Fdisk is a command-line utility that allows you to perform various operations with the hard drives installed in the system. Formatting, partitioning, volume labeling, and other procedures are performed using this program.
Relevance now
Prior to Windows 98 (inclusive), it was used as a standard means of managing computer hard drives. Later versions of the operating system (Win 2000, XP, Windows 7) Fdisk did not already have in their composition, because with the advent of the NTFS file system and, accordingly, new protocols for working with it, the need to use Fdisk disappeared. And the utility, which before that perfectly copes with FAT file systems, was finally replaced by Diskpart, which can work with both FAT and NTFS.
Use in modern versions of Windows
When you try to run Fdisk on Windows 7 from the command line, the only result will be a text notification of the operating system that such a command does not exist in its structure. Therefore, it will be necessary to use the Diskpart utility or the "Disk Management" utility that now performs these functions. In addition, a large part of the currently installed operating systems have 64-bit capacity, which the old utility did not support. Therefore, attempts to run Fdisk on Windows 7, as a rule, are completely meaningless.
Work with Diskpart
Diskpart can be without exaggeration called a full-fledged software package that allows you to work with all the capabilities of hard drives. The launch is carried out by entering the diskpart command on the command line , after which the user enters the control environment. When entering /? all available commands will be displayed in the console window, but the basic ones that determine how to work with disks are:
- list disk - allows you to display all the media installed in the system;
- select disk - allows you to select a disk to work with it (without affecting other media);
- list volume - displays each volume used in the operating system (including logical partitions of disks);
- list partition - displays a list of partitions installed on the selected disk.
Disk Management
This is the most acceptable control element for most users of the drives installed in the system. It is located in the "Control Panel" in the "Administration" section, it allows you to perform most of the Diskpart utility actions, while having a convenient graphical interface.
All operations are carried out using the mouse, the keyboard is needed only to set the volume label or enter digital size values when using the volume compression function.