HOW TO FORMAT A COMPUTER USING WINDOWS XP INSTALLATION CD?? INTRODUCTION: Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001..., it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience", highlighting the enhanced user experience. Windows XP, the successor to Windows 2000 and Windows ME (Melliemium), was the first consumer-orientated operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel. Windows XP was released worldwide for retail sale on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006. It was succeeded by Windows Vista in January 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell Windows XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009. On April 10, 2012, Microsoft reaffirmed that extended support for Windows XP and Office 2003 would end on April 8, 2014 and suggested that administrators begin preparing to migrate to a newer OS. SOME DEFINITION OF TERMS: 1. FORMAT: To prepare a storage medium, usually a disk, for reading and writing. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all Data/information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk before you can use it. Note that reformatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the address tables. Do not panic, therefore, if you accidentally reformat a disk that has useful data. OR DISK FORMATTING: This is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems. The first part of the formatting process that performs basic medium preparation is often referred to as "low-level formatting". NB: FORMATTING a Disk is not necessarily because it’s a new system, if your System MALFUNCTIONS, it needs to be FORMATTED, as the case may be, in order to put it into shape/normal use. SOME COMMON SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONS: • Ability not to Start… • Heavily infected by VIRUS, that some Sectors, files are now been affected. • ETC. 2. PARTITIONING: This is the common term for the second part of the process of Formatting a System. This Simply means making the data storage device visible to an Operating System and also Dividing it into different Segments/Partitions. 3. HIGH-LEVEL FORMATTING The third part of the process of formatting a System. It is most often referred to as the process of generating a new file system. In some operating systems all or parts of these three processes can be combined or repeated at different levels and the term "format" is understood to mean an operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files. STEPS TO FORMAT: This explains step-by-step on how to format hard drive partition using the Windows XP installation CD. Before you continue, make sure you have backup of all documents you may need that are saved in Drive C, My Documents folder or your desktop or even any other Drive on your System incase you need to Format other Partitions. • Step 1- Installation CD: Insert your Windows XP Bootable installation disc into your CD or DVD drive, or any format it comes in Depending Country... • Step 2 – Restart your computer and start Windows setup, CHANGE “Boot Device” to FIRST Boot from Optical Disk Drive, CD/DVD depending on what your System calls it. • Restart your computer. As your computer boots, a screen with message “Press any key to boot from CD...” will show up counting from 9 to 0, or a Blinking Cursor at the end of the above statement . Here you need to press any key to start the setup. NB: If your computer doesn’t display the “Press any key to boot from CD..” message (by default it should), that means you didn’t choose to “Boot from CD” check your BIOS settings, by pressing ESC (HP), F12(DELL), etc, depending on Manufacturer and Production Date/Update. • Step 3 – System Loading After you enter the setup, the CD will load up a BLUE SCREEN and will start loading operating system files (this may take few minutes). When it finishes, it will list a few options, “Press ENTER to set up Windows XP now” is the one we need. Click it. • Step 4 – Accept Windows usage agreement Second screen is “The Windows Usage Agreement/ Windows XP Licensing Agreement ”. It should be displayed now, showing that you need to press F8 to accept the agreement. Press F8 to accept. • Step 5 – Setup start If an existing Windows XP installation is detected by the system, you are prompted to repair it. We will bypass this step, since our AIM is to Format… • Step 6 – Delete old partition and format At this point you need to select the partition where you prefer to install Windows Xp. This is where you will delete your partition and format drive C:. The box in the lower half of the screen shows all your drives and the partitions that currently exist on your hard disk. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to highlight/select your “C:” partition and press the “D” key On the next screen press the ‘L’ key to confirm that you want to delete partition “C:”, and finalize the deleting of the partition. (if you have only “Unpartitioned space” and you have no C: or D: partitions, skip this step) • Step 7 – Create installation partition Now you should be back on the screen prompted to choose where to install Windows. The box on the lower half of the screen should no longer show a partition, instead of “C:” you should see “Unpartitioned space xxxxxMB”. Select/highlight this with the arrow keys and press the “C” key to create a partition on the drive (this is where you will install windows). Now setup tells you the minimum and maximum sizes the partition can use and lets you pick the size. The default size is the maximum available, leave the default value and press Enter. • Step 8 – Format the computer (the hard disk) This screen lets you choose the file system you prefer the drive to be formatted with. Choose NTFS or “NTFS Quick” (recommended because NTFS is faster and more secure). Use the arrow keys to select and hit Enter. NTFS, helps you DETECT BAD SECTORS, this requires your been ATTENTIVE while the Formatting process is going on; When the Formatting is going on, and the Percentage rate reads, Follow it and if the Interval from one percentage rate to another delays upto 5mins, or its sequence, then know that the portion of that Sector is bad. EG: if it’s a 120GB Hard Disk, and you are Formatting with any of the NTFS (Without Quick), when it gets to 50%, and starts delaying, upto 5 to 10 minutes before it moves to 51% or above, know that from 1 to 60GB (Advisable use 57GB or 58GB to be on a SAFE SIDE) of the Hard disk is good enough for your OS (Operating System) to be Installed on, which will be called “Drive C:”. Therefore choose 58000MB as the C: and then the Remaining as D:.With this, you have CUT off the Bad Sector, which now is under D:, then Create D:, as you can use it for Backup. And if it delayed from 51% - 100%, then know that the other half is bad. Do Vice Versa of the Above, by Installing OS on DRIVE D:. (This Example Method is sometimes applicable, if your Hard disk is NOT a NEW one). This can also be done on other percentages, just work it out with the size of the Hard disk. If 20%, then solve it (20/100 X 120/1) and so on. NB: You can have as many Partitions, as you like and even Install your OS on any Partition. This depends on the Size of the Hard Disk and what the User intends doing with it. When the Formatting is done, the System/PC will REBOOT and you will be Prompted with a Black Screen: Startup Message/Cursor Blinking. DON’T PRESS any KEY AGAIN. If you do, you will return yourself to BLUE SCREEN. The Size of the Hard disk, where the OS is been installed, should be Bigger, this enables the System not to HANG, after the OS and other Softwares must have been Installed, as OS takes about 3GB, the work out how many Softwares you want to install and give them a fair usage of 1GB each. Then leave about 7-10GB free. NB: Change of drive is been done automatically, (applicable to XP upto 2008, 2009 Viena depending on…, requires changing) so no need to go to Setup to Change the Installation/Saving Drive. BUT after you have completed the OS installation, you can go back and confirm. Step 9 – Start Windows XP Setup: Setup will start to and will auto-format the “C:” or your selected partition, and start with Windows XP installation. From here you are all set and the installation of Windows will proceed. This will take a while. The computer will reboot and will continue with installation. Don’t remove the Windows XP setup CD, and don’t press a key when prompted (we already did that). • During this Process, You will be asked to Enter the “CD KEY”, which is usually 25 characters (NB: No need to put the hyphen, it will be moving the Cursor to the next Tab, while you enter the keys). You will also be asked to set DATE, TIME, TIME ZONE etc. After this Process (of 39 Minutes), you can now remove the Installation CD, Complete the remaining process by Entering User (s), if Users, that means you want tom have an Administrator and Guest(s), that is One System for many user accounts. Also you will be prompted to enter NETWORK UPDATES mode etc. They are all user friendly. • After this you will have a DESKTOP Environment with few Icons (Recycle Bin, My Documents etc). • Now First Install an ANTIVIRUS (This is a protective software designed to defend your computer against malicious software. Malicious software, or "malware" includes: viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, hijackers, dialers, and other code that vandalizes or steals your computer contents. In order to be an effective defense, your antivirus software needs to run in the background at all times, and should be kept updated so it recognizes new versions of malicious software). Eg: Avast, McAfee, Norton, AVG, Avira etc. This will help Protect your System against the above Malicious Softwares etc. • Then begin Installing other SOFTWARES. If while Copying of files (OS files), process is going on, and it gets to a point and says “File cannot be copied” Retry etc, know that your Installation CD is not sound enough, either it has been scratched or damaged, or that your CD Drive (Its LENS) is weak. To bypass all this, use a sound CD/DVD drive and CD Installation Plate. But assuming the above happens, and you have same type (Same service pack and model) of the OS Installation CD, just remove it put the new one and PRESS ENTER key to continue. This will IMMEDIATELY locate the sector from where the previous Installation CD stopped and then continue your Installation automatically (only if the above conditions are met ([Service Pack, sound CD etc]). If you didn’t Format the other Partitions, before installing the OS on your desired Partition, that can still be done when the Format is complete, because if not the Drive cannot be used. Just GO to MY COMPUTER, Right click the Drive and Select FORMAT, NTFS then START. ENJOY YOUR FORMATTING ExpEREIENCE. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): 1. I have 6 partitions on my Hard Drive(C,D,E,F,G & H), and windows XP installed in C Drive. I have 12GB of total space in my C Drive. I want to reinstall windows XP with Service pack 3. Along with reinstalling windows XP I also want to increase the Space of my C Drive. So I want to format only C & D drives. As per above Tutorial step 6 & 7, I want to delete both C & D drives and from Unpartitioned spaced I want to reallocate space for C drive as 20 GB (before it was 12GB) and remaining unpartitioned space for D drive and other Drives E,F,G&H remained untouched and follow the remaining installation as per steps 8, 9.. a) Is this type of re-installation is correct? b) will this type of installation delete any data from other partitions(E,F,G,&H), as I am deleting D also along with C? c) As I am deleting both C & D but not E,F,G,&H will this type of installation show any error? Or any Formatting Error? or Loss of data other than C & D drives? (C is primary partition & D,E,F,G,&H are extended partitions). ANSWER: You can delete C & D drives and recreate partitions, other drives won’t be affected (E,F,G,&H) and you won’t loose the data stored there. a. Yes, it’s correct. b. No other partitions will be deleted. If you merge C & D drives (deleted the partitions and recreate one C partition), E will become D, F will become E and so on, but data wont be lost. c. You should not get any errors, as you are only merging partitions. C will be set to primary partition again automatically by Windows XP setup. 2. In the 6 Drives (C, D, E, F, G & H) while installing I want to delete only C & D drives. C drive is 12 Gb and D drive is 40GB. I will get the unpartitioned space of 52 GB. In that 52GB I want to repartition C drive with 20GB and D drive with remaining 32GB (but Im not completely removing D drive fully) But other drives E, F, G & H will remain unchanged. a) In this case after Deleting both C Drive(12GB) & D drive(40GB), will I get the unpartitioned space of 52 GB? (As C is the Primary Drive & D is part of extended partitions) b) After deleting C(12GB) & D(40GB) drives. Is it possible to recreate C & D drives with 20GB & 32GB. with effecting other Drives(E,F,G,H) c) After deleting Both C & D drives, will the E, F, G & H Drives will convert to C, D, E & F respectively Or E, F, G & H remains as it is? d) Instead of Deleting C & D drives, Is it better to delete C & H Drives. ( as I want to allocate some additional space to C drive from any other Drive so which option is better Deleting, C & D drives or C & H drives and Also want to recreate both the drives) ANSWER: Go with deleting C & D drives and recreating them. You will have the option to customize the partition size at “Step 7 – Create installation partition”. Insert 20GB for C and redo the step for unpartitioned space and create drive D. I also suggest you to use C & D partitions and not C & H. All other drives will remain as they are since you will again have C&D
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 07:13:43 +0000
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