Study Lab

Don't miss the Study Lab materials found on the CD accompanying this book. Each Study Lab is tailored to the individual chapters in this book, meaning that you'll quickly be able to determine which topics you understand well enough to pass the exam and which topics need more study. The Study Labs are presented in printable PDF format so that you can take them with you to study at work, on the road, or even in your car just before test time!

The Absolute Minimum

• An ATA/IDE, SATA, or SCSI hard drive isn't ready for use until its surface has been partitioned and formatted.

• Windows 9x and Me use separate Fdisk and Format programs to perform these tasks .

• Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP can partition and format hard disks during installation.

• On installed systems, Windows NT 4.0 uses the Disk Administrator to partition and format hard disks, whereas Windows 2000 and XP use the Disk Management portion of the Microsoft Management Console to partition and format hard disks.

• FAT32 is the recommended file system for use with Windows 9x and Me, unless the drives will be accessed by MS-DOS or early Windows 95 releases, which support only FAT16. NTFS 5 is the recommended file system for use with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

• Windows NT 4.0 supports NTFS 5 only if Service Pack 4 or later is installed.

• A Windows 9x or Me with Windows 2000 or XP dual-boot system must use FAT32 or FAT16 for any drives to be accessed by both operating systems because Windows 9x/Me can't use any version of NTFS.

• Primary partitions are intended for use in starting a system, and extended partitions contain one or more logical drives that cannot be used to boot the system, although they can hold programs and data.

• A hard disk can hold up to four primary partitions, but only one extended partition.

• The default operation of Fdisk in Windows 9x/Me creates primary partitions only; the Fdisk menu must be used to create extended partitions.

• In Windows 9x/Me, hard disk drive letters follow a fixed sequence based on primary and extended partitions on primary and additional drives.

• If additional hard disks are installed in Windows 9x/Me, they can take over drive letters already in use by removable-media or optical drives if necessary.

• If additional hard disks are installed in Windows 2000/XP, they can use unused drive letters, leaving existing removable-media and optical drive letter assignments intact.

• The Format program uses different command-line options when used with floppy disks and hard drives, but it uses similar menus in the Windows Explorer for both types of drives.

• For maximum utility and data safety, consider creating at least two partitions on your hard drives: one for programs and operating system; one for data.

• Windows contains various tools for repairing damaged boot sectors and master boot records, including Fdisk/mbr (Windows 9x/Me), Fixboot and Fixmbr (Windows 2000/XP), and Diskprobe (Windows NT 4.0).