Gateway E-3200 - Manual (Page 25)

20 E-3200 User’s Guide
Maintaining Your System
Your system and its components need regular maintenance. Some programs
that help maintain the integrity of the hard disks in your system come as
part of your operating system. The following sections contain information
about maintaining your system.
Maintaining the hard disk
Hard disks need regular maintenance because running the system software
divides files, creates spaces between data, and otherwise decreases hard
disk performance. Windows 95 and Windows 98 provide maintenance tools
that help prevent possible hard disk problems. The two most important tools
for hard disk maintenance are the programs ScanDisk and Disk
Defragmenter. Windows NT has a similar maintenance tool called Check
Disk. To use these programs, consult your Windows Help or the operating
system documentation.
Hard disk partition information
The hard drive shipped with your Windows 95 or Windows 98 system is
partitioned using file allocation table (FAT)32.
The first 2 gigabytes (GB) of the hard drive shipped with your Windows
NT system are partitioned as FAT16. The rest of the space on the drive is
partitioned as NT file system (NTFS). Any other hard drives shipped from
the factory with your system are partitioned as NTFS.
FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS are different methods the operating system uses
to locate files on a hard drive. NTFS supports large drive sizes, but NTFS
partitions cannot be viewed with Microsoft® disk operating system
(MS-DOS®) diagnostic utilities, like fdisk. See your Windows NT manual
for more information on NTFS.