Using the Hard Drive

Your computer includes a removable IDE (integrated drive electronics) hard drive. The IDE hard drive can store the data and programs your computer uses. The drive plugs into a connector on the system board.

Although the storage capacity of hard drives varies according to model, any hard drive holds much more than a floppy disk does. Also, the computer reads and works with a hard drive more rapidly than with a floppy disk.

Once information is saved on a hard drive, it remains there until it is overwritten. Hard drive heads park automatically when you turn off your computer.

The hard drive that comes with your computer has already been formatted. Do not format the hard drive. Doing so destroys all data contained on the drive. If you need to format a new drive, or want to erase all data on your existing hard drive, refer to the manual for your operating system.

The drive in your computer maybe divided into partitions. The file allocation table enables the partitions to locate files and directories.Your computer recognizes each partition as a separate drive, for example, if a hard drive has two partitions, they could be recognized as drive C and drive D.

Although Windows 98 can work with FAT-16 or FAT-32 (a 32-bit file allocation table), your computer has been supplied with FAT-32. Older software that you may have (16-bit software) may require FAT-16 to run. Similarly Windows NT

4.0can use FAT-16 or NTFS (the Windows NT file system). There are utilities included with Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 to convert from FAT-16 to FAT- 32 or NTFS, see the documentation included with your operating system for more information.

Windows 2000 can use FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS.

It is not possible to convert from FAT-32 or NTFS to FAT-16 without reformatting your hard drive.

Using the Hard Drive 31