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i'm a noob at this. i'm getting a comp with a formatted hardrive. i will install xp pro on it and i know that i 1st have to config the bios. How do i do that? :o :( :( :blink: Like i said, i'm a noob at building and setting up comps. Please help...
You shouldn't have to mess around with any BIOS settings that much, you may just want to go check and verify that
the IDE channels are set to Auto Detect or Auto. It should pick up the drives settings on its own.
You'll really just need to boot to the XP disc and run setup.
wat i meant was i need the steps:
do i boot the comp 1st, or put the xp cd in 1st?
do i format the disc again, or don't?
isn't there a faq or instruction thingy 4 this kinda thing?
Ah. Well, you can boot with no CD and no hard drive, just to enter the CMOS/BIOS setup utility.
It's usually, F10, Delete, or something like that...
There, you can check for the Auto-Detect.
Connect the Hard Drive, boot, and enter the BIOS again to make sure that it's there...if it's the only Hard Drive
installed, it'll be like IDE0 (<that's a zero).
Then, insert the CD and reboot.
It should boot to the CD and start Windows XP Setup.
It will guide you through creating partitions, and it will format the primary partition where you'll install XP.
Then, the real setup will begin.
If, for some reason, you can't boot to the CD, create a 98 Boot Disk or an XP setup disk. You can even download
some really nice ones here.
To install XP from a command prompt with a 98 Boot Disk, type this at the A:> prompt:
E:\i386\winnt.exe
(where E: will be the letter assigned to your CDROM drive. This will be displayed at the top of the screen.
Microsoft Boot Disks
it's simple:
put the cd in and turn it on. if it's already set up... the xp setup will run automatically and install xp. all you have to do is click next a few times during the process. it'll take about 30 minutes to install and then you should download service packs, etc.
if it's not all you need to do is config your bios to boot from cd, or get a boot disk and then boot to cd.
if you have format it... xp makes that very simple too. i'll look for a guide but basicaly all you do is delete the 'partition' and install it onto that partition.
before i install xp. should i divide the comp into different partitions. the harddrive has 120 gigs, and i heard making partitions is better, but i'm not sure if i should. so far, i haven't found anything 2 good about it. any help?
Partitions are only good if you want to install another os on it. Partition Magic is a utility for doing that. Also you don't have to format your computer, when your in you os, whatever it may be, just put in the win xp disc, if it doesn't run auto-matically, go into my computer, and click on the icon that has the XP disk in it.
edit: If you want to, you can partition it after you have the xp installed.
does make extra partitions add security? that's wat i heard. but i'm not sure the source was reliable enough. and it was a few years ago.
No. Partitions won't make your system any more secure, really.
With a 120GB drive, if you partitioned it into 2 60GB logical drives, you could back up one partition to the other,
but if the hard drive itself failed, everything on both partitions would be lost.