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As a precaution, before proceeding to use any Tips, Programs, or making any changes, from any links contained therein and before opening any Hidden Windows System Settings, it is advisable to perform a full backup of the system even though Windows XP comes with a life-saving 'SYSTEM RESTORE' feature.  Always remember to create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your PC. Once that's done it should be safe to proceed with any tweaking you wish, but you do so entirely at your own risk.

Divide your hard drive into multiple partitions ( WinXP has a built in partitioner)

FDISK is a powerful tool. It can do severe damage to your data if you tell it to do the wrong thing. I strongly suggest you backup your important files before using the instructions on this page. So make sure, at each step along the way, that you read the information it gives you. If it prompts you for information, make sure that you understand what it's asking for before responding. Depending on how your system is configured, FDISK may give you additional prompts that will not show up in the steps I'm describing. So, before you type in something, make sure that it's really asking you at that point. The first thing you're going to need is a boot floppy disk. A floppy disk is a disk that you can successfully start your computer into DOS from, and that has the necessary drivers to let you access your CD-ROM drive. Make sure that it works, and lets you successfully read CDs before proceeding. You are about to erase your entire hard disk. Make sure that you have backups of your files, and that you have all the CDs that you will need to reinstall other drivers once you're done. Place your boot floopy into the drive and reboot your computer. ( choose: Start Computer with CD-ROM support if prompted )

You should wind up at the A:\> MS-DOS prompt. Again, make absolutely, positively sure that you can access your CD-ROM at this point by typing DIR E: ( or whatever drive letter your CD-ROM drive has ), and and pressing ENTER . If you can now see a list of files on the CD you know it works. At the A:\> prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER . You will see the main FDISK Options menu, and the Enter choice: prompt. It will tell you Current fixed disk drive: 1 in other words, unless you tell it otherwise, it's going to operate on disk 1, the first disk it's found on the system. Since there's only one hard drive on your system ( Make sure this is true ), this is what you want to do. Before we go any farther, let's make this partition the active partition . That is the one that the system will try to boot from.
Choose option 2, Set active partition , and press ENTER . Make that partition active and prompt you to press Escape to go back to the main menu. Now it's time to create the extended partition. FDISK should tell you all created partitions.

A disk with multiple partitions offers advantages over a disk with only a single partition, because it offers a greater degree of flexibility. Partitioning is performed on a new or reformatted hard drive.

The program that we use most often to partition a hard drive is FDISK, which comes with DOS & Windows. Microsoft Windows comes with a newer version of Fdisk.exe. You can use FDISK to partition your drive. Even You can also use Fdisk.exe to make changes to your partitions, but you will lose any files stored on them unless you back them up first. You can try using the third party's partition tools instead. Partition Magic make hard disk partitioning much easier.

Hard drives that will be dedicated solely for video capture, or digital media, such as MP3s or lossless audio files, are best partitioned as a single, large partition.

Multiple Operating Systems: If you're going to install multiple operating systems (dual-boot or multi-boot) on the same physical disk, you must create a separate partition for each Operating Systems.

Capacities of hard drives have reached 250-GB. And by the time you read this, they've probably grown even larger. It's better to partition intelligently the first time, than have to go back and repartition later.

Advantage of having a hard drive containing multiple partitions allows you to lower your drive's effective access time, providing you with a more responsive system. The first partition you create on a drive will automatically take the outer/leading/fastest edge. In other words, the drive's read/write heads won't have to travel (seek) to the far end of the drive. Keeping your frequently-accessed files close to the drive's leading edge will improve both access times and sustained transfer rates for files stored there.

Another advange would be a drive with multiple partitions allows you to defrag only those partitions that actually need defragging. This saves wear and tear on your drive, and may even help keep it from failing prematurely.

A drive with multiple partitions allows you to easily create & restore images using programs such as Norton Ghost or PowerQuest's Drive Image.

Multi-boot. If you want to dual- or multi-boot different operating systems, you must create separate partitions for each O/S. Even if you don't plan to dual-boot right now, it's always better to create an extra partition [or two] when initially partitioning the drive just in case you decide later you want to dual-/multi-boot.

Security . The vast majority of people install Windows to their C drive. Hackers know this and target the C drive. You are less likely to be hacked if Windows resides on a drive other than C. And you will need more than one partition to get a drive letter other than C.

You can do a Quick format in DOS by typing At the DOS prompt type: format (Path:) /q
example, to format the C Drive type: format c: /q

Fdisk on 80gb harddrive.

In 1999 I believe that MB's started supporting drives larger than 32GB. You can go to Maxtors site and download the PowerMax 4.06 to a floppy. Do a quick zero fill to wipe the directory, then load the OS. Don't partition the hard drive, let windows do it, unless you want the OS on a seperate partition. With the powermax floppy you don't have to mess with all that dos stuff. All you need is you enter and tab on your keyboard. It's easier to do it the easy way. You can also get some help from Microsoft Windows site.

Top five reasons why Windows doesn't support your hardware?

Here are the top five reasons why you may not be able to get your hardware to work with Windows:

1. You have an outdated or buggy driver - get an update from the manufacturer.
2. You're using Windows 2000 or Windows XP, but the device isn't supported in a Windows NT environment (yet). My advice: toss it, because most companies is unlikly to add NT support for their older products.
3. Is it a USB device? You need at least Windows 95 OSR2 (not the original release of Win95) to support USB. What's more, most USB devices require at least Windows 98 to work.
4. Investigate device manager for any hardware conflicts.
5. Lastly, make sure it's plugged-in / turned-on / connected properly.

What to do about error messages during Windows startup?

You may have seen a strange message when Windows is loading. If it only happens once, don't worry about it. If, on the other hand, it is recurring, it can be caused by many different things. Here are the usual culprits:

1) A file can't be found: A driver or progam is configured to load when Windows starts, but the file is either corrupt or missing. Usually this means that you need to reinstall the driver or application, or remove the reference (if the respective device or application has been removed).
2) A driver won't load: This could either be that the driver is corrupted, or the device which the driver controls isn't functioning properly.
3) Virus Viruses can cause this type of problem, and malfunctioning viruses can as well! Scan your system with updated anti-virus software.
The following are places that files or drivers can be specified to load when Windows starts. Often simply removing the reference to the file solves the problem - at the very least, locating the driver will help determine the culprit.
4) Look in your Startup folder (usually found in your Start Menu folder) for outdated or unwanted shortcuts.
5) Older programs might still install themselves in your WIN.INI file (on the same line that starts with "LOAD="). Use Notepad to edit this file. (Windows 95, 98, and Me only)
6) Search your Registry for the filename; try looking in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Run for a place to start.
7) Programs notorious for putting things in these places include backup utilities that automatically load their useless scheduler programs, and the software that comes with older versions of Micrsoft mice and keyboards.