I'm amazed how many people have trouble or are even scared about setting up a fresh operating system so here's a little guide. Be gentle it's my first one
Why would you want to re-install your operating system?
Every time you install a piece of software and install a new program you add something to your windows register. The same goes for driver upgrades. Over time your operating system becomes bogged down and even corrupted with these processes until it begins to crawl or behave in a perculiar way. When this happens the best solution is to wipe your hard drive and re-install the operating system.
Before you embark of setting up Windows Vista or indeed any operating system it's a good idea to have a search around the web for new drivers for all your hardware. Graphics card, soundcard, Raid if you use it, motherboard drivers are the main ones you'll probably need. Have a look in your control panel under system > hardware devices for a peek at what's installed in your system if you don't know. You can also download tools such as
Sisoft Sandra which give detailed analysis of your system. Most of the drivers you'll need can be found on your motherboard manufacturers website.
Nvidia and
ATI are the main graphic card vendors and you should check their sites for the latest graphics drivers.
You should also make sure your system is Vista ready and able to actually run the new operating system. You can check your PC by using the
System Requirements Lab tests to find out a whole host of things about what your computer can and cannot do. AMD have a useful
Can your computer run Windows Vista page powered by System labs.
If your computer fails any part of these tests you'll need to upgrade your PC before you continue. Most forums have loads of members who can assist with this, recommending products and tips on how to install them.
Okay you should be all set for Vista launch!
Formatting a hard drive is not that complicated but before any procedures are carried out, you should backup all important documents and files. Either backup to a cd/dvd or use an external storage drive. Why? Because formatting your hard drive will erase all your files and settings. You can use tools such as
Mozilla backup to save any browser settings, favourites or thunderbird settings and there are plenty of such tools for Outlook and Internet Explorer.
One recommendation I would make is to either have two hard drives in your system and dedicate one to the operating system and one to your data and files. This makes future operating system upgrades or re-installs a breeze. If you don't have the luxury of two drives you can always split the partitions into two. Make one partition at least 50GB for the operating system (I usually make mine 74GB) and make the rest for your data.
You can create partitions during the installation of your operating system as Windows gives you this option.
You should also make sure you have your Windows Vista cd with you as you will need this to begin the installation.
Once you have all the necessary materials prepared (Windows CD, Back-up disks, Drivers, Software, etc), you need to find out what file system you have on your hard drive. It's worth mentioning, in the Windows XP Operating System, you may come across two possible types of systems: NTFS or FAT32. Each system has its own procedures in continuation with the formatting process. Most users should always select NTFS these days and certainly Windows Vista uses NTFS
For users who need to wipe a hard drive that uses NTFS, it can be done in two different ways. I'm going to talk about the easiest way and that is using the Windows start up disk - the disk with your operating system on.
To begin the installation process, put the Windows Vista disk into you cd/dvd drive and restart your computer. At this point it's a good idea to go into your computers bios and check it is set to boot from the cd rom drive.
To change the boot sequence and make the CD ROM drive the primary boot device, hit the F2 key on startup to enter setup or F12 key to enter boot menu. You'll need to look around your BIOS untill you find the menu that controls the boot sequence and set your cd drom as the primary boot device above any hard drives. All BIOS's have little variances so it helps if you have the motherboard manual to hand or download one from the manufacturers website. If you are using a Dell PC now is the time to pull your hair out and curse the day you ever bought one
Save the BIOS and restart the machine again and you should see a option to boot from the cdrom/dvd drive - usually it asks you to press the space bar or something like that to boot from the cd.
Now it's plain sailing from here. Windows pretty much walks you through the whole process so I won't go into too much detail here. Just remember what I said about formating and partitions and you can't go far wrong.
Once Vista has finished installing, the first thing I do is run my graphics card drivers I downloaded - in my case Nvidia. This sets up the display with the latest drivers and best possible performance. If you have drivers for your motherboard and you know they are Vista ready, go ahead and install them to see if that get's rid of the unknown devices. LAN drivers if you use a network might and soundcard drivers usually need to be installed.
After that you need to go to the control panel in the operating system - start button > control panel - check your system devices to see if any drivers need installing or upgrading. Usually the soundcard will show up with a little ? mark and possibly Raid controller if you are using that. Right click on any unknown devices and try to upgrade the driver - if you have downloaded some for your device, you can point windows to use them.
Finding the right drivers can be tricky but if you get stuck, ask in the forums as usually somebody can point you in the right direction.
That's it folks. Good luck and may the Vista be with you.
How To Format A Hard Drive and Install Windows Vista -
03-02-2007, 04:47 PM
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