Changing your hard disk partitions can be frightening since it may data loss. Here’s what you need to know before you start. If you were to compile a list of your favorite rainy day activities, it’s a good bet that partitioning your hard disk wouldn’t be among them. If you’re like most persons---- novices and veterans alike---- the very idea of partitioning is terrifying. Once you delete a partition, there is no turning back, so you must be absolutely certain of what you’re doing before you begin. If you delete a partition, you not only delete all data in it but also render that part of your hard disk inaccessible to your operating system. So if your hard disk consists of only one partition, as the disks in most new computers do, the deleting the partition would mean that you couldn’t access your drive at all not even if you were to boot from your emergency floppy disk (you’ve made one right?).

 If you’ve made up your mind to modify your partitions, be sure to make a complete backup before you use any disk-partitioning utility. DOS and window ’95 include a small program called fdisk, which until a few years ago was the only readily available utility for creating and deleting partitions. To access the utility, type “fdisk” at the DOS prompt and press Enter. A small menu from which you can get all your partition information will pop up. Move around the menu to your heart’s content, but for safety’s sake you should avoid item 3, “delete partition of Logical DOS Drive.” FDISK runs you through several confirmations before deleting a partition, but why take the chance? On the other hand, item 1—“create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive” ---- tells you several things about your hard disk without destroying anything. You may even discover free space you never you had.