The Hard drive
The hard drive is the main storage medium combining large stor-
age capacity and rapid data access.
The Windows operating system cannot use the full capacity of the
hard drive, which means that there will be a difference between
the capacity that the BIOS displays and what the operating sys-
tem displays.
The hard drive contains the operating system of the computer,
other application programs and backup files. These programs and
files are pre-installed on your notebook, so you may note that
some of the space on your hard drive is already taken.
Whenever the computer is accessing the hard disk, the corre-
sponding LED illuminates.
Warning!
Never switch off the computer while the busy indicator
is lit since this may result in loss of data.
If you are looking for a file on the hard drive and you know the
name, go to Search on the Start menu to find the file. Following is
some general information on where you might find some common
files.
Usually your hard drive is divided into several partitions, as shown
below. The partitions of your hard drive may vary from what is
shown here.
BOOT
RECOVER
C:
Windows XP
Software programs
Your documents
D:
Drivers for internal PC components
Installation files for software that came
with your PC
Restore software
T T
H H
H H E E
A A R R D D D D R R I I V V E E
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