Is this hard disk the only hard disk on your computer (master) or is this hard disk a second hard disk (slave)?

Have you prepared the hard disk by following the manufacturer's instructions? It is important to set the jumpers and cabling according to the role of the hard disk (master or slave)?

If you want to add a second hard disk (slave drive) to your computer, you need to make sure that the jumpers on both the master (original) and slave (new drive) are set according to the manufacturer's instructions first so that your computer can detect the hard disks.

Have you checked your basic input/output system (BIOS) to verify that it supports the hard disk or the second hard disk? If not, check the documentation that came with your motherboard, or contact the manufacturer.
Typically, the BIOS has an auto detect hard disk setting that configures the drive, but you should verify this before you continue.

What type of file system do you want to use? You can use either the FAT16 or the FAT32 file systems. If you are not sure which file system that you want to use, view the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 118335 Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System 154997 Description of the FAT32 File System

Windows 3.1 and 9x comes with a built-in utility called fdisk. Windows 2000 and XP use a different procedure.
This program is used to partition a large hard drive into smaller virtual drives. One advantage of having two smaller virtual drives is the decreased downtime while running applications such as ScanDisk or Defrag.

For instructions on partitioning a slave drive, clisk here.

To use fdisk to partition a hard drive, follow these directions:

1. To open fdisk, left-click the Start menu, select Run and enter fdisk in the displayed box, hit Enter.
   The following menu is displayed:

   1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
   2. Set active partition
   3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
   4. Display partition information
   5. Change current fixed disk drive

   Note that menu option 5 is available only if you have two physical hard disks on your computer.
2. When fdisk opens you'll be asked if you'd like to enable large disk support. "Y" should already be selected. Hit Enter.
3. Next, you need to set the current fixed disk drive to equal your newly installed hard drive. To do this, select 5 from the list and press Enter. When you do this, the selection changes from the physical disk 1 (master) to the physical disk 2 (slave).
4. Find the number next to your new drive, type it into Enter Fixed Disk Drive Number, and hit Enter. In most cases, if you just added a second hard drive, the number from the list will equal 2. Before you proceed, double-check that the current fixed hard drive is equal to the new hard drive you just installed. If it is, you should see any number other than 1 next to Current Fixed Drive.

   This will take you back to the beginning screen.

5. From here, select 1 to "Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive" and hit Enter.
6. Select 1 to "Create Primary DOS Partition" and hit Enter.

   Your computer will begin to verify the new drive's integrity. This process will only take few minutes to complete.

7. The next screen to appear will ask, "Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS partition?" Press Y if you only want to create one partition or N if you'd like to create multiple partitions on the drive. Then hit Enter.

If you pressed Y, the computer will create the partition and then transfer you back to the beginning screen. From here, select 4 to inspect to new hard drive's partition.

If you pressed N, then you're going to create multiple partitions. To do this, you'll need to set the size of the new partition. This is done by entering a value next to "Enter partition size in Mbytes or per cent of disk space to create a Primary DOS Partition."
For example, if your new hard drive is 20GB and you'd like to create two 10GB drives, entering 50% will do just fine. To enter a number in Mbytes,

1. take the total number in Mbytes and divide it in half to get the correct number to input. To make things easier, just use a percentage of the total hard drive and let your computer do the maths for you.
   When you've finished entering the size of the new partition, hit Enter to create it.
2. Press Esc to return to the new drives main menu.
3. From here, select 1 to "Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive."
4. Now it's time to create the extended partition. To do this, select 2 from the menu and hit Enter.
   When you make your slave drive an extended MS-DOS partition, your drive letters do not change. For example, if the first drive contains partition C and partition D, your slave drive becomes D unless you set the slave drive as an extended partition.
   If you skip this step and just create another primary MS-DOS partition for the slave drive, the new drive becomes drive D and what used to be drive D, changes to drive E.
   You can partition the slave drive to make other logical drives just as you did with the original master drive.
5. A screen that says "Enter partition size in Mbytes or per cent of disk space to create an Extended DOS Partition" will appear. You should notice that the computer did the maths for you and filled in the remaining hard drive space to be partitioned. If this number is OK, press Enter to complete the process. If it's not, and you plan on creating additional partitions, lower the number accordingly and then press Enter.
6. After fdisk creates the partition, press Esc to return to the new hard drive's main menu.
7. Before the new extended partition will work, it needs to have a Logical DOS Drive created on it. To do this,
   1. select 1 on the list to "Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive."
   2. Select 3 from the list to "Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition" and hit Enter.
8. Your computer will then verify drive integrity and automatically deliver the size of the extended drive. You should see a number next to "Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percentage of drive." This number should equal the size of the extended drive you created earlier. If your computer cannot detect the new drive, you may need to add the following line to your Config.sys file, where drive is a letter that is greater than the last drive letter on the computer (including the CD-ROM drive):

   lastdrive=drive

9. Press Enter to "Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition."
10. After hitting Enter, you'll see a new letter assigned to the new partition you just created.
11. Press Esc to exit this screen and return to main menu.

To verify the two new partitions were created successfully,

1. select 5 to "Change current fixed disk drive" and hit Enter. You should see all the drives on your computer, including the two you just created.
2. Hit Esc twice to exit fdisk.

You must restart your computer before the new partitions will be recognised.