Apple 8500 manual Initializing a hard disk, When do you need to initialize a hard disk?

Initializing a hard disk

Before you can use a new disk, the disk must be prepared so that the computer knows where to store information on the disk. This preparation is called initializing (or formatting) the disk.

When do you need to initialize a hard disk?

The hard disk inside your computer was initialized at the factory, so you shouldn’t need to initialize it. You need to initialize a hard disk only if one of the following is true:

mYou purchase a hard disk that has not been initialized at the factory.

mYour hard disk is damaged.

If a hard disk needs to be initialized, the disk’s icon does not appear on the desktop when you start up the computer using another disk.

If the hard disk you want to initialize is not the startup disk, you can use the Drive Setup program to initialize it. Drive Setup is located on the floppy disk labeled Disk Tools that came with your computer. If your computer came with a CD-ROM drive and you didn’t receive floppy disks, you can find Drive Setup on the CD-ROM disc that contains system software. For instructions, start Drive Setup and choose Drive Setup Guide from the Guide (h) menu.

If the hard disk you want to initialize is the startup disk, follow the instructions in this chapter. (First, start up from a CD-ROM disc or a floppy disk. Then follow the instructions in “How to Initialize a Hard Disk” later in this section.)

WARNING Initializing a disk erases any information that may be on it. Before you initialize a damaged disk, try to repair it as described in “Repairing a Damaged Disk” later in this chapter.

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