Quote:
Originally posted by Dehcbad25
Welcome PSD!!!
Don't worry about being a novice. We are all novice in some field, and we were novice before ;)
If when you turn on your PC with the Windows XP CD inside, it boots exactly as it used to do without the CD in the CD-ROM, it means that your CMOS (BIOS) configuration is set to boot to the hard drive directly in order to save you time.
To install XP, and format the drive, there is 2 ways when this happens.
But first, be warned, that formating will erase all data in that drive, and you cannot recover it, so make sure, there is nothing that you will want to recover later. Make a backup off all files you want to keep!!!
You can chose your backup method, or if you need asistance, lets us know.
Now, lets suppouse that you have all backed up, and you have all the drivers that you need (download new drivers for all your PC components, more important your NIC card and video, just in case XP don't recognize those components).
1)- You can either iniciate the Windows Instalation from the CD, and look for an option that says something similar to this "Let me chose partitions in the instalation" I don't remember the exact message right now, and I don't have an XP CD with me either. So if you need the exact message, I can post it for you tonight.
When you select that box, after copying all files to the disk, and rebooting, it will give you a couple of more options to install XP.
It will ask you in which drive you want to install it, and in which partition. Also you will have the option to format partition one drive in order to install XP from clean. I recomend that you install in the same partition that you did before, so, you format that partition and install it there. From there on, the instalation wizard will guide you just like when you installed it the first time.
2) This might seeem more advance, but you need to learn it either way, so it is better to at least try it.
You will need to change your booting sequence, so it boots first from the CD.
I will try to be the most clear possible. If you don't undertand any of the words I use, let me know, and I will explaing it for you ;)
You have to enter to your CMOS, also refered as the BIOS. You can do this in many ways depending of the version. (It might be Phoenix, Award, etc.).
Usually you have to press del. or in Compaq is F2. Some Dell are ctrl+alt+enter.
Other are F10. If you let us know what is the BIOS version we could possibly give you a more detailed and specific information and steps.
Now, also depending of the CMOS version it will have different option, but basically you have to look in General, or Advance section, and look for "Boot order". The CMOS screen will let you know at the bottom how to change selections, and which keys to use. Most of the time you move with the arrow keys, and change selection with - and +.
What you want is to select the boot order in a way that the CD-ROm is first, the The floppy drive, and then your Hard Drive.
Save the changes, and then the PC will reboot. And you will see that it tries to boot first from the CD, if there is not bootable CD, it will try the A: drive, if there is no disk there, it will go to the Hard drive and boot normally.
This will only add a couple of seconds to your total booting time, so you can leave it this way is you want to after reisntalling.
Now yu will be able to boot from the CD or a diskette.
Give it a try first and lets us know if you need any help
