Microsoft KB Archive/271673

= Windows Millennium Edition Cleanhd.txt File Contents =

Article ID: 271673

Article Last Modified on 1/29/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

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This article was previously published under Q271673



SUMMARY
This article contains a copy of the information that is contained in the Cleanhd.txt file that is included with Windows Millennium Edition (Me). The Cleanhd.txt file contains information about installing Windows Me on a new hard disk. Setup copies the Cleanhd.txt file to the Windows\Options\Install folder.

NOTE: This article is for informational use only, and does not contain any troubleshooting information. If you are searching for troubleshooting information that is not referred to in this article, please try searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base again by using keywords that are listed in the following article:

242450 How to Query the Microsoft Knowledge Base Using Keywords



MORE INFORMATION
 Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition README for Installing Windows Me                Onto a New Hard Disk June 2000

(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 2000

If you have added a new hard disk to a personal computer, you will need to carry out the following six tasks to prepare it to run the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Millennium Edition (Windows Me) operating system:

- Getting Ready - Creating the Boot Disk - Partitioning the Hard Disk - Using Fdisk to Partition the Hard Disk - Formatting the Drives - Installing Windows Millennium Edition

If you are installing Windows Me onto a formatted hard disk just follow the last two steps.

IMPORTANT: All the steps you need for preparing a hard disk and installing Windows Me are included here. However, if you are an inexperienced user, it is not recommended that you install the hard disk and prepare it for use yourself. If you are not familiar with the related technical issues, it is recommended that you contact a computer hardware service organization to do this.

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GETTING READY

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The following hardware should already be set up and working:

- The hard disk drive is already physically installed in the computer. That is, it is screwed into position, and the power and data cables are connected.

- The computer recognizes the hard disk drive. The two common types of hard disk drives are SCSI and IDE.

- If you have a SCSI drive, the SCSI adapter card will identify the hard disk drive.

- If you have an IDE drive, you must make sure the computer's    CMOS is set to recognize the drive. If you have the option for &quot;auto detect,&quot; you can initially try selecting that option. However, check your hardware documentation, as    there are many differences among BIOS manufacturers and revisions.

Before you start, make sure you have the following available:

- A floppy disk that can be used to start the computer and provide the utilities you need to make the new hard disk drive usable.

- A Windows Millennium Edition CD.

- An earlier Windows product disk, if you have the Windows Millennium Edition upgrade product (rather than the &quot;full&quot;  version, such as the version that comes installed on a new   computer).

When you are installing Windows Me, The Upgrade Compliance Check asks you to show proof of possession of a qualifying earlier version of Windows. You do not have to install the older version first, but you must insert the disk to show the Setup program that you have it. The Windows 95 or  Windows 98 CD product disk, or Windows 95 floppy disks work for this purpose.

- Driver disks from manufacturers. If you have hardware that requires drivers that are not part of Windows Me, you need the disk or CD that the manufacturer provided with these drivers.

- Documentation for your computer hardware, in case your need to change CMOS settings or check other information.

Before you start, do the following:

- Make sure that the computer's built-in anti-virus protection is disabled before you start. Your computer may not have this feature, but if it does, you may need to check your computer's documentation to learn how to turn it off. This protection can be turned on again after Windows Me is  completely set up.

- Determine whether your computer requires &quot;drive overlay software&quot; to allow it to see large hard drives. If it does, you might need to use that software to prepare the drive. However, even though this software comes with most hard drives, you should not install it unless it's required to  properly access the drive. Most recently manufactured computers do not require this software.

NOTE: You may encounter some differences in the following procedures, depending on your system and your preferences. For example, some steps differ if your computer has more than one physical hard disk drive, such as when the second drive has applications installed on it and you want to install Windows Me on the D drive rather than on the C drive.

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========= CREATING THE BOOT DISK

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If you do not have a boot disk, also called a Windows Me Emergency Startup (boot) Disk (EBD), follow these instructions to create one.

If you have access to a computer that is currently running Windows Me

1. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, and then click the Startup Disk tab.

2. Click Create Disk, and then follow the instructions on the screen.

- An EBD from Windows 98 will also work with this procedure. The startup disk you created can find and allow access to  most, but not all, CD drives. If it can't find or access your drive, follow the instructions that came with your hardware to create a boot disk that will allow access to the CD-ROM drive.

- If an error message appears, your computer may be set to boot from the hard disk rather than from the floppy disk. To change this option in the computer's CMOS setup, see your computer's  documentation.

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============= PARTITIONING THE HARD DISK

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Hard disk drives are divided into areas called partitions. There are two types: Primary and Extended. Drive letters are assigned automatically by the system, so you can't choose to assign a particular letter to a drive. Drive letters are assigned in order, as follows:

- The Primary partition gets the drive letter C. If the computer has more than one physical hard disk and each has a primary partition, the first drive's primary partition gets the letter C, the second drive's primary partition gets D, the third drive's primary partition gets E, and so on.

- An extended partition takes whatever space on the drive that the primary partition isn't using. After you create extended partitions, you can create logical drives in these partitions, and those logical drives are assigned drive letters. (The  extended partition itself does not receive a drive letter.)

- After the system assigns letters to all primary partitions on  the physical hard disks, it gives the first logical drive in   the first extended partition the next letter, then the next logical drive in that partition is assigned the next available letter, and so on.

- When all logical drives in that partition have drive letters assigned, the system finds the next physical drive that might be available and looks for logical drives in any extended partitions and continues this process.

A second, third, or fourth drive is not required to have a primary partition. Such a drive can have just an extended partition with logical drives in that partition.

Example: Creating Multiple Drives on a Single Disk

For this example, assume your computer has a single new empty 6-GB hard disk and no CD-ROM drive. With no partition, the hard disk is unusable. You make a 2-GB primary partition. Because it's a primary partition and it's the first drive, it gets the letter C. You decide to make the remaining 4 GB, which has not been claimed, into an extended partition. You now have your C drive defined and an extended partition taking the rest of the drive.

You decide to make a 3-GB logical drive in the extended partition, which gets drive letter D. This computer now has a 2-GB C drive, a 3-GB D drive, and 1 GB of disk space left over that could be used to make a 1-GB drive (which would get the letter E) or two 500-MB drives (which would get letters E and F).

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========================= USING FDISK TO PARTITION THE HARD DISK

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To partition the drive, you use a program called Fdisk that's on the Emergency Startup Disk (EBD) disk you made earlier.

NOTE: Always follow the Fdisk on-screen prompts carefully. The program tells you how to maneuver through the menus, when to press the ESC key to go back, when you need to restart your computer, and so on.

To partition the hard disk:

1. At the A command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER. If the hard disk is larger than 512 MB, Fdisk asks whether to enable Large Disk Support:

- If you want to install other operating systems on this computer, you need to know whether they can read FAT32. If they cannot, choose No. Operating systems such as      Windows NT(R) 4.0, for example, cannot read FAT32, but Windows 2000 can. - If you don't plan to install operating systems other than Windows Me or Windows 2000, you will probably want to use Large Disk Support. It allows you to create partitions larger than 2 GB (which is the limit for FAT16) and provides greater file storage efficiency.

2. When you are prompted about enabling Large Disk Support, type Y or N, and then press ENTER. The Fdisk main menu appears.

3. At the command prompt, type 1 to create a Primary partition. You are then asked whether you want to use the maximum space (the entire drive): - If you choose Yes, this uses up to 2 GB for a FAT16 partition or the entire drive for a FAT32 partition. - If you choose No, you can specify how large you want the partition to be. If you want to use only part of the drive as the Primary partition, you can return to this menu later to choose Option 2 to create the Extended partition. When you choose Option 2, you are prompted whether to use the remainder of     the drive; then follow the prompts through the process of      creating logical drives in that partition. Continue with this process until all the space is used up on the hard disk.

4. Optionally, to make the Primary partition &quot;Active,&quot; select Option 2 from the Fdisk main menu. Follow the instructions.

The Active partition is the partition that the computer boots from. You need to set the Active partition if you created both Primary and Extended partitions. If you created only a Primary partition, it will automatically be set to Active.

5. When all this is finished, press the ESC key to exit Fdisk. When you are prompted to start your computer, leave the EBD disk in the A drive and restart your computer by using the power switch or by pressing CRTL+ALT+DEL.

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======== FORMATTING THE DRIVES

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After the partitions and logical drives are created, you need to format them.

To enable CD-ROM support:

1. After you restart your computer, a menu appears prompting you to choose whether you want CD-ROM support.

- Select Option 1 or 2 to boot with CD-ROM support if you are using a Windows Me Startup Disk.

- Select Option 1 if you are using a Windows 98 Startup Disk.

2. Watch for any error messages. There will be several informational messages crossing the screen while the EBD looks for your CD-ROM drive, but these are not necessarily error messages.

When the display returns to the A prompt, you must format the Primary partition (the C drive) you just created with Fdisk, plus any logical drives created in any extended partitions.

IMPORTANT: If the computer has more than one hard disk drive, make sure you are formatting the correct drive. Otherwise, you can lose information that you cannot recover. For example, before formatting drive D, at           the A prompt, type &quot;dir d:&quot; to make sure there is no            data on it. If the drive is empty, you should receive an error message when you try to perform this command.

To format the hard drive:

1. To format drive C, at the A prompt type the following:

format c:

and then press ENTER. You will be warned that all data will be   lost.

Select Yes to continue with the format.

2. For each logical drive you created (such as D and E), at the A prompt type the following:

format d: (or the appropriate drive letter)

Make sure you are formatting only the new drives you created, not other drives on other hard disks in your computer.

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======================== INSTALLING WINDOWS MILLENNIUM EDITION

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If you use a Windows Me Emergency Startup Disk (EBD), the CD-ROM drive is automatically assigned the drive letter two higher than the last hard-disk partition. If you have only a C drive, the CD-ROM drive will be E. If you have C and D hard drives, the CD-ROM will be drive F, and so on. The drive letter immediately after your last hard drive is assigned to the Ramdrive used by the EBD.

To install Windows Me on the new drive:

1. Insert the Windows Millennium Edition CD in the drive.

2. To change to the CD-ROM drive, at the A prompt type E:   (or the appropriate drive letter), and then press ENTER.

3. Type the following:

setup

and then press ENTER.

4. Follow the instructions on the screen. If you have the Windows Me Upgrade product, you must insert a CD or floppy disk from a previous version of Windows. The instructions will tell you when to insert the Windows Me CD back into the drive.

5. You're on the way! Just continue to follow the instructions on the screen.

Keywords: kbinfo kbreadme KB271673

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