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Document ID: DSET-3FAA47

PS/1-Aptiva - What does it mean to FDISK, Format, and Reload a system?

Applicable to: United States, Canada

Also known as an FFR.

FDISK:
FDISK is a fixed disk setup program that provides a series of menus to aid with the setup and partitioning of hard drives. You can use Fdisk for the following tasks:

* Creating a primary DOS partition
* Creating an extended DOS partition
* Changing the active partition
* Deleting a partition
* Displaying partition data
* Selecting the next hard disk for partitioning, if a system has multiple hard disks

A partition is an area of the physical drive that has logically been separated from the rest of the drive from the computer's point of view. This drive is assigned a letter when DOS boots, allowing the drive to be accessed from programs in the computer system.

A hard drive may contain one or more partitions. Each partition can be a specific size within the bounds of the total disk space available on the drive.

When a new drive is installed, the first DOS program that should be run on the drive is the FDISK program. The menus in FDISK will provide the necessary functions to allow you to set up a single or multiple partitions on the drive to suit your needs.

For example, a 1 gigabyte drive can be divided into several drives by creating a partition for each of the drives desired, using FDISK. The first partition on the physical drive might be set up as a 400mb drive, which will be assigned the letter D: by DOS during bootup. The next partition might be a 300mb drive, which would be assigned the letter E:. A third partition might be set up as a 300mb drive as well, having the letter F:.

When a partition is created or otherwise modified, it will cause the data areas of that partition to be unreadable. Therefore, the FORMAT command must be used on that drive to make it available for data storage.

FORMAT:
Format command creates a new root directory and file allocation table for the disk.

Plain English:
Format sets up the drive so it is ready to add any software to it. Format checks the drive for bad areas on the disk. After formatting a drive the software will be removed from the drive.

RECOVERY:
A software recovery allows the user to put the original software back on the system. The procedures for recovery for the different systems is covered in the next section.

In order to recover the original software load, he needs the following things:

1. A Recovery CD. The CDs are shipped with the system. The titles vary in name, but all of the CDs have a white label and all have Aptiva written on the top of the CD.

2. A recovery diskette (or diskettes). The only system that requires more than one recovery diskette is the P30. It requires four.

3. A bootable system. ( This can be tested by booting to the recovery diskette.

When would I use an FFR?

You would use an FFR to get back to the original software load. You might have added software that you want removed and want to be back to the original software load.

If there are errors on the system that cannot be corrected with any of the procedures in avoiding and FFR.

What steps do we use to avoid an FFR?
Restoring the Desktop through Personal Desktop
On Aptiva systems excluding the Windows 95 systems, there is an icon called Aptivaware. In Aptivaware there is an item called Personal Desktop. Open personal Desktop and choose original in the list of different desktops. Choose Restore from the right hand side of the screen. the system will tell you that you must reboot in order for the changes to take affect. When you reboot the system the Desktop will be restored to the original configuration. Personal Desktop allows you to set up different desktops for different users.

CHKDSK /F (For OS/2 Warp and DOS/Windows 3.11 Machines)
Gives you a status report of the hard drive. In the CHKDSK command the /F will correct errors on the hard drive.
CHKDSK /F:3 Use F:3 for DOS/Windows Systems.

SCANDISK and DEFRAG (for Windows 95 Machines)
Scandisk looks for errors on the hard drive and DEFRAG will correct the errors on the drive.

	Search Keywords
	Hint Category	Software Installation/Configuration
	Date Created	18-03-97
	Last Updated	22-03-99
	Revision Date	22-03-2000
	Brand	IBM Aptiva
	Product Family	Aptiva, PS/1
	Machine Type	2144, 2176, 2168
	Model	5R5; M91; 2R5; 2R7; 2R8; M30; M35; M50; 2R6; 4R7; 4R8; M40; M54; M58; 3R0; 3R8; M60; M70; 3R4; 3R6; 4R1; 4R9; M31; M51; M52; M63; 2R9; 3R1; 3R3; 3R5; 3R7; 3R9; 4R0; 4R2; 4R3; M41; M53; M55; M56; M57; M61; M62; M71; M72; 5R1; 6R3; A10; A12; A14; 5R2; 5R3; 5R6; 5R8; 5R9; 6R0; 6R4; 6R5; A15; A40; A44; A45; A50; A51; A52; A90; A92; A94; 1R2; 66P; 67P; 86P; OR8; 1R1; 1R3; 1R5; 22P; 24P; 25P; 27P; 29P; 63P; 67P; 82P; 83P; OR6; OR7; OR9; 1R0; 1R1; 26P; 62P; 2R0; P30; 2R3; S15
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