CREATING A PASSWORD RESET DISK ON A COMPUTER THAT IS A MEMBER OF A WOR...

2-4 Chapter 2 Installing Windows XP Professional

A disk partition is a logical section of a hard disk on which the computer can write

data. Partitions offer a way to divide the space on a single physical hard disk into mul-

tiple areas, each of which is treated as a different disk within Windows. Some people

create separate partitions to help organize their files. For example, you might store the

Windows system files and application files on one partition, user-created documents

on another partition, and backup files on another partition.

Another reason to use multiple partitions is to isolate operating systems from one

another when you install more than one operating system on a computer. Although it

is technically possible to install some operating systems on the same partition,

Microsoft does not recommend or support this practice. You should always create a

separate partition for each operating system.

Depending on the hard disk configuration, do one of the following procedures during

installation:

■

If the hard disk is not partitioned, create and size the Windows XP Professional

partition. Unless you have a specific reason to create multiple partitions (such as

for multiple operating systems or to have a separate partition for document stor-

age), you should create one partition that uses all available drive space.

■

If an existing partition is large enough, install Windows XP Professional on that

partition. Installing on an existing partition might overwrite any existing operating

system files.

■

If the existing partition is not large enough, delete it and combine it with other

partitions on the same physical disk to provide more unpartitioned disk space for

creating the Windows XP Professional partition.

Although you can use Setup to create other partitions, you should create and size only

the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional. After you install Win-

dows XP Professional, use the Disk Management snap-in of the Computer Management

console to partition any remaining unpartitioned space on the hard disk. Disk Manage-

ment is much easier to use for disk partitioning than Setup. You will learn more about

partitions and the Disk Management tool in Chapter 10, “Managing Data Storage.”

Guidelines for Choosing a File System

After you create the installation partition, Setup prompts you to select the file system

with which to format the partition. Windows XP Professional can be installed on two

file systems:

File allocation table (FAT) Although Windows Setup references only file alloca-

tion table (FAT), there are actually two versions of FAT: FAT and FAT32. FAT is a