Thursday, March 10, 2011

How To Format a System n re-install an OS

formatting via windows graphical user interface

FORMAT HARDDISK/ HARDDRIVE

Depending on whether you are formatting your master hard drive orslave hard drive the ways of formatting will differ.
To format a Slave Hard drive (Not the hard drive with your current Operating System) you can simply format the drive in two ways, these methods are
formatting via windows graphical user interface

1. Simply go into My computers then right click the specific Hard drive you wish to format then simply click Format. From here you can select the format type Fat 32 or NTFS ( NTFS the most common these days as its much faster than Fat 32)

 Its also best to click the quick format option as this will dramatically reduce the time it will take to format the Drive. Remember when using this method you must close all applications and files that are being run the computer from that drive otherwise you will not be able to proceed with the format.

2. The next way is to format your hard drive via command prompt. To enter command prompt simply click start then run and enter “cmd” (without the “”) this will then bring up the command line. You can now format from here by simply typing format followed by the drive letter. E.g Format C:/


The next method is for formatting your primary or master drive and the best way to do this is to do it as a part of your windows installation. I will cover the formatting of the hard drive along with the installation of windows O/S below.

selecting the partition to install Windows onto
copying windows files, after this point windows will reboot and continue graphical installation

Format Hard disk and Install Windows Operating System

selecting the partition to install Windows onto
selecting the partition to install Windows onto
copying windows files, after this point windows will reboot and continue graphical installation
copying windows files, after this point windows will reboot and continue graphical installation



Steps
 1.
The first step is to enter your computers BIOS. To do this when your computer is booting up it may ask you if you wish to enter setup or bios. The most common key to enter your setup/bios is DEL or F1. It may differ depending on what sort of motherboard you have just make sure you look out for the alert to find the appropriate key. If you cant seem to catch the key or if the screen flashes on too quick try pressing the Pause Break key and this will pause the boot up screen for you.
 2.
The next step is to change the boot up options for your computer. Depending on your motherboard it will be in a different location but it should be quite easy to find with a little searching. When you find it simply change the boot up priority on your computer so that the number 1 priority is to boot from CD or DVD ROM Drive.
3.
Once you have setup your boot up priority and saved and exited your BIOS, its time to put your Windows CD into your CD/DVD rom drive and wait for it to do its thing and boot up. You may be presented with an option “If you wish to boot from the CD press any key” where you should press a key for the windows cd booting process begins.
4.
Once the windows CD has booted up select from the Menu install Windows. From this point you can choose where about you want to install your operating system files. When starting from scratch the easiest thing to do is to delete all the partitions and start from the beginning. Once you have created the partition sizes you would like (e.g. a 80GB hard drive into two 40GB partitions.) you can select on which partition to install windows. Its always recommended to install windows onto a partition incase one of the partitions fails the other one can be used to retrieve backup data.
5.
Now select the type of format FAT 32 or NTFS (NTFS recommended) and once you’ve pressed enter Windows will pretty much take over the rest. You will have to answer a few prompts along the way (admin name, passwords, network settings etc) but that’s about it. The installation of windows usually takes no longer than an 120 minutes , the time taken will depend on how much memory you have, hard drive space and cpu speed.


Well, here is my step by step instructions on how to format your computer with windows xp. I appologise in advance if any of this seems condescending.

1. You need your current CD key, use this

CODE
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/downloads/kf141.zip
to get your cd key. WRITE IT DOWN!!!!

2. If the hard drive you are planning on installing windows to is either a raid array or a scsi drive, get the drivers and put them onto a floppy drive.

2.5 Disconnect your network cable, assuming you are using some kind of network based interweb (ie. not dial-up)

3. Restart your computer.

4. When your computer is first starting up, enter your bios ( this is typically done by pressing either delete or F2 ) instructions should be on your screen. (Ie. press del to enter setup, or press del to enter bios)

5. Somewhere in your bios will be a way to change your boot order, make the CD-ROM drive the first boot device.

6. Put the Windows CD into your CD-ROM drive.

7. Press F10 to save and exit your bios. (yes you want to save the changes)

8. Watch the screen for the command: Press any key to boot from the CD... (press the space bar)

9. After the blue screen comes up, if you needed to do step 2, press f6, if not then don't worry about it.
9.5 Follow onscreen instructions for installing drivers

10. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears press Enter.

11. Press F8 to accept the license agreement

12. Next you want to select the install new copy option.

11. You should see one or more drive partitions, assuming that you want to do a complete format of your system. Follow the onscreen directions to delete all your partitions, until you only have unpartitioned space.

12. Then select the unpartitioned drive you want to install windows to, and hit enter.

13. You will then be presented with several format options, you should use the Format the partition by using the NTFS file system. (not the one with quick in the brackets) Depending on the size of your hard drive this may take upwards of an hour.

14. Go do something to amuse yourself while the computer is formatting. ( I leave this up to your imagination )

15. When this is finished your computer will restart and begin installing windows, you just need to follow the simple on screen instructions. You will need to enter things like your CD key, network settings, name... at this point.

16. Once the windows is finished installing reconnect your network cable and go immediately to the windows update site (start ---> all programs ---> Windows Update) and install all critical updates.

17. When your computer restarts after the windows update is finished, go back into your bios and change the boot order so that your hard drive with windows installed is your first boot device.

18. Now comes the fun part of reinstalling all the crap that you just deleted!

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