Hard drive configuration simplified

Document ID:1997125142832
Last Modified:01/28/2002

Hard drive configuration simplified

Situation:
Norton Disk Doctor or Speed Disk display the message:

"Your hard drive may not be configured properly."

Solution:
This document describes how to determine whether the hard drive is configured correctly.

Proper drive configuration depends on three factors:

Hardware - Are the drive controller and the drive operating correctly, using the correct switches and jumpers?
BIOS (Basic Input Output System) - Is the BIOS capable of detecting and supporting the drive? If so, has the drive been correctly identified and configured?
Partitioning - Is the drive correctly partitioned according to the other two factors?

Software can only determine whether a drive is partitioned correctly. The other two factors should normally be left to professional computer technicians.

The following procedure is similar to the way Norton Disk Doctor and Speed Disk determine whether a drive is configured correctly.

Partitioning
All hard drives are partitioned, even if there is only one (C:). You can also use FDISK, the program that partitions drives, to check the drive configuration. You should check whether the drive parameters supplied to FDISK by the hardware and the BIOS match those in the existing partitions. These parameters do not have to match exactly; however, the drive cannot have a sum of all partitions that is greater than the physical size of the drive.

Using FDISK to check drive configuration
FDISK is a very powerful program that can potentially cause data loss if is used incorrectly. Be careful when using FDISK so you do not accidentally damage an existing partition.

Follow these steps to check a drive's configuration using FDISK:

Click the Start button, point to Programs, and choose MS-DOS Prompt.
Type:

FDISK [Enter]
You first may see a screen full of text. Type Y and press Enter to proceed.
Select choice 4 from the accompanying menu: Display partition information. Press Enter.
Add the numbers in the "Mbytes" column and compare that number to the total disk space number. The total Mbytes MUST be less than or equal to the total disk space.
If this drive has more than one partition, press Enter to view logical drive information.
Add and compare your totals as before.
If the computer has more than one hard drive, select choice 5 to change to that drive, and repeat steps 4 through 7.
Reboot the computer into DOS mode, and repeat steps 2 to 8. The results should be identical. If not, then there is a problem with the BIOS or controller.

If the hard disks pass this procedure, then there is a problem with Norton Utilities. Please contact Technical Support with the results of this test, as well as the following information:

BIOS name, number, and date. You can see this when you first start the computer. Press Pause to freeze the screen so you can write it down.
Fixed disk manufacturer.
Fixed disk model number.

If one or more disks fail this procedure, the drives are not configured correctly. You will need to reconfigure them, or have a computer professional do it for you. Symantec Technical Support cannot reconfigure drives.

Please refer to these documents in the Symantec Knowledge Base for detailed information and instructions about disk configuration:

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Product(s): Norton Utilities 2000 v4.5 - Win95/98, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - Win9x/Me, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - WinNT/2000
Operating System(s): Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98
Date Created: 12/05/1997