China DOS Union

Among all computer components, the hard disk plays a rather special role. It is not only related to the overall performance of the system, but all of the user's data is also stored on it.



　　So, how should a hard disk be initialized? And how should hard disk failures be solved when they occur?



　　I. Partitioning and formatting large hard disks



　　Hard disk partitioning refers to logically dividing the physical storage space of a hard disk, splitting a larger-capacity hard disk into multiple logical sections of different sizes. A hard disk can be divided into several partitions, and the number of partitions and the capacity of each partition are set by the user according to actual needs.



　　1. Partition basics



　　(1) Primary partition, extended partition, logical partition



　　A primary partition is the hard disk partition that contains the files and data necessary for the operating system to boot. If an operating system is to be installed on a hard disk, that hard disk must have a primary partition. An extended partition is a partition other than the primary partition, but it cannot be used directly; it must be further divided into several logical partitions before use. Logical partitions are the D, E, F... drives that we normally see in the operating system.



　　(2) Partition formats



　　At present, the partition formats mainly used by Windows include FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, etc. Among them, almost all operating systems support FAT16. However, hard disks using the FAT16 partition format have low actual utilization efficiency, and the maximum capacity of a single partition can only be 2GB, so this partition format is rarely used now.



　　FAT32 uses a 32-bit file allocation table, greatly enhancing its disk management capability and breaking through the FAT16 limit of only 2GB per partition. It is currently the most widely used partition format, and Windows 98/2000/XP/2003 all support it. Under normal circumstances, users can set all partitions to FAT32 when partitioning.



　　The advantages of NTFS are extremely outstanding security and stability. However, apart from Windows 2000/XP/2003, other operating systems cannot recognize this partition format.



　　When choosing a partition format, users need to select according to the type of operating system they use. Generally speaking, FAT32 is enough.



　　2. Hard disk partition planning



　　To partition a hard disk, you first need a partitioning plan. Nowadays hard disks are basically above 60GB. If such a “massive hard disk” is made into only one partition or split into many small ones, it will to some extent affect the hard disk's usability and performance. Different users have different actual needs, so partitioning plans also differ.



　　(1) Large hard disk partition plan for ordinary home use (80～120GB)



Drive Letter Capacity Partition Format Purpose



C 3～5GB FAT32 Install Windows 98



D 8～12GB FAT32 Install Windows XP



E 10～15GB FAT32 Store application software



F 10～20GB FAT32 Store game software



G 15～20GB FAT32 Store movies, songs



H Remaining space FAT32 Back up data and system



　　This home-use type is aimed at office work, entertainment, and gaming. You can install a dual-boot system with Windows 98 and Windows XP. Windows 98 has excellent compatibility and can be used specially for entertainment. Windows XP has strong stability and can be used for office work and study.



　　(2) Large hard disk partition plan for ordinary office use (60～120GB)



Drive Letter Capacity Partition Format Purpose



C 5～8GB NTFS Install Windows XP



D 12～20GB NTFS Office application software



E 10～12GB NTFS Store email



F 10～30GB NTFS Store office documents



G Remaining space NTFS Back up data and system



　　For office computers, security and stability are the most important, so it is recommended to install Windows XP or Windows 2000. In addition, enough space should be reserved to store various emails and office documents. Of course, a data and system backup partition is indispensable.



　　(3) Large hard disk partition plan for gamers (80～120GB)



Drive Letter Capacity Partition Format Purpose



C 3～5GB FAT32 Install Windows 98



D 8～12GB FAT32 Install Windows XP



E 10～20GB FAT32 Install RPG and other games



F 10～15GB FAT32 Install online games



G 15～20GB FAT32 Action games and CD images



H Remaining space FAT32 Movies, music, backup



　　For gamers, it is recommended to install a dual-boot system with Windows 98 and Windows XP, then install games by partition, and make CD images for games that require the disc to play, so as to avoid wear on the CD-ROM drive.



　　3. Large hard disk partitioning in practice



　　The universal edition of DM is a very powerful hard disk initialization tool. It can partition and format a large hard disk within one minute. Since the Fdisk included with Windows 98 has problems supporting large hard disks above 60GB, it is recommended to use the universal edition of DM to partition large hard disks.



　　(1) Starting DM



　　First, download the universal edition of DM, then extract all files in the DM archive onto a Windows 98 system boot floppy disk.



　　Insert the system boot disk into the floppy drive, start the computer, press the Del key to enter BIOS setup, and in “Advanced BIOS Features” set “First Boot Device” to Floppy, changing the first boot device to the floppy drive. After saving the BIOS settings, restart the computer. When the multi-configuration boot menu appears, select item 1, “Start computer with CD-ROM support”, to start the computer. At the prompt, type “DM” and press Enter to start the universal edition of DM. After DM starts, some explanatory text will appear first; just press Enter directly to enter the main DM interface. As shown in Figure 1.






　　(2) Partitioning a large hard disk with DM



　　Move the cursor to “(A)dvanced Options” and press Enter to enter the secondary interface. Move the cursor to “(A)dvanced Disk Installation”, then press Enter to enter partitioning mode. At this time, the hard disks currently installed in the system will be displayed on the right side under “Drive List”. If the system has multiple hard disks, after pressing Enter the user will be asked which hard disk to partition. Select the hard disk to be partitioned and just press Enter.



　　On the screen that appears, choose the partition format. Generally speaking, choose FAT32. Move the cursor to “Windows 95 OSR2，98，98SE，Me，2000”; after pressing Enter, the system will ask whether to use FAT32 format. If you choose “NO”, the hard disk will use FAT16. In the partition plan made earlier, we chose FAT32, so move the cursor to “Yes” and press Enter to continue.



　　Next comes the partition size setup screen. DM provides three partitioning plans. Since we need to customize partition sizes, we should choose “Option (C) Define your own”. After pressing Enter, you will enter the partition size setup screen. On this screen, you first need to set the size of drive C. According to the partition plan made earlier, enter the capacity value for drive C here (1GB=1024MB). The basic unit is MB, so if drive C is to be 3GB, you must enter “3072”, then press Enter. Then enter the capacity for drive D, press Enter, then enter the capacity for drive E... until all partitions are created. As shown in Figure 2.






　　After finishing the partition values, the final detailed partition result will be displayed. If you are not satisfied with the partitioning at this time, you can still adjust it using the keys indicated by the prompts. For example, use the “DEL” key to delete a partition and the “N” key to create a new partition.



　　After confirming that the partitions are correct, move the cursor to “Save and Continue” and press Enter to save the settings. In the prompt window that appears next, you will be asked whether to perform quick formatting; it is recommended to choose “(Y)ES”. In the next prompt window, you will be asked whether to format the partitions with the default cluster size; choose “(Y)ES”. On the confirmation screen that appears, press Enter to formally begin partitioning and formatting the hard disk. When the operation is finished, restart the computer.



　　(3) Formatting the hard disk



　　After partitioning the hard disk according to the partition plan, the system will prompt for a restart. After restarting the computer as instructed, you should format the hard disk. The Windows 98 boot disk includes the FORMAT formatting program.



　　Use the system boot floppy to boot the computer again. At the prompt, type the “Format C：” command and press Enter. The system will prompt that this will delete all data on drive C. Ignore it, press the “Y” key and then Enter to confirm. The program will then begin formatting drive C. After formatting is complete, the program will ask whether to assign a volume label to drive C. Just press Enter to confirm, and the program will automatically add a label to drive C. At this point, formatting of drive C is complete, and the drive can store data.



　　Using the same method, we need to format the other logical drives as well, and finally restart for use.



　　4. Hard disk partition adjustment in practice



　　If, during partitioning, the partition plan turns out to be unreasonable and the hard disk space distribution is not scientific, what should be done? Or after the computer has been used for a period of time, if you want to adjust partitions without damaging data on the hard disk, what should you do? Actually, all of this can be solved with Partition Magic.



　　At present, the latest version of Partition Magic is 8.0, which is available in both DOS and Windows versions. Below we will use the Windows version of Partition Magic 8.0 (hereinafter referred to as PQ) as an example to explain how to adjust hard disk partitions with this software.



　　(1) Increasing the capacity of a partition



　　Drive C is the partition most likely to run into a capacity crisis, so below we will take increasing the capacity of drive C as an example. After installing PQ in Windows, run “Partition Magic 8.0” from the Start menu to launch the software.



　　Since we want to increase the capacity of drive C, naturally we need to reduce the capacity of other partitions, such as the logical partitions D, E, E, etc. Suppose drive D now has 2GB of free space and drive E has 5GB of free space, and now you want to give 6GB from these two partitions to drive C. Then when using PQ, you must first give E's free space to D, and then D will give space to C. The specific operation is as follows:



　　After entering the main program interface, right-click drive E and choose the “Resize/Move” command. In the dialog box that appears, enter the amount of space you want drive E to free up in the “Free Space Before” field. This value should be less than or equal to the maximum free space value of drive E. As shown in Figure 3.






　　Note: When adjusting the capacity of a partition, PQ can free up space at the front of the partition, at the back, or partially at both ends. But now the intention is to free up space from drive E for drive D, so only the space freed at the front can be received by drive D. If instead you wanted to give E's space to the following drive F, you should free up space at the back of drive E.



　　Enter the amount of space to be freed, click the “OK” button, and return to the main interface. At this time, you will find an “unallocated area” between D and E; this is the space that E has given to D. Right-click drive D and choose the “Resize/Move” command. In the dialog box that appears, first change the number in “Free Space After” from its original XXX (that is, the “Free Space Before” value of drive E) to “0”, then enter the amount of space for drive D to free up in the “Free Space Before” field, and finally click the “OK” button.



　　Now there is a relatively large “unallocated area” between C and D. This is the space finally being given to C. Right-click drive C, choose the “Resize/Move” command, then set the number in “Free Space After” in the dialog box that appears to “0”. After saving the settings, drive C will take in all the space from D and E.



　　After confirming everything is correct, click the “Apply” button in the lower-right corner of the main interface and confirm, and the software will begin the actual adjustment. During the adjustment process, do not interrupt the operation or restart the computer.



　　(2) Merging two partitions



　　PQ can only merge two adjacent FAT or FAT32 partitions (FAT+FAT, FAT+FAT32, or FAT32+FAT32), or two adjacent NTFS partitions (NTFS+NTFS), and the two adjacent partitions must be on the same physical hard disk. Taking merging drive F into drive E as an example, first right-click drive E in the main interface and choose the “Merge” command. In the dialog box that appears, PQ will automatically analyze the partition formats before and after drive E and list several merge combinations, for example, “D becomes a folder of E”, “F becomes a folder of E”, “E becomes a folder of F”, etc.



　　Note: When PQ merges partitions, it first copies all data from one partition into the other partition. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that one of the partitions has enough free space to hold all the data from the other partition.



　　For example, drive E has 5GB of data and 2GB of free space; at this time drive F has 1GB of data and 2GB of free space. Then when merging these two partitions, you must choose “merge drive F into drive E”. Drive E has enough space to store the existing data on drive F, but drive F cannot store the data on drive E. If the free space in each of the two partitions to be merged cannot hold the other partition's data, then the merge cannot proceed. In this case, you can first increase the free space of one partition, and then consider merging.



　　After determining which merge method to use, create a folder in the “Merge Folder” box for the partition being merged, to store its data, so that after the merge is complete, the user will know that the data from the merged partition is stored in this folder. The folder name can be chosen freely; it is recommended to use English characters. After clicking the “OK” button to confirm, you can see in the partition list on the main interface that the two partitions have already been merged into one.



　　(3) Splitting one partition into two partitions



　　Using PQ to split a partition is very simple. First, you need to adjust the capacity of the partition to be split, freeing up unused space as an “unallocated area”. Then right-click the free space, choose the “Create” command, select the partition file format in the dialog box that appears, and click the “OK” button.



　　(4) Converting partition formats



　　When installing Windows 2000/XP, the system asks the user during setup whether to convert the system partition format to NTFS. Many beginners do not understand the characteristics of NTFS, and only after converting the partition format to NTFS do they discover that Windows 98 and DOS cannot recognize NTFS format. Although Windows 2000/XP also provides a simple NTFS-to-FAT32 conversion function, all of that comes at the cost of completely deleting the data on that partition. PQ, however, can convert an NTFS partition to FAT32 or FAT without destroying the original data.



　　Right-click the NTFS partition whose format needs to be converted, choose the “Convert” command, and then select as needed in the dialog box that appears.

II. Routine Hard Disk Maintenance



　　1. Hard disk capacity limit issues



　　Some old motherboards cannot support large-capacity hard disks; this is actually the so-called “hard disk capacity limit issue.” Here we will analyze the causes of capacity limits.



　　(1) Capacity limit issues



　　When engineers in earlier years designed magnetic storage products, they considered saving resources and ease of implementation, for example using smaller addressing ranges, and this planted a huge hidden danger for today’s hard disk capacity limit issues. Among the many capacity limit issues, the more famous one is the “8.4GB capacity barrier,” because lower-version BIOSes use 10 bits to represent the number of cylinders, 8 bits to represent the number of heads, and 6 bits to represent the number of sectors. As a result, the maximum capacity supported by the BIOS is only 512×63×255×1024=8.4GB, so some users using this kind of BIOS system will encounter the capacity problem mentioned above after replacing it with a large-capacity hard disk.



　　So, in order to break through the 8.4GB capacity barrier, engineers came up with a new Extended INT13 definition. Extended INT13 does not use the operating system’s registers to pass hard disk addressing parameters; it uses its own address packet. What is stored in the address packet is a 64-bit LBA address. If the hard disk supports LBA addressing, the low 28-bit address is passed directly to the ATA dialog box; if it does not support it, the operating system first converts the LBA address into a CHS address, then passes it to the ATA dialog box. In this way, on the basis of the ATA bus, the maximum capacity for CHS addressing can reach 136.9GB, while the maximum for LBA addressing is 137.4GB.



　　(2) Solving capacity limit issues



　　Based on the principle analysis above, for the problem of “old motherboards being unable to recognize large-capacity hard disks,” the most direct method is to update the BIOS.



　　Besides the motherboard BIOS flashing method mentioned above, users can also use some hard disk management tools to solve it. These tools can be found on the official websites of hard disk manufacturers. Users can choose the corresponding hard disk management tool according to their own needs. For example, EZ-Install (EZmaker.exe) in the Data LifeGuard package provided by Western Digital can play a certain role. According to the software’s readme: “When the user’s system does not support large-capacity hard disks, the EZ-Install program can be used to partition and format Western Digital large-capacity hard disks.”



　　2. Disk cleanup



　　After the system has been running for some time, many “junk” files will be produced. The reasons these “junk” files are generated are varied. For example, programs installed by the user may not be completely uninstalled, leaving behind some files, or temporary files generated by the operating system, etc. As time goes on, the number of “junk” files increases. This not only seriously affects system performance, but also affects the normal use of the system, so users need to clean up the disk regularly.



　　Disk cleanup actually means removing unnecessary files in the system, such as dynamic link library DLL files, temporary files downloaded from the Internet, “junk” files in the Recycle Bin, and so on. Generally speaking, it includes software installation files, software runtime files, leftover files after software uninstallation, registry files, Internet cache files, and various other temporary files.



　　Software installation files are produced because many programs, during installation, first decompress their own installation files into a temporary directory and then install from that directory. Generally speaking, after installation ends, these temporary files are automatically deleted. However, sometimes because of a crash, a sudden power failure, or flaws in the software’s own design, these files are not deleted and remain on your hard disk as “junk.” For Windows 98 systems, this “junk” is generally stored in the C:\Windows\Temp目录中，而对于Windows directory; for Windows 2000 systems, it is generally stored in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Setting\Temp; and for Windows XP systems, software installation files may be stored in either of the two directories introduced above.



　　There are many kinds of “junk” produced by software runtime files. For example, WinZip temporary files; some programs produce *.old and *.bak files. Some system error-checking software, such as Scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor, generates backup files of lost clusters while checking the hard disk, such as Chklist.*、*.chk、file????._dd. The system help files also produce some “temporary junk”; their extensions are often *.gid、*.fts、*.ftg. Some programs also generate temporary files with the suffix .tmp while running.



　　Leftover files from software uninstallation are “junk” files left in the registry or system directories after software is uninstalled, such as .dll and .ini files in the Windows\System directory. This part of the “junk” is the hardest to remove. Ordinary disk cleanup tools certainly cannot clean them up completely; you must rely on some relatively powerful disk tools to do it.



　　The “junk” in the registry is the most complex, and also the most abundant. Most Windows software will add more or less some information to the registry. Slimming down the registry is also not something ordinary disk cleanup tools can accomplish.



　　The above gives a brief introduction to the “junk” in the Windows operating system and the reasons it is produced. Some “junk” files can be handled with conventional disk cleanup programs, while some “junk” must be dealt with using powerful tools.



　　There are many methods for conventional disk cleanup; the most commonly used is the disk cleanup program that comes with the Windows operating system. If the user wants to clean a certain disk, all that is needed is to right-click that disk, choose the “Properties” command, and in the dialog box that appears, click the “Disk Cleanup” button, then directly click the “OK” button in the dialog box that appears.



　　In the disk cleanup program, besides the cleanup method introduced above, there are other options. The user can click the “Other Options” tab, where there are three options in total. As shown in Figure 4. The first is used to clean up system components. If the user feels that some installed system components are unnecessary, this option can be chosen to free more hard disk space; after clicking the “Clean Up” button, the Windows XP Components Wizard dialog box will pop up. The second is used to delete software programs installed by the user; after clicking the “Clean Up” button, the Add/Remove Programs dialog box under Windows XP will pop up.






　　The disk cleanup program provided by the Windows operating system is the disk cleanup program we use most often. It has the basic functions of disk cleanup, but its functions are not complete enough. For example, it cannot automatically remove extra dynamic link library DLL files or redundant entries in the system registry. In order to clean the disk more thoroughly without affecting system operation, we still need to rely on other disk programs to complete the job.



　　3. Disk defragmentation



　　Strictly speaking, hard disk fragmentation should be called file fragmentation. It is caused by files being scattered and stored in different places on the disk, rather than being stored continuously in contiguous clusters on the disk. Simply put, any program’s read/write operations on the disk may produce fragmentation on the disk. In daily use, users are constantly creating, deleting, and updating files on the disk. Over time, numerous file fragments accumulate on the disk, which seriously affects system performance, causes waste of disk space, and may even reduce the life of the disk.



　　Before defragmenting the hard disk, it is best to do disk cleanup first, and then close all application programs. This is because during defragmentation, the system will move many files. If a file is being used by an application program, defragmentation cannot proceed, or after defragmentation is completed, that program may encounter an error.



　　As for hard disk defragmentation methods, our first choice is the defragmentation program that comes with the Windows operating system, and then we can try other related defragmentation programs. Some third-party programs are much faster than the defragmentation program that comes with Windows, and the results are also quite good.



　　To perform hard disk defragmentation in Windows 2000/XP, the user can right-click the hard disk to be defragmented, choose the “Properties” command, click the “Tools” tab in the dialog box that appears, and then click the “Defragment Now” button in the “Defragmentation” option group.



　　What was introduced above is how to use the defragmentation program in Windows XP. In Windows 98, the hard disk defragmentation program is similar.



　　4. Uninstalling application programs



　　Earlier it was mentioned that the hardest thing to remove during disk cleanup is leftover files from software uninstallations, including some data left in the registry. These leftover files cannot be handled by conventional disk cleanup programs, so completely uninstalling a program becomes especially important.



　　At present, except for “green” software (“green software” refers to programs that can be used normally without installation), the installation of other software generally writes data to three places at the same time. The most important data is of course in the software installation directory, where the main data of that software system is stored. In addition, when software is installed, it will also write data into the Windows system directory, for example importing .dll files into the C:\Windows\System目录内导入.dll文件等。最后，许多软件在安装时还会向Windows directory, etc. Finally, many programs also write data into the Windows registry during installation. This part of the data is the most hidden, and ordinary users cannot easily find it, so it is even more difficult to clean this data thoroughly.



　　Since we know that software writes data to these three locations during installation, then theoretically, if we want to completely uninstall the software, we can start from there. Because of the complexity and importance of the Windows system directory and registry, if this part of the data is not removed correctly, it may instead cause the Windows system to stop functioning properly or even crash. We use this order to uninstall software: “the software’s own uninstaller → Windows Add/Remove Programs → third-party dedicated uninstaller.” The first two methods are more direct and can uninstall relatively standardized application programs, but for some non-standard software, a dedicated uninstaller is needed. At present there are many programs with this kind of function, and the most famous is probably CleanSweep from Norton.



　　Start CleanSweep. On the program’s main interface, options such as “CleanUp,” “Internet,” and “Programs” are provided, and each option corresponds to several related options. If the user wants to uninstall all programs in a certain program group in the Start menu, just choose the “CleanUp” option, then click the “Uninstall Wizard” option.



　　Choose “CleanUp→Uninstall Wizard,” and then the corresponding dialog box will appear. In that dialog box, we can select the program to be uninstalled from the Start menu, program group, or desktop. After selecting the uninstall target, click the “Next” button, and CleanSweep will begin analyzing the uninstall program, then prompt that it is ready to begin uninstalling.



　　Next, the system asks you to choose a specified path to back up the program that is about to be uninstalled. Under normal circumstances, the default path given by the program can be used. If the uninstall program is very large, another path can be set. CleanSweep’s backup function is so that after the user uninstalls a program, it can be restored again when needed. Of course, if you feel the uninstalled program is already completely useless, you can also use CleanSweep’s other methods to delete it thoroughly, meaning even the backup is deleted. After specifying the path, CleanSweep will ask the user whether confirmation is needed for every item deleted; generally choose the “NO” option.



　　CleanSweep displays information about the uninstall program. Click the “View” button to see the specific files to be uninstalled, and click the “Finish” button to begin uninstalling.



　　III. Troubleshooting hard disk boot failure



　　After starting the computer, if you do not see the Windows startup screen, but instead get the prompt “Non-System disk or disk error，replace disk and press a key to reboot” (non-system disk or disk error), this is a common hard disk fault—unable to boot the system.



　　(I) Hard faults causing the hard disk to fail to boot



　　A hard disk hard fault refers to a hard disk fault caused by hardware problems in the connection, power supply, or the hard disk itself. When it is found that the hard disk cannot boot, the first step is to start from the hardware.



　　In most hard disk boot failure cases, incorrect hard disk connection or settings are the most common causes. Therefore, after encountering a boot failure, you can press the Del key during computer startup to enter BIOS setup, move the cursor to the “Standard CMOS Features” option on the main interface, and press Enter to enter the secondary setup screen. On this screen, pay attention to whether you can see the hard disk installed in the current system on the IDE port. For example, “WDC WD800BB-32CCB0” in the figure below is the hard disk in the system. As shown in Figure 5.






　　If you can see the hard disk model, and the model does not appear as garbled text, then you can select that hard disk and press Enter to enter the hard disk property settings screen, and set both the “IDE Primary Master” and “Access Mode” options to “Auto.” Move the cursor to the “IDE HDD Auto-Detection” option and press Enter so that the motherboard can automatically detect the hard disk. If the corresponding hard disk information can be displayed at this time, such as Capacity, Cylinder, etc., then it means the physical connection of the hard disk and the BIOS settings are correct.



　　If in “Standard CMOS Features” you cannot see the hard disk drive letter and related information, or the hard disk model characters become garbled—for example, it should originally be “IC35L060AVVAWA07-O,” but now becomes “IC＃5L0＆0AVFA 7-0”—and when you check the hard disk parameters, there is nothing there either, then generally speaking there are two possible causes:



　　1. Hard disk data cable or power cable problems



　　For today’s large hard disks, 80-wire data cables are used. When the hard disk cannot be seen in BIOS, or the hard disk model appears as garbled text, first consider replacing it with another data cable known to be good, and carefully check the contact between the data cable and the hard disk interface and the motherboard IDE interface. Check whether the motherboard IDE interface and the hard disk data interface have broken pins, bent pins, and so on. If the problem is indeed caused by the data cable or power connection, then after replacing the data cable and eliminating poor contact, the hard disk will generally be visible in BIOS, and at that point the hard disk will be able to boot.



　　2. Problem with the hard disk itself



　　If after replacing the data cable and ruling out poor contact you still cannot see the hard disk, or the hard disk model appears as garbled text, then the only thing left is to use substitution testing to check whether the hard disk itself has failed. The specific method is: connect the faulty hard disk to another computer that is working normally, and see whether the hard disk can work. If it can work normally, then it means the hard disk itself has no problem; if the hard disk still cannot be detected, then it means the hard disk has developed a serious fault, and it is recommended to return it to the manufacturer for repair.



　　Note: If multiple hard disks are installed in the system, then it is also necessary to check the hard disk jumper settings, to avoid the system being unable to detect the hard disk because of incorrect jumper settings. The method for setting hard disk jumpers can be found in the manual.



　　When this kind of hard disk hard fault causes the hard disk to fail to boot, the fault is mostly in the data cable connection or the IDE interface. The possibility of the hard disk itself failing is not great, so generally the fault can be quickly found by replugging the hard disk data cable or switching to another IDE port for substitution testing. In addition, whether the hard disk type in BIOS is correct directly affects the normal use of the hard disk. Current machines all support the “IDE Auto Detect” function, which can automatically detect the hard disk type. For ordinary users, it is recommended to use this function to set hard disk parameters automatically.



　　(II) Soft faults causing the hard disk to fail to boot



　　A hard disk soft fault means that there is actually no problem with the hard disk itself; rather, the fault appears because certain settings or parameters have been damaged. When it has been confirmed by the methods described earlier that the hard disk has no hard fault, then you can proceed from the following aspects.



　　1. Damage to system files causing failure to boot



　　If no operating system is installed on the hard disk, or the operating system’s boot files are damaged, then the phenomenon of the hard disk being unable to boot will also appear. Many computer beginners think they are being clever and delete files in the root directory of drive C or move them elsewhere, not realizing that doing so will damage the system boot files and make the system unable to boot!



　　How can you determine whether the boot program in the system has been damaged? Take a boot floppy disk or CD and boot the system. If under DOS you can see logical partitions such as C, D, E... on the hard disk and the files inside those partitions, then it proves that only the boot program has been damaged. At this time, reinstalling the operating system will solve the problem.



　　2. Damage to the hard disk boot area causing failure to boot



　　A hard disk is an external storage device using magnetic media. On each surface of its platters, a number of concentric circles are divided at a certain magnetic density interval around the rotating axis; these are tracks (Track). Each track is further divided into a number of sectors (Sector), and data is stored on the hard disk by sector.



　　(1) What is the hard disk master boot sector



　　The first sector of the hard disk is reserved as the master boot sector. It is located at track 0, cylinder 0, sector 1 of the entire hard disk, and includes the hard disk master boot record MBR (Main Boot Record) and the partition table DPT (Disk Partition Table). The function of the master boot record is to check whether the partition table is correct and determine which partition is the boot partition, and when the program ends, load that partition’s startup program (that is, the operating system boot sector) into memory for execution. As for the partition table, many people know that it begins with 80H or 00H as the starting marker and ends with 55AAH as the ending marker, with a total of 64 bytes, located at the very end of this sector.



　　It is worth mentioning that the MBR is generated by partitioning programs (for example, Fdisk.exe), and may differ among operating systems. Precisely because this master boot record is easy to write, the hard disk master boot area often becomes the target of virus attacks, and is thus tampered with or even damaged.



　　(2) Symptoms after the hard disk boot area is damaged



　　After the master boot area record is damaged, when the system starts, prompt messages such as “Non-System disk or disk error，replace disk and press a key to reboot” (non-system disk or disk error), “Error Loading Operating System” (error loading the DOS boot record), or “No ROM Basic，System Halted” (cannot enter ROM Basic, system halted) often appear. In relatively serious cases, no information will appear at all.



　　(3) Repairing the hard disk master boot area



　　If the system shows the phenomenon that the hard disk cannot boot, and none of the methods described earlier can solve the problem, then it can be judged that there is a problem with the hard disk master boot area. Below are several common repair methods:



　　Repair the hard disk master boot area through Fdisk. After booting the system with a Windows 98 boot disk, enter the command “Fdisk /mbr” at the prompt and press Enter. Adding the “/mbr” parameter to FDISK can overwrite the code area of the master boot area record, but does not rebuild the primary partition table. Therefore it is only suitable when the master boot area record has been damaged by a boot-area virus or the master boot record code has been lost, but the primary partition table itself has not been damaged.



　　Note: The “Fdisk /mbr” command is not suitable for removing all boot viruses, so it should be used with caution.



　　Repair the hard disk master boot area through Fixmbr. The Fixmbr tool is specially used to reconstruct the master boot sector. This software only modifies the master boot area and does not write to other sectors. Its basic command format is as follows:



　　Fixmbrprivel



　　/A Active DOS partition //activate the primary DOS partition



　　/D Display MBR //display master boot area contents



　　/P Display partition //display the structure of the DOS partition



　　/Z Zero MBR //zero out the master boot area



　　/H Help //help information



　　After booting the system with a boot disk, run Fixmbr directly. It will check the MBR structure; if it finds the system abnormal, it will prompt whether to repair it. If you answer “Yes,” it will search partitions. After finding the corresponding partition, the system will prompt whether to modify the MBR; answering “Yes” starts automatic repair. By default, Fixmbr can search all existing partitions and complete the modification. If the final result is found to be incorrect, you can use the “/Z” parameter to clear the result and then restart, and in this way it can be restored to the initial state.



　　Repair the master boot area record through “Jiangmin Hard Disk Repair King.” First download the image file of “Hard Disk Repair King” and the “HD.exe” file from Jiangmin’s website, then use “HD.exe” to write the image into the key disk of Jiangmin Antivirus King 2003.



　　Use this floppy disk to boot the computer. At the prompt, type “JMHDFIX” and press Enter to enter the main interface of Hard Disk Repair King. Press the F1 key to enter the “Hard Disk Repair Tool” dialog box, and check the hidden sectors of the hard disk to see whether the master boot information at side 0 cylinder 0 sector 1 is normal. If in side 0 cylinder 0 sector 1 of the hard disk the key code (“80”, “55 AA”) cannot be found, then the hard disk itself will not be able to boot, and even after booting from a floppy disk it still cannot enter the hard disk. At this time, you can press the “PgDn” and “PgUp” keys to search for the key code in the hidden sectors of the hard disk. If the key code still exists, the program will show flashing red “80” and “55AA” in the table and prompt the user; below that the prompt “F9 = Save To Side 0 Cylinder 0 Sector 1 !!!” will also appear.



　　Press the F9 key, and the program will display a warning message. After pressing the “Y” key to confirm, the original hard disk master boot area record that was found can be written back over side 0 cylinder 0 sector 1 of the hard disk, and then the hard disk can be rebooted to restore its boot function.



　　Note: When the hard disk has not actually developed a boot area error, do not casually use tool software to repair the boot area. Especially tool software like “Jiangmin Hard Disk Repair Tool.” If it is used on an intact hard disk, some unexpected problems may occur. Therefore, do not use this kind of tool unless absolutely necessary.

IV. Repairing hard disk bad sectors



　　“Bad track” comes from the small-capacity hard disks of more than ten years ago. At that time hard disks had no system reserved area inside. Before leaving the factory, the manufacturer would scan the tracks containing bad sectors on the hard disk, record their positions in a small table, and paste it on the hard disk casing labeled “Bad track list”, which is the commonly mentioned “bad track table”. On this “bad track table”, the bad track of a certain head and cylinder would be listed.



　　1. Classification of hard disk bad sectors



　　Hard disk bad sectors can be divided into two kinds: logical bad sectors and physical bad sectors. Logical bad sectors, commonly called “soft bad sectors”, are caused by software installation or usage errors and generally do not cause too much harm to the hard disk itself. Physical bad sectors refer to physical damage to the hard disk tracks. Since the gap between the head and the disk is only 0.015～0.025μm, such a tiny gap means that if the hard disk is subjected to severe jolting during transportation, physical bad sectors may be produced. Besides that, human error can also ruin a hard disk. Some careless people do not tighten the hard disk screws during installation, planting hidden trouble for later use. Vibration while the hard disk is working can also cause physical bad sectors.



　　2. Symptoms after bad sectors appear on a hard disk



　　When bad sectors appear on a hard disk: reading a certain file or running a certain software program often results in errors, or it takes a very long time before the operation succeeds, during which the hard disk keeps reading and makes harsh noises—this means that some sectors containing data on the hard disk have gone bad; at startup the system cannot boot from the hard disk, though after booting from a floppy you can switch to the hard disk drive letter, but cannot enter it, and using the SYS command to transfer the system also cannot succeed. This situation is rather serious, because the hard disk's boot sector is very likely at fault; blue screens appear frequently for no reason during normal computer use; partitioning and formatting operations cannot be completed.



　　3. Checking whether the hard disk already has bad sectors



　　To check whether the hard disk has bad sectors, you can use relevant tool software for testing, for example the system's own “SCANDISK” disk scanning program. However, this software scans rather slowly, so it is recommended to use the “Xiaolvyuan Hard Disk Bad Sector Detection Software” for scanning. “Xiaolvyuan Hard Disk Bad Sector Detection Software” can test hard disks of various brands on the market.



　　(1) Making a boot disk



　　Run the downloaded program, insert a floppy disk into the floppy drive, then run the program and click the “Create Tool Disk” button in the program's main interface to generate a tool disk for detecting hard disk bad sectors.



　　Note: At present this software can only generate the tool disk on a floppy disk, so a floppy drive is required for use.



　　(2) Detecting the hard disk



　　Start the computer, press the Del key to enter BIOS setup, set “First Boot Device” to Floppy in “Advanced BIOS Features”, changing the first boot device to the floppy drive. After saving the BIOS settings, restart the computer. Then use the tool disk just created to boot the system, and the program will run automatically after startup.



　　If only one hard disk is installed in the system, move the cursor to the “Comprehensive Hard Disk Detection” option and press Enter to begin a full scan of the hard disk. When the scan is finished, you can see the related bad sector information.



　　If multiple hard disks are installed in the system, you can choose the “Advanced Hard Disk Detection” option in the main interface. After entering the advanced detection screen, first enter “0” at “Start Position”, press Enter, then enter “100” at “End Position”, and after pressing Enter, input the serial number of the hard disk to be tested at “Current Hard Disk”. For example, to test the second hard disk, enter “2”, and press Enter to begin detection. As shown in Figure 6.






　　4. Repairing logical bad sectors on a hard disk



　　For hard disks, repairing logical bad sectors is relatively simple. And when software detects bad sectors on a hard disk, they should first be treated as logical bad sectors. If the bad sectors still remain, then use the method for repairing physical bad sectors.



　　(1) Repairing logical bad sectors through the disk scanner



　　For logical bad sectors, the repair method is relatively simple. For users of Windows 98, click the menu item “Start→Programs→Accessories→System Tools→ScanDisk”. In the dialog box that appears, select the partition to be scanned, check the “Thorough” and “Automatically fix errors” options, and click the “Start” button.



　　For users of Windows 2000/XP, you can double-click “My Computer”, right-click the partition to be repaired, choose the “Properties” command, click the “Tools” button in the dialog box that appears, and click the “Check Now” button in the “Error-checking” group. In the dialog box that appears, check “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”, then click the “Start” button.



　　Through the above methods, the problem of logical bad sectors on the hard disk can generally be solved. If Windows cannot be entered normally, you can use a boot floppy to start the computer, then type “Scandisk X：” after the prompt (X being the specific hard disk drive letter) to scan and repair the hard disk. Once bad sectors are found, the program will ask whether to “Fixit”; choose “Yes” and it will start repairing.



　　(2) Repairing logical bad sectors through DM



　　Using the disk scanning program that comes with Windows to repair logical bad sectors on a hard disk will not harm data safety, but the program's ability is limited. If bad sectors still exist after repair through the disk scanner, then you can consider repairing them through DM.



　　Before using DM to repair bad sectors on a hard disk, first back up the data on the hard disk to other media. DM will delete all data on the hard disk when repairing bad sectors, so the data must be backed up first.



　　First download the universal edition of DM from the Internet and make a DM boot floppy, then run DM and enter its main interface. Move the cursor to “(M)aintenance Options”, then press Enter. In the secondary interface that appears, move the cursor to “(U)tilities”. After pressing Enter, the system will ask you to choose the hard disk to be repaired. Make your selection as needed, then press Enter to enter the secondary interface, move the cursor to “Zero Fill Drive”, and after pressing Enter a red warning message will appear. Press Alt+C to confirm, then choose “Yes” to begin “zero-filling” the hard disk. After the operation is completed, repartition the hard disk. This operation can not only repair most hard disk bad sectors, but also does not cause damage to the hard disk like low-level formatting does.



　　5. Repairing physical bad sectors on a hard disk



　　As for physical bad sectors, ordinary users simply cannot repair them. The only thing we can do is use some disk software to separately make them into one partition and hide it, so that the heads no longer read it. This can to some extent prolong the life of the hard disk. It must be especially emphasized that when using a hard disk with bad sectors, you must always keep your data backed up, because after one bad sector appears, more bad sectors may follow one after another.



　　(1) Hiding physical bad sectors with Disk Genius



　　After downloading Disk Genius from the Internet, make a system boot floppy disk according to the method described earlier, then extract the downloaded archive and copy the main program of Disk Genius, “Diskgen.exe”, to that floppy disk. Of course, if there is no floppy disk, the software can also be stored on the hard disk or other media.



　　Boot the computer with this floppy disk. At the prompt, type the command “Diskgen” and press Enter to start the program. After entering the main interface, press the Alt key to activate the function menu and choose the menu command “Tools→Hard Disk Surface Test”. At this time the system will display the prompt “Test the current partition hard disk surface? The bad sector list will be saved in BACDSECT.TXT”. Choose “Scan” and press Enter. A scan mode selection dialog box will then appear. The scan modes are by sector, by track, and by cylinder. It is recommended to choose “by sector”. After clicking the “by sector” option to scan, a scan progress dialog box will appear. When bad sectors are scanned, a “gezi, gezi” sound will be heard. After completion, a prompt will appear telling whether there are bad sectors and how many.



　　Restart Windows, back up all data on the hard disk to other media, then open the BACDSECT.TXT file on the floppy disk. This file contains a detailed record of the scan results just obtained. Write them down with a pen, because this information will be used in the following operations.



　　Boot the computer again with the floppy disk. At the prompt, type the command “Diskgen” and press Enter to enter the main interface. Press Alt to activate the function menu, choose the menu command “Partition→Delete Partition”, and delete all the original partitions. Then choose the menu command “Partition→Create Partition” (or create an extended partition), and according to the bad sector positions recorded in the BADSECT.TXT file, separately allocate 10～20MB of space before and after the bad sectors as one partition (this is done to reserve some room for possible spreading of the bad sectors).



　　Note: During the partitioning process, if there is a mistake, the software provides a “Reload” command, which can restore the hard disk to its initial partition state. Because all operations in this software before saving are only stored in memory, you can use repeated partitioning to control the size of the partition containing bad sectors within the specified range.



　　Finally, press Alt to activate the function menu, press Tab to select the partition containing the bad sectors, and choose the menu command “Partition→Hide” to hide the partition containing the bad sectors. As shown in Figure 7.






　　After all partitions have been made, save the settings and restart the computer, then finally use the Format command included with Windows to format all partitions. At this point, the work of hiding the bad sectors is completely finished.



　　(2) Repairing bad sectors with “Xiaolvyuan Hard Disk Bad Track Repair Software”



　　“Xiaolvyuan Hard Disk Bad Track Repair Software” can intelligently repair hard disk bad sectors. This software also needs a boot floppy disk to be made before it can be used.



　　Run the downloaded program, insert a floppy disk into the floppy drive, then run the program and click the “Create Tool Disk” button in the main interface to generate a tool disk for detecting hard disk bad sectors. Boot the computer with this floppy disk, start the program, and choose the “Intelligent Bad Sector Repair” option in the main interface to begin repairing the hard disk bad sectors.



　　When using this software to repair bad sectors, it is recommended to first back up the data on the hard disk, and before repairing, use the software to perform a full bad sector scan, then carry out the repair.



　　V. Troubleshooting damage to hard disk “track 0”



　　“Track 0” is in a very important position on the hard disk. The hard disk's master boot record area (MBR) is located at this position. The MBR is located at cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1 of the hard disk, where the hard disk master boot program and hard disk partition table are stored. In the total 512-byte hard disk master boot record sector, 446 bytes belong to the hard disk master boot program, 64 bytes belong to the hard disk partition table (DPT), and two bytes (55 AA) are the partition end marker. From this it can be seen that once “track 0” is damaged, the hard disk's master boot program and partition table information will be severely damaged, causing the hard disk to fail to boot itself. Damage to “track 0” also counts as a hard disk bad sector problem, but because its location is so important, once it is damaged, the consequences are serious.



　　1. Symptoms after hard disk “track 0” is damaged



　　When hard disk “track 0” is damaged: the system self-test can pass, but at startup partitions are lost or the C drive directory is lost; the hard disk makes regular “geezh... geezh” seek sounds; when running SCANDISK to scan drive C, a red “B” appears in the first cluster; partitioning software such as Fdisk cannot find the hard disk, and when using lower versions of DM to partition, the program “hangs” at track 0; when doing “Format C：”, the screen prompts that track 0 is bad or endlessly executes the read command “Track 0 Bad”.



　　2. The idea for solving damage to hard disk “track 0”



　　The heads always use “track 0” as the reference point for seeking. If “track 0” is physically damaged, the head positioning mechanism will fail to find “track 0”, causing the hard disk to fail to boot itself. Therefore, when solving the problem of hard disk “track 0” damage, the usual method is to “replace 0 with 1”, that is, when repartitioning the hard disk, redefine “track 0” by defining the original “track 1” as the logical “track 0”, thereby bypassing the damaged original “track 0”.



　　3. Solving hard disk “track 0” damage through tool software



　　(1) Solving it with the universal edition of DM



　　First download the universal edition of DM from the Internet and make a DM boot floppy disk, then run DM and enter its main interface. In the main interface, press Alt+M to enter DM's advanced mode. Move the cursor to “(E)dit/View partitions”, and after pressing Enter, the program will ask you to choose the hard disk to be repaired. Select the hard disk and press Enter to enter that hard disk's partition view screen. As shown in Figure 8.






　　Select partition No. 1 in the partition list box. At this time, the partition information bar above will display that partition's information, such as partition format, capacity, starting cylinder, ending cylinder, etc. At this point you need to remember the “0” in the starting cylinder and the ending cylinder number “2489”. Keep the cursor on partition No. 1, then press the Del key to delete that partition. On the confirmation screen that appears, choose “Yes” and press Enter, and partition No. 1 will be deleted.



　　Keep the cursor on partition No. 1, then press the Ins key to add a partition. In the partition type screen that appears, choose the “DOS-FAT32” option. After pressing Enter, you will reach the key step of this repair—“Select Entry Mode”. On this screen, you must choose the “(C)ylinders” option. After pressing Enter, you will enter the capacity input screen. On this screen, capacity is entered by cylinder. For the first partition (that is, drive C), it always starts from cylinder 1, but now we must change the previous “0” to “1”. As for the ending cylinder number of that partition, there is no need to modify it; just fill it in according to the ending cylinder number of the previous partition No. 1.



　　After repartitioning partition No. 1, return to the partition screen, move the cursor to “Save and Continue” to save the settings, then press Esc to exit DM, and finally restart the computer according to the prompt.



　　After restarting the computer, first use the “IDE HDD Auto-Detection” function in the BIOS to reset the hard disk parameters, then format drive C. At this point, the repair work is finished.



　　(2) Solving it with PCTools



　　The tool software PCTools is a utility package designed for PCs by the American company Central Point. The DE (DiskEdit) tool in this package can be used to repair hard disks with damaged “track 0”.



　　First download PCTools 9.0 to the local hard disk. Since this software package is relatively large and cannot run on hard disks in FAT32 format, it is best to extract the downloaded archive and then burn the entire PCTools package to a CD. Of course, if the hard disk has a FAT16 partition, PCTools can also be placed and run there.



　　Prepare a system boot floppy disk (or boot CD), put the boot disk into the floppy drive and boot the system (note: the CD-ROM driver must be loaded), then insert the previously prepared CD containing PCTools, enter the directory on the CD where DE is located, and run DE. After entering the DE main interface, an information window will first pop up, prompting that DE is currently running in read-only mode. Press Enter, and the program will prompt the user to choose the file to open. At this time, just press Enter directly to open the default document. After opening the document, press the Atl key to activate the function menu and choose the menu command “Options(选项)→Configuration(配置)”. After pressing Enter, you will enter the configuration window. Use the “Tab” key to move the cursor to the “Read Only” option, then press the space bar to cancel the “√” in front of that option, and finally choose “OK” to save the settings.



　　Return to the main interface, choose the menu command “Select(选择)→Drive(设备)”, then in the drive list that appears move the cursor to “Physical”, press the space bar to select it, select “Hard Disk” in the “Drives” field, and press Enter.



　　After returning to the main interface, choose the menu command “Select→Partition Table”. Select and enter it, and the hard disk partition table information will appear. If the hard disk has multiple partitions, then partition 1 is drive C, and this partition starts from cylinder 0 of the hard disk. Simply change the “Beginning Cylinder” of partition 1 from 0 to 1. As shown in Figure 9.






　　After making the modification, please press Enter. The software will then ask whether to save the changes; choose “Save” and press Enter to confirm. Then press Esc to exit. Restart the computer, press Del to enter the BIOS setup screen, let the BIOS automatically check the hard disk settings, and you should see that the hard disk's “Cylinder” count is one less than before. Save and exit, repartition, then format, and the repair is complete.



　　VI. Troubleshooting damage to the hard disk partition table



　　When partitioning a hard disk through Fdisk or other partition tools, the partitioning software creates a 64-byte partition table at cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1 of the hard disk. The partition table is extremely important. It specifies how many partitions there are on the hard disk, the starting and ending sectors of each partition, their sizes, whether they are active partitions, and other important information. Once the hard disk partition table is damaged, the operating system will be unable to recognize the hard disk partitions and will treat the hard disk as an unpartitioned “bare disk”. As a result, not only can the system not run, but even the data already stored on the hard disk will no longer be recognized by the system. Although damage to the partition table is only a kind of hard disk “soft failure” and not a true physical hard disk fault, because a hard disk often stores a large amount of important data, the consequences caused by this kind of “soft failure” are very serious!



　　1. Repairing it with “Jiangmin Hard Disk Repair King”



　　After the partition table is damaged, the most common error prompt is: “Invalid Partition Table”. For partition table failures, repair can be done with “Jiangmin Hard Disk Repair King”.



　　First download the image file of “Hard Disk Repair King” and the “HD.exe” file from Jiangmin's website, then use “HD.exe” to write the image into the key disk of Jiangmin Antivirus King 2003. Boot the computer with this floppy disk, type “JMHDFIX” at the prompt, and press Enter to enter the main interface of Hard Disk Repair King.



　　In the main interface, press F2 to enter the “System Test and Auto Repair” screen. At this time the program will automatically detect the hard disk partition table. If the partition table is damaged, the screen will display:



　　Hard Disk Partition Table - Error!!!



　　Fix Hard Disk Partition Table or Sector (Y/N)?



　　The rough meaning is: the hard disk partition table is wrong; repair the hard disk partition table or drive C boot area? Press “Y” to repair, press “N” to exit.



　　After pressing “Y”, the screen displays:



　　Insert a formatted diskette into drive A， Pressed "Y" to save "error" Partition table floppy filename HDPT.VIR， "N" to exit continue (Y/N)。



　　The rough meaning is: please insert a floppy disk so that the bad boot area information can be backed up, with the filename HDPT.VIR. Insert the floppy disk and press “Y” to continue, or press “N” to exit.



　　After inserting a floppy disk and pressing “Y”, the screen displays:



　　Hard disk Partition table or boot sector fixed OK!!!



　　Fixing ......



　　Note: At this time KV3000 is repairing the partition table of drive C. Do not interrupt the operation. After a while, if the following appears on the screen:



　　OK!OK!OK!



　　Press any key to return ......



　　then it means the operation of rebuilding the partition table has succeeded. Press any key to exit. After restarting the computer, if you can enter partitions such as C and D, the repair is successful.



　　2. Repairing it with Disk Genius



　　After downloading Disk Genius to the local hard disk from the Internet, extract the downloaded archive, then copy the main program of Disk Genius, “Diskgen.exe”, to the boot floppy disk. Of course, if there is no floppy disk, the software can also be stored on the hard disk or other media.



　　After booting the system with this floppy disk, start Disk Genius at the prompt, press Alt to activate the function menu, and choose the menu command “Tools→Rebuild Partition Table”. At this time, the program will prompt “It is recommended to back up the partition table first”. After clicking the “Continue” button, Disk Genius provides two ways to rebuild the partition table, namely “Automatic” and “Interactive”. The automatic mode preserves every partition found during the search and is suitable for most situations; the interactive mode prompts for each partition found, and the user chooses whether to keep it. When the partition table rebuilt by automatic mode is incorrect, interactive mode can be used to search again.



　　During the process of rebuilding the partition table, the partitions found will be displayed on the screen in time. But they will not be saved to disk immediately, so the user can search repeatedly until the partition table is correctly established and only then save it. Disk Genius can repair a large portion of partition table failures, but for hard disks with more severe damage, the only choice is to repartition the hard disk.



　　Although users can repair a hard disk in various ways after a failure occurs, for users, it is even more important to develop good usage habits in daily life. Only timely backup of important data can avoid even greater losses.

Good, bump, please pack it up for download

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Thanks, moderator, got it already

So much content... after learning all this, you could start a hard disk seminar. But I still have to read it.

A quite classic under-DOS hard disk partitioning tutorial, giving it another review

I learned a lot from reading this.

Read it, learned from it, collected it....

INTEL motherboards have no longer supported Win98 starting from 915, so with this kind of motherboard don't even think about partitioning for Win98. If you want to play with it, you can only make do with a virtual machine.