Maintaining Your System
Your system and its components need regular maintenance. Some programs that help maintain the integrity of the hard disks in your system come as part of your operating system. The following sections contain information about maintaining your system.
Maintaining the hard disk
Hard disks need regular maintenance because running the system software divides files, creates spaces between data, and otherwise decreases hard disk performance. Windows 95 and Windows 98 provide maintenance tools that help prevent possible hard disk problems. The two most important tools for hard disk maintenance are the programs ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter. Windows NT has a similar maintenance tool called Check Disk. To use these programs, consult your Windows Help or the operating system documentation.
Hard disk partition informationThe hard drive shipped with your Windows 95 or Windows 98 system is partitioned using file allocation table (FAT)32.
The first 2 gigabytes (GB) of the hard drive shipped with your Windows NT system are partitioned as FAT16. The rest of the space on the drive is partitioned as NT file system (NTFS). Any other hard drives shipped from the factory with your system are partitioned as NTFS.
FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS are different methods the operating system uses to locate files on a hard drive. NTFS supports large drive sizes, but NTFS partitions cannot be viewed with Microsoft® disk operating system
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