CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [188]
Figure 12-31 You’ve created a 66-GB partition.
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NOTE Windows almost always adjusts the number you type in for a partition size. In this case, it changed 66666 to 66668, a number that makes more sense when translated to binary. Don’t worry about it!
Notice that two-thirds of the drive is still unpartitioned space. Move the selection down to this option and press C to create the next partition. Once again, type 66666 in the partition size screen and press ENTER, and you’ll see something similar to Figure 12-32.
Figure 12-32 Second partition created
Create your last partition exactly as you made the other two to see your almost-completely partitioned drive (Figure 12-33). (Note that the example is not realistic in one respect: you would never leave any unpartitioned space on a drive in a typical PC.)
Figure 12-33 Fully partitioned drive
Even though the Windows installation shows that you’ve made three partitions, you’ve really made only two: the primary partition, which is C:, and then two logical drives (D: and E:) in an extended partition. Once again, the next step, formatting, is saved for a later section in this chapter.
You’ve just created three drive letters. Keep in mind that the only drive you must partition during installation is the drive on which you install Windows.
The installation program can delete partitions just as easily as it makes them. If you use a hard drive that already has partitions, for example, you just select the partition you wish to delete and press the letter D. This brings up a dialog box where Windows gives you one last change to change your mind (Figure 12-34). Press L to kill the partition.
Figure 12-34 Option to delete partition
Partitioning and Formatting with the Windows Vista Installation DVD
Among the many changes in Microsoft’s newest operating system is a completely revamped installation process, complete with a fancy looking and, more importantly, easy-to-use graphical user interface. Again, the entire installation process will be covered in Chapter 14, “Installing and Configuring Windows,” but because you’ve already looked at partitioning in Windows XP, you should at least be familiar with what’s changed in Vista.
Single Partition
One thing that definitely hasn’t changed with Vista is that the most common installation is on a single active partition, so let’s start there. Again, you’re going to partition and format a single 200-GB drive.
The Vista installation GUI has a few more steps than XP before you get to the actual formatting page, so let’s get through those as quickly as possible to get to the fun stuff. When you boot from the installation DVD, you’ll be greeted with a screen asking you for language and regional information (Figure 12-35). Unless you’re having this book read to you by a translator, I expect you’ll want to keep the language set to English, but set the other entries as needed.
Figure 12-35 The Windows Vista language preferences screen
The next page has a large Install Now button, so click that and move on. After that, the installer asks for a product key (Figure 12-36). Don’t bother entering one yet—just leave the field blank and click Next to move on to the next page.
The next page asks which version of Vista you want to install (Figure 12-37). Every Vista installation DVD contains all editions of the operating system—your product key ultimately determines which edition you can install, so you wouldn’t get this page if you entered a product key when first prompted. Select Windows Vista ULTIMATE (in this example) and move on to the next page.
Figure 12-36 The product key page
The next page is just a license agreement that you’ll need to, ahem, agree with before moving on. Getting impatient to do some formatting? Don’t worry—I know