How to Configure a SATA Hard Drive

Configuring a SATA hard drive is an essential task to allow the drive to work within your computing solution. The configuration process sets the file system type and cluster size on the hard drive. These settings are operating system specific and must be tailored to a specific user's needs. The process of configuring a new SATA hard drive is easy enough for any computer user to accomplish.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" button located in the lower left corner of the Windows desktop.

2. Enter "compmgmt.msc" to either the "Run" or "Start Search" text box located within the Start menu and press "Enter." This will open the computer management utility.

3. Click the "Disk Management" heading located in the leftmost frame of the computer management utility. This will load the virtual disk service and enumerate your installed hard drives.

4. Right-click the hard drive you wish to configure from the drive and numeration list in the center frame. This will bring up the standard context menu.

5. Left click the "Format..." heading within the context menu. This will bring up a format dialog box.

6. Select the file system you wish to configure the new drive as from the "File System" pulldown. Choose the NTFS file system if you're running Windows NT, XP or Vista. Choose the FAT file system if you are using Windows 95, 98 or Millennium Edition.

7. Leave the "Allocation Unit Size" set at default, unless you have a specific reason to set it otherwise. This setting is virtually always left on the default for home users.

References

• Disk Management