Epson Apex, User Manual

Page: 116 / 158

Appendix B
Preparing a Hard Disk For Use
The Apex Plus 20 comes with a preformatted hard disk that has
MS-DOS and GW-BASIC already loaded and ready to use. You
do not need to format this hard disk drive unless you have a
serious problem with it.
If you encounter signs of a hard disk problem when booting
MS-DOS, run the Non-destructive surface analysis test (option
4 on the HARD DISK FORMAT MENU) to make sure that
formatting is absolutely necessary. If errors occur during this
test, back up your disk, and run the Conditional format followed
by Destructive surface analysis. These tests are described below.
There are several steps to preparing an unformatted hard disk
drive for use with MS-DOS. First, you format the hard disk drive
to accept data. After the hard disk is formatted, you partition
and format it for a particular operating system. Formatting
destroys all data on the hard disk, in all partitions, so follow this
procedure with extreme care.
After the disk is partitioned and formatted for MS-DOS, you
can copy your programs onto it, and then reorder the files into
an efficient working arrangement.
This chapter shows you how to use the following MS-DOS
commands to prepare a hard disk:
l HDFMTALL lets you check your hard disk for the location
of bad sectors and format it to accept data.
FDISK reserves all or part of your hard disk for use by
MS-DOS.
SELECT formats your hard disk to receive MS-DOS files
and installs MS-DOS on your disk.
Preparing a Hard Disk For Use B-1