAID can offer improvements in performance, reliability and data integrity. The choice is based on which of these factors are important to you. Most PC based hardware solutions offer at least Level 0, Level 1, and Level 0+1. Many also offer Level 5.
Serial ATA (SATA) is new technology, and as such, not all systems have support for SATA drives built into the motherboard. In fact, SATA motherboards are the exception rather than the rule (for existing installed systems), but within a short time most computers will have built-in SATA support. Like SCSI, SATA adapters often are recognized by Windows XP and work without any special drivers.
SATA problems while installing Windows usually appear as an error during the Windows XP setup when setup reports that there are no hard drives (or mass storage devices) detected. Since setup cannot see the drive, setup cannot continue. (This problem is virtually identical for each of the three special disk configurations, SCSI, SATA and RAID.)
Note
Both Windows 2000 and Windows NT also will report similar errors, and the fix is the same for these versions of Windows as well. Windows 98/SE/Me installations may not fare as well with special drives--a good reason to consider upgrading to Windows XP.
There is one fix for the problem where setup does not recognize your drives and that is to tell setup to load drivers specifically for your drive. Usually these drivers will be found on a diskette or CD that came with your motherboard, adapter card, or computer.
Caution
If you are attempting to install Windows 98/SE/Me and you get this type of message you may be 'out of luck'. Hardware makers are not inclined to create drivers for these earlier versions of Windows.
Generally, if you have SATA drives, it is unlikely you will be installing anything earlier than Windows XP.
To use special storage drivers you need to follow these steps:
1. Observe the system startup. Is the drive detected by the BIOS? Just like with IDE drives, the BIOS should give some indication that the drive has been detected. If there is no indication that the drive has been detected, check the connections to the drive, making sure that they are fully seated, and properly connected. The end connectors on a SATA or SCSI cable are the same at either end, can go either way. A PATA (IDE/ATA) cable will have connectors that are unique in function, but may be fitted incorrectly. (No need to panic, no harm is done using the wrong connector on an IDE/ATA cable, however the drive may not function correctly if you do. An ULTRA DMA IDE/ATA cable has color coded ends.
ULTRA DMA IDE/ATA cable ends are blue to the motherboard, gray to the slave (second) drive, and black to the master (first) drive.
2. Start the Windows XP setup program (usually by rebooting with the CD in the drive.) As setup begins to load, you will see a message saying to press F6 to load SCSI or other drivers. Press F6, which will tell setup that the device drivers must be loaded.
3. Take your SATA drivers diskette, and put it into the diskette drive. Then follow the Windows XP setup prompts.
4. Once the drivers have been loaded, remove the diskette from the drive. Windows XP's setup will need to reboot the computer several times and this diskette will interfere with this process.
Once the Windows setup program has loaded the drivers for the drive from your diskette, it will be able to install Windows. (The same drivers loaded at setup time will be installed in Windows as well.)