NEC Versa® LX and SX
Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk
Drive
Use the information in this document only when the 12- or 18-GB hard disk drive needs to be
restored to the original configuration. The 12- and the 18-GB drive comes preinstalled from the
factory as a single 12- or 18-GB partition, respectively.
Note
The restore process creates two partitions, not a single partition as shipped from the
factory. If you want to create a single partition for your hard disk drive, you should run the
Partition Magic software after the restore process completes. Partition Magic can either be
downloaded from a URL address provided by NECC Customer Support, or installed from the
Application and Driver CD that ships with your system (not available on all CDs). See the section,
"Creating a Single Partition with Partition Magic."
This document provides instructions necessary to restore a 12- or 18-GB hard disk drive.
Before you restore your system using the Product Recovery CD, you
must have two partitions on your hard disk drive. Follow the instructions in this document to
create the two partitions.
Use only the Partition Restore option on the Product Recovery CD for restoring. Do not use the
Full or Express options.
Note
If you do not format each partition before using the Product Recovery CD, your NEC
Versa notebook computer may not function properly.
Note to Windows NT users: Use the Product Recovery CD and select the Full (F) option. This
option destroys all data on the hard drive. (The Partition option only restores the C: partition and
leaves the data on other partitions intact.) To ensure compatibility with other Microsoft
operating systems, this drive is formatted with FAT partitions allocating 8 gigabytes. Download
Partition Magic from the provided URL or install Partition Magic from the Application and
Driver CD to allocate the unused space using NTFS. Disk Administrator in the Administrative
Tools is another way to configure the unused space. Disk Administrator deletes the additional
logical drives and creates one large NTFS drive.
Note
To ensure that the hibernation or Save-to-File file is properly created and utilized when
needed, be sure that you have the appropriate BIOS levels installed on your system. For the
NEC Versa LX, use BIOS 45 or higher. For the NEC Versa LX with AGP, use BIOS 25 or higher.
For NEC Versa SX systems with Pentium II, use BIOS 47 or higher. The BIOS upgrades are
available by calling Customer Support at 1-800-632-4525 or by downloading from the NECC
website, www.nec-computers.com.
For the NEC Versa SX systems with Pentium MMX, enter BIOS Setup and disable Auto
Save-to-File in the Power Management settings.
Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive 1
Repartitioning and Restoring
To repartition and restore your 12- or 18-GB hard disk drive, you must complete these tasks.
Your hard disk drive is preinstalled at the factory as a single partition. If
you choose, you can repartition your hard disk drive into multiple partitions. (The first partition
must always be 6-GB.) Before you restore your system using the Product Recovery CD, you
must have two partitions on your hard disk drive.
create an MS-DOS boot diskette
delete drive D
delete the DOS partitions
create a primary DOS partition
create an extended DOS partition
format the partitions
reboot the system
restore the drive
run Partition Magic utility if a single partition is desired.
Note
Be sure to attach the AC adapter to your system before beginning the restore process.
Creating an MS-DOS Boot Diskette
1.
Insert a blank diskette into the diskette drive.
2.
At the C: prompt, type format a: /s and press Enter.
3.
Type Y to proceed with formatting and press Enter.
4.
Type cd \windows\command and press Enter.
5.
Copy the files, format.com and fdisk.exe, to drive A as follows. Type
copy format.com a: and press Enter
copy fdisk.exe a: and press Enter.
Deleting Drive D
1.
Turn the system on with the MS-DOS boot diskette installed in the diskette drive.
2.
At the A: prompt, type fdisk and press Enter.
A message appears asking “Do you wish to enable large disk support? (Y/N).”
3.
Type Y and press Enter.
The FDISK Options menu appears.
4.
Type 3 to delete the partition or logical DOS drive and press Enter.
5.
Type 3 to delete logical DOS drives and press Enter.
6.
Type D to delete drive D and press Enter.
2 Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive
7.
At “Enter Volume label,” enter the volume name if one exists and press Enter; if no volume
name exists, press Enter.
8.
Type Y at “Are you sure?” and press Enter.
9.
Press Esc twice to return to the FDISK Options menu.
Deleting DOS Partitions
1.
From the FDISK Options menu, type 3 to delete the partition or logical DOS drive and
press Enter. The Delete Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu appears.
2.
Type 2 to delete the extended DOS partition and press Enter.
3.
At “Do you wish to continue?” type Y and press Enter.
4.
Press Esc to return to the FDISK Options menu.
5.
Type 3 to delete the partition or logical DOS drive and press Enter. The Delete Partition or
Logical DOS Drive menu appears.
6.
Type 1 to delete the primary DOS partition and press Enter.
7.
At “What primary partition do you want to delete?” type 1 and press Enter.
8.
At “Enter Volume Label,” enter the volume name if one exists and press Enter; if no
volume name exists, press Enter.
9.
Type Y at “Are you sure?” and press Enter.
10. Press Esc to return to the FDISK Options menu.
Creating a Primary DOS Partition
1.
Reboot your system.
2.
At the A: prompt, type fdisk and press Enter.
A message appears asking “Do you wish to enable large disk support? (Y/N).”
3.
Type Y and press Enter.
The FDISK Options menu appears.
4.
From the FDISK Options menu, type 1 to create a DOS partition or logical DOS drive and
press Enter.
5.
Type 1 to create a primary DOS partition and press Enter.
6.
At the prompt, type N to not use the maximum available size and press Enter.
The system verifies the integrity of the drive and a prompt appears asking you to enter the
partition size in megabytes.
7.
Enter 6144 for the partition size in megabytes (6-GB partition) and press Enter.
The primary partition is created.
8.
Press Esc to return to the FDISK Options menu.
9.
Type 2 to set the active partition and press Enter.
10. Type 1 for the number of the active partition and press Enter.
11. Press Esc to return to the FDISK Options menu.
Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive 3
Creating an Extended DOS Partition
1.
From the FDISK Options menu, type 1 to create a DOS partition or logical DOS drive and
press Enter.
2.
Type 2 to create an extended DOS partition and press Enter.
3.
A prompt pertaining to partition size appears. Press Enter.
The extended DOS partition is created.
Note
Whether a 12- or 18-GB hard disk drive is installed on your system, this extended
partition will contain all remaining gigabytes left to that drive.
4.
Press Esc.
5.
At the prompt to enter the logical drive size, press Enter for maximum.
6.
Press Esc three times when the process is complete.
7.
Reboot the system to activate the partitions.
Formatting the Partitions
1.
At the A: prompt, type format C: and press Enter.
2.
Type Y to proceed with formatting and press Enter.
The C: partition is formatted.
3.
At the A: prompt, type format D: and press Enter.
4.
Type Y to proceed with formatting and press Enter.
The D: partition is formatted.
Restoring the Hard Drive
1.
When formatting is complete, remove the diskette, insert the Product Recovery CD in to the
CD-ROM drive, and reboot the system.
2.
The License Agreement displays on the screen. Type A to accept the license agreement.
3.
The Restore options appear on the screen. Type P for partition restore.
4.
Type C to copy the contents of the Product Recovery CD to the C: partition.
Use only the Partition Restore option on the Product Recovery CD for
restoring. Do not use the Full or Express options. The first partition must always be 6-GB.
4 Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive
Creating a Single Partition Using Partition Magic
In order to create a single partition for your 12- or 18-GB hard disk drive, you need to use
Partition Magic 4.01 after you complete the restore process. Verify that the Partition Magic 4.01
file is on your Application and Driver CD (located in the \software\all\pm directory). If your
Application and Driver CD does not contain version 4.01 of the Partition Magic software (check
the readme.txt file on the CD), contact NECC Customer Support at 1-800-632-4525. Ask for the
URL and password, which is necessary to download the utility (there is a password protection
on this utility). Once you have the URL and password, you can download the file,
pqmagic401.exe.
If Partition Magic is on the Application and Driver CD, double click setup.exe in the
\software\all\pm directory to install Partition Magic to your hard drive.
Once you download or copy the pqmagic401.exe file to your notebook system, note the
following:
From the C: prompt, go to the directory where the pqmagic401.exe file resides.
Type pgmagic401 and press Enter.
The Partition Magic program installs on your system. Follow the on-screen prompts to
repartition your hard disk drive as desired.
Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive 5
Restoring the 12- or 18-GB
Hard Disk Drive
819-200646-001
02/2000
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6 Restoring the 12- or 18-GB Hard Disk Drive
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