HD Doctor Blog

Microsoft’s FAT32 File System

Windows 95 OSR2 provides an updated version of the File Allocation Table file system called FAT32. This updated file system allows for a default cluster size as small as 4K, as well as support for EIDE hard disc sizes in excess of 2 Gbytes. FAT32 provides many enhancements over previous implementations of the FAT file system.

Cluster & Partition Sizes

FAT32 supports drives up to 2 terabytes in size. FAT32 uses smaller clusters (that is, 4K clusters for drives up to 8 Gbytes in size), resulting in 10 to15 percent more efficient use of disc space relative to large FAT16 partitions. FAT32 will only work on 512 Mbytes and larger drives. Microsoft’s bundled disc tools…

No jumpers need to be set to configure a SATA drive. Serial ATA connections take the guess work out of master/slave drive configuration, since the single drive point to point connection has been introduced.

The Serial ATA host automatically determines the master and slave hard drive.

Jumpers are small metallic pins that protrude from the end of a hard disc drive or from its circuit board, as shown below. Jumpers are used to configure the hard disc drive’s options, such as defining master and slave or cable select.

Every pin set has a specific numbering scheme, which is determined by its location on the drive. As shown above left, if the pins are on the circuit board, the pin number assignments are printed on the circuit board around the pins. As shown above right and below, if the jumper pins are on the end of the hard drive, Pin 1 will always be closest to the 4-pin power connector.

Below…

Bad sectors can often be corrected by using a spare sector built into the hard drive. However, any information written to a bad sector is usually lost.

There are several methods for finding and correcting bad sectors.

1. Use the Error Checking utility built in to Microsoft Windows.

1. Double Click My Computer, and right-click the hard disk.
2. On the shortcut menu, click Properties, and on the Tools tab in the Properties dialog box, click Check Now in the Error-Checking Status area.
3. In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Automatically Fix File System Errors check box, select the Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors check box, and then click Start.
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A step-by-step guide to formatting an ATA hard drive with a Macintosh operating system(Mac OS).

• Mac OS 8.x thru 9.x
• Mac OS X or 10

Formatting an ATA hard drive in Macintosh operating system 8.X thru 9.X

Step1.
After hooking up the hard drive either boot off the CD or the main Macintosh HD then go to the Apple System Profiler located under the Apple menu. From there go to Devices and Volumes and check to see if the hard drive that is going to be formatted is properly displayed. If the drive is not displayed make sure that the drive is properly installed or connected.

Step 2.
Once the…

When SCSI drives are connected to the SCSI host adapter, with an ATA drive installed, you are unable to boot from the ATA drive.

The SCSI host adapter and the ATA port on the motherboard could be set for the same IRQ or address or both. Check the following:

• For the primary port, the ATA ports on the motherboard will likely be set to IRQ 14, and the I/O address will likely be set to 1F0-1F7.
• For the secondary port, the ATA ports on the motherboard will likely be set to IRQ 15, and the I/O address will likely be set to 170-177.
• The SCSI host adapter’s IRQ and I/O address should not conflict with

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Before you venture into hard disk data recovery business, it is necessary to know the causes of hard disk failure. The causes can be either logical failture, or electrical failture or mechanical failture.

• Logical causes include problems with the boot sector of the hard drive which leads to non-booting of Windows. In this case, you would be able to you’re your computer from another disk. You can then investigate if you have problems with the boot sector or you have bad sectors on the disk itself. Hard disk data recovery in this case can be possible via Data Recovery Software.
• Electrical causes include problems caused due to voltage problems which may have led to the burning

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