Dec 12
2007The Text-Based Portion Of The Installation
Filed Under (Windows Xp) by Admin on 12-12-2007
Tagged Under : ASR, boot, drivers for SCSI, FAT, file systems, hard drive, installation, Microsoft, ntfs, recovery console, SATA, windows, Windows Xp, windows xp installation, XP setup files
When you boot using the bootable XP CD, you are prompted with “Press any key to boot from the CD”. Here begins the first part of the setup, characterized by a DOS-like screen with a blue background.
Press [F6] at this point if you wish to install additional drivers for SCSI, SATA or other mass storage adapters via a floppy disk. Then press [F2] to run the ASR (Automatic System Recovery) sequence using an ASR floppy disk or a backup created on the hard drive. (This will be required if you already have XP installed and have a problem booting.)
After Setup has loaded the necessary drivers, you’ll be instructed to press [Enter] to set up XP, [R] to repair a previous installation of XP using the recovery console, or [F3] to exit setup. Since we’re installing a fresh copy of XP, we’ll only talk about the first case.
Now, you’ll need to read the license agreement, and press [F8] to accept it.
The next step comes about when you already have a version of Windows installed. Setup searches for an earlier version of Windows, and if it finds one, you’ll be prompted to either repair it or install a fresh copy of Windows.
If you choose to install a fresh copy of Windows, you will be provided with the existing hard disk partition configuration. If the hard disk is unpartitioned, you can create and size the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional. If the disk is partitioned but still has unpartitioned space, an additional partition can be created and Windows XP Professional can be installed on it. If the partition that Setup chooses by default has an existing operating system, you will be overwriting it if you accept the default installation path. However, files other than the operating system files, such as program files and data files, will not be overwritten, and a dual-boot system will result.
If the hard disk has an existing partition, you can delete it to create unpartitioned raw space for a new partition. (Bear in mind that deleting an existing partition erases all data on that partition.) Next, you are presented with the option to choose the type of file system for the partition on which you wish to install Windows. You may choose between the NTFS and FAT file systems. You can also choose between Quick Format and Normal Format. Normal Format is the default, and is the more reliable option, because it securely deletes all data on the partition and checks it thoroughly for errors.
Setup then begins to format the drive. After formatting, the copying of the XP setup files to the hard drive begins. When the copying is done, the computer restarts, and you must remove the floppy (if there is one) from the floppy drive. The text-based portion of the installation ends here.