How to Burn a Bootable Version of an FDISK CD for Windows

by Dan Howard

dvd image by dinostock from Fotolia.com

FDISK is a Microsoft system utility that can be used to prepare a hard drive prior to operating system installation. FDISK first creates a disk partition and then sets up file system parameters on the drive. If you need to partition a new computer, or repartition a hard drive that has been corrupted, you can create a CD that can boot to a command prompt so that you can run the FDISK utility.

Step 1

Download a copy of the FDISK utility, along with the necessary software for booting to a CD (see Resources). The required files are packaged in a self-extracting EXE executable file.

Step 2

Navigate Windows Explorer to the folder on your hard drive that the EXE file was downloaded to.

Step 3

Double-click the EXE file and follow the on-screen prompts to extract the FDISK program and boot software to your computer's hard drive.

Step 4

Insert a blank CD-R or DVD-R disk into your computer's CD or DVD drive.

Step 5

Navigate Windows Explorer to the folder that contains the extracted FDISK files.

Highlight the extracted files and right-click on them. Select "Send to" and "DVD RW drive D:", or whichever drive corresponds to your CD or DVD drive. Windows will burn a CD that can be used to boot to a common prompt and partition your hard drive using the FDISK utility.