Chapter 3

Preparing a Hard Disk for Use

If your Equity 386 has a hard disk, follow the instructions in this chapter to prepare the hard disk before using it for the first time. This chapter describes how to do the following:

Use the FDISK command to create a primary partition and an extended partition on the hard disk, and then designate the extended partition as one or more logical drives

Use the SELECT command to format the primary partition and to copy the MS-DOS operating system files to the hard disk

Use the COPY command to copy the remaining MS-DOS files to the hard disk

Use the FORMAT command to format the extended partition.

These instructions describe how to prepare the entire hard disk for use by MS-DOS. If MS-DOS is the only operating system you plan to use, follow the instructions in this chapter to partition and format the entire hard disk for MS-DOS. Otherwise, follow these guidelines:

If you are not using MS-DOS at all, prepare the hard disk with the operating system you are using.

Preparing a Hard Disk for Use 3-1