Installation
Upon booting the IBM laptop for the first time there will be a few items you will need to verify and possibly alter in order to have your laptop or desktop boot to the disc in the drive. The area you need to access is referred to as the BIOS section of your pc. For some great reading on what the BIOS is please visit, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS.
In order to access the BIOS on an IBM laptop, you need to press the “Access IBM” button on the keyboard. This will then prompt you with the screen below. For most PC manufacturers the F1, F2 or Delete keys are used to access the BIOS. Verify with pc manufacturer website.
If you have successfully pressed the “Access IBM” button before the system begins to run processes for components needed, you will see this screen on this particular laptop. Other PC manufacturers may bring you directly to the BIOS utility screen that is shown in the picture. Upon entering here you have 3 options, the one that best suits our needs is “F1”, to enter the BIOS setup utility.
You can also hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard to pause this screen. This feature keeps you from having to reboot constantly to read the options presented.
The PC used for this documentation was an IBM T41 laptop fitted with a Intel Pentium Mobile Processor running at 1600 mhz (1.6) at 599 MHz and 512 MB of RAM. To learn more about what MHz mean and their function in PC’s please visit the following website, here.
Here is the back side of the laptop where you can see that it was a type 2374 laptop. This information for IBM laptops particularly, is needed when troubleshooting and seeking answers to specific functions.
In most BIOS systems, the options are very similar. So even if you do not have an IBM machine, look for the “Startup” section of the BIOS utility and that will enable you to modify the necessary items.
Once you have start up highlighted, you will notice on this particular machine that the highlighted section is in white, you simply hit enter and it will prompt you with the next screen.
Here you may notice several options for Boot Order Priority. On this particular machine you have them in the following order: USB Floppy, Legacy Floppy Drives, Atapi CD, USB CD, IDE HDD0, PCI Lan, USB HDD, and IDE HDD1.
These options, or lack there of will vary from computer to computer depending on hardware and mobility. In this case we already have the CD ROM device reading as a possible boot device before the hard drive. No work or changes needed here. However if you did, you would simply highlight what you need to move up and hit “F6” on the keyboard, and “F5” to move any one of them. These controls also vary, but the principles are always the same.
Once appropriate changes have been made you can simply hit “F10” to save the configuration you have chosen and exit the BIOS utility to reboot. The “F10” pertains to this particular machine, however your PC manufacturer may have th same controls. If you look on the bottom of the screen as you see in the print screen before this one, you will notice that quick access control.
ls are placed there for your convenience.
Now is a good time to put the install cd/dvd for windows in the CD ROM drive.
If you agree with the changes, highlight yes and click “Enter”.
Upon rebooting if the correct changes were made you will see the following screen, along with hearing your CD ROM drive wind up. If you press any key on your keyboard it will automatically begin to load the Windows install to install a fresh copy on your hard drive.
These next few print screens will look identical on your monitor no matter what PC or laptop you have, unless you are using a manufacturer specific install cd/dvd where some of the screens may be different, but the end result will be very similar if not exactly the same.
Please note that if your computer uses a SATA, RAID, or SCSI hard drive system, chances are you will need to install the proper drivers in order for the Windows setup to recognize the hard drive you want to install the setup on.
Most, if not all manufacturer disks will have the proper drivers loaded for you to accomplish the task, therefor you may not need anything more than the install disc.
Once Windows has loaded all the files needed for setup, it will prompt you with the following screen. Here you can run the recovery console, or setup a fresh copy of Windows. You can also exit the setup altogether if needed.
For this exercise we will press the “Enter” key to setup a fresh copy of Windows XP.
Your next screen will prompt you with the Microsoft End-User License Agreement. You should read this so as to understand what your limitations, or lack there of may exist with owning a copywritten piece of software. Once you have read and agreed to the EULA, press the “F8” key to agree and continue with the setup.
Upon agreeing to the EULA, Windows setup will scan for previously installed and versions of Windows. It will then again present you with options to repair the current installation, if you have one, or to continue with installing a fresh copy.
Here we will press the “ESC” key in order to continue with the setup.
Now you have reached the setup screen that will display all of your hard drives, and the partitions located within them. Experience has taught us to split the partitions into 2 sections. Create one partition for the operating system (OS) only and the other for data.
This method has saved countless hours in backing up information if your computer were ever to fail for software purposes. If your OS partition becomes corrupt, or has been infected with a virus/trojan you can simply just re-install the OS and all of your data will still be located on the separate partition. We will demonstrate how to split the partitions. For most home users, it should be about 35% of total space for OS and the remaining 65% for data. Press “D” to delete the existing partition.
The next screen will warn you that you are deleting a system partition (in this case since we are installing a fresh copy on a hard drive where there was already a working copy of Windows). It warns you that you will lose all of your data, and to be sure that we know what we are doing. Since you have already backed up your information, you have nothing to worry about, right? Backing up your information is the most important part of owning a personal computer with lots of data. This will be discussed in detail in future versions of these tutorials.
Here you will press “Enter” to delete the partition and continue.
It will then prompt you with another warning screen to ask you to press “L” to absolutely delete the partition and cautioning you that all data on the partition will be lost.
Once complete you will them be brought back to the original setup screen where it will display your harddrive(s) and the now unpartitioned space. Here you have three options; ENTER - which will install Windows on that current partition using the entire hard drive for OS and data, C - you will be able to create a partition of the size that you choose, and F3 - to quit setup at that exact point.
We will press “C” to create a partition of approximately 35% of the total amount of space available on the hard drive.
Since the hard drive on this laptop is only 38, 154 MB, 14,154 MB is the amount we have decided is fair for an OS install. If this was a larger hard drive and you use many resource and hard drive space dependant programs, you may want to consider using up to 50% of your hard drive space for an installation procedure.
Not usually to exceed 35 Gigabytes of space. This is also depedant if you download large files and require that the temporary files be held on this particular partition. These are all factor that come into consideration and should you have any questions, please post them on our forum and we will answer them as timely as possible.
Press “Enter” when you have entered the appropriate size needed.
You will now notice that you have one newly created partition, and an “unpartitioned” space. Meaning the space is there on your hard drive, but not in a format that is usable at the moment.
Highlighting the unpartitioned space and pressing “C” will allow you to create another partition of your selected size.
We recommend that you allow Windows setup to create a partition with the remainder of the space on the hard drive so as to have only 2 partitions. Unless your personal needs exceed that of two partitions, then you can make them as large or small as you need them to be.
Once you have chosen the appropriate size, you can press the “Enter” key to create the second partition.
We now have two NEW partitions which are unformatted and ready to be used for installs and other manipulations. Notice how Windows setup assigns a drive letter to each partition. Generally, we always want the partition with the “C:”, to be the designated OS install, using other partitions for data, or perhaps even dual boot installations which we will cover at a later date.
Once highlighing the “C:” partition, press the “Enter” key to install Windows on that particular partition.
Next Windows setup will prompt you to format partition that you are installing Windows on. There are two types of file systems currently used with Windows XP, FAT 32 and NTFS. NTFS (New Type File System) is the recommended system for security and large file support. FAT 32 was very popular in the Windows 95, 98, 98SE, and even ME editions. However, NTFS has proven it’s ability to work more effecient than FAT 32, therefor it is highly recommended. If this is a clean install, meaning a new hard drive, you can opt out to the “Quick” NTFS format, otherwise it is better to use the normal format which will take longer, but ensures a clean partition. Press “Enter” and you will see the following print screens. Actual install time varies based on hardware capabilities.
Once the installation of necessary files has completed, Windows setup will reboot itself and bring you to the following prompt after few minutes of load and setup time. Please note that actual time of loading OS setup files and reboot can take seconds on some of today’s computers, and 30+ minutes on computers that are 3 years or older.
Upon this screen, you can alter the regional language options and verify some options of text input on your keyboard. If you live in the US and this is an US Windows install, you can simply next using your mouse and the pointer on the screen. If your mouse is not showing up for any reason, you can use the “TAB” key on your keyboard to manuever to the different setup options. Press “Next”.
Upon clicking next you will be prompted for a Name and Organization. You should insert your name here, and company or organization name if such exists.
Once completed, click “Next” once again to continue.
Then you will be prompted to enter you Microsoft product key. This key can be located on your actual computer tower, or in the box in which your Microsoft software was originally packaged in.
If you purchased your PC from a major manufacturer such as DELL or HP, you can contact them if you lost your product key, or contact Microsoft directly. Enter the 25 digit code, and press “Next” to continue the setup process.
Upon entering a valid product key you will be prompted to enter a “Computer Name”. This should be specific to its use for a home PC. If your name is mike, you can name it something like; mikespc. You can generally use all alpha and numeric characters for computer names. However many symbols and blank spaces are not allowed.
You can also enter an administrator account password. This will serve a great purpose if you have many accounts on one computer that will have parental and OS controls in place to keep certain tasks from happening. if you are the sole user, no administrator password is necessary. Once complete, press “Next”.
In the next screen you will be prompted to set the proper date, time and timezone. Please set these settings according to where you live.
Once date, time, and timezone have been set, Windows will then go through a series of operations where it will install necessary items to complete Windows setup.
As setup completes you may see screen like the above, just let Windows continue and do not turn off the computer at any point in time. Let the installation run it’s course.
Once setup is complete the computer will reboot it self and you may notice a print screen that will warn you of adjustment to the screen size to better fit your screen. The wwindow will read, “To improve the appearance of visual elements, Windows will automatically adjust your screen resolution”, Click “OK”.
Once Windows setup has determined the appropriate resolution to continue (this process is generally very quick and will only take a few seconds) it will display a window stating, “Windows adjusted your screen resolution. If you can read this text, click OK to continue”. If the resolution fits your screen well, as it should, click “OK” to continue.
Once screen resolution has been adjusted, Windows will resume the rest of the setup on it’s own. Depending on computer hardware this process can take up to several minutes. Most newer computers will have this process completed rather quickly.
The first Windows welcome screen thanks you for purchasing Microsoft Windows XP. It will then prompt you to click next to continue to setup user accounts and other measures that help Windows stay secure.
The first step is setting up Automatic Updates from Microsoft’s servers. This option is HIGLY recommended. Simply click the radial button, “Help protect my PC by turning on Automatic Updates now”. once selected, click “Next” on the bottom to continue to the next screen.
Next you will select how many user acounts you want this computer to have. If you have 3 people in your house who will use computer, setting up different accounts will have benefits in privacy and parental control. Setup user accounts as needed and click “Next”.
The last screen is Microsoft thanking you for purchasing it’s product. Click “Finish”, to continue to loading Windows XP for the first time.
Upon clicking “Finish” you will be greeted by the Windows “WELCOME” screen. You will then see Windows XP for the first time.
This completes the Windows XP Installation tutorial.