How do I reinstall Windows XP?

For the 56XX system (because you own a 5620 I remember seeing you post about), you put in your Windows XP recovery CD (currently same as Windows OEM) and during boot up, push "F2" to enter the bios setup. Make sure you boot sequence is set to boot from CD before the hard drive.

Then boot from the CD and go through Windows setup. You will first hit this screen:


Hit enter

Next you'll hit the policies screen for Windows and press F8 to get by it:


Pres ESC to install a fresh copy of Windows once you hit this screen:


Next you will come acress the available drives screen to load Windows onto. This is an examle of what you'll see with a single 60GB hard drive. You can at this point partition it into multiple drives by pressing "C" and following the directions, but to install Windows, make sure the drive is highlighted and press "Enter"


Press "C":


I always select Format NTFS (Quick) at this point:


Press "F"


Then it will go through the testing and formatting:


And start to load Windows by itself... The computer will reboot itself a few times during installation so don't freak out:


Hit Next:


Type in a name:


Type in the Windows serial code found on the sticker on the bottom of your computer if you ordered it with Windows pre-installed and hit next:


Type in your computer name:


Set up the date and time... believe it or not there are cases where you can't do Windows updates if your date and times aren't correct lol.


I always select the default "Typical"


Type in the name of the workgroup if you have a network set up you want to be a part of. It's not ahuge deal, it's easy to add the network later and you can leave it default:


Hit "OK"


Hit "OK" within the 30 seconds it allows you:


"NEXT"


I always skip this one because I use LAN or wireless to connect to the internet. You can configure your internet later:


Enter a user name you want your profile set up as:


You're done installing WIndows!


Now, remove the Windows CD and insert your drivers CD.

Follow the steps in your manual ont he order of installing drivers. Be sure and right click my computer, go to properties, click the hard ware tab, and click device manager. If you see any yellow "?" or "!" in there, then you have a device needing a driver or needed one reinstalled.

Huh?

Internet explorer?? or the windows explorer ??

I'm not so sure...I think having issues with the explorer will require a full re-installation of the OS - let Adam clarify...

I got my 567o today and it took a while but I installed windows 2000 professional and the ATI video drivers the Sager came with. However, how do I reformat the Hard drive HDD when I want to get rid of everything (OS) and install the XP Professional once I get my hands on the operating system?

Adam can you answer, gsferrari you mentioned that you reinsatll XP Pro on a regular basis. I would like to do this so my 5670 will last a longtime but I have no idea how to.

Can anyone please go step by step onhow to d othis.

Also gsferrari, I tried removing ATI controls and programs like you mentioned but the 3.2 ATI catalyst drivers would not work in the Windows 2000 version. Has anyone had any luck with updatying the new 3.2 drivers on their 5670?

Thank you everyone.

Drivers...

I am readying the review for posting and I can tell you that the modded drivers from s-seven.net work great.

But for the initial two weeks - one month I suggest you keep everything default and make sure the system is alrite - forget about the benchmarks for the moment. We have a demo model here and we are really fooling around with it applied artic silver thermal compound to the cou's and heatsink etc lol

So you see - just make sure everything is ok the first week or so and then play the fool with your new laptop...

Best of luck...

How to format a drive:
1. Get a bootdisk. 3.5 disk
2. Insert bootdisk into the A drive
3. Turn computer on
4. When it gives you the option boot with CD support
5. when its done booting and you get to the A:\ promtp type: format C:
6. the answer yes when it warns you all information will be lost.
7. Wait until its done formating, may take quite awhile depending on how large the drive is.
8. When its done it will ask you if you want to label the drive, doesn't matter if you do or not.
Drive is formated.

9. to install insert CD into CD drive, then type cd-rom drive letter then install. If the CD drive is drive E: then you would type E:
10. lastly type setup and then follow the instruction poster earlier.


I use windows 98 bootdisks, I find xp's not as usefull. Go to http://www.bootdisk.com for bootdisks.

Simple, boot off the XP Pro CD and when it comes to the blue DOS-like screen select Install NEW, then it asks WHERE you want to install it.

From there, DELETE and RECREATE your partitions, then it will ask about formatting and select FORMAT NTFS (Quick) - unless you want to wait for a while, and do a full format (which isn't such a bad idea...)

XP is INFINITELY faster to install than 2000. I just reinstalled a 2000 on a friends' Dell, and it was PAINFULLY slow (and it wasn't a Dell Win2K disc, but a real live Win2K w/ SP2 disk).

-myrkat

This will NOT work if the drive is formatted with a filesystem other than FAT16/FAT32. Bootdisks (typically) have DOS on them, and DOS cannot see NTFS (which is Win2K/XP Pro default filesystem).

To make your solution work, you'd have to go into FDISK first and delete the NTFS partition, THEN format C: - but then you'd have a crummy FAT/FAT32 disk.

-myrkat

You guys are doing it the long way, if you want to wipe out the hard drive, just open it, and using an eraser erase the 1's and 0's on the disk platters. Just make sure you do not erase the first 2048 numbers as those represent the boot sector. This should work for any OS. Let me know how that goes.


Ok serioulsy now, You can partition and format at the begining of the Windows XP setup. No need to do it from the command line if you are lazy.

I stand corrected. Hmm I think the last time I formated my hard drive I did exactly what you said, but then I had Windows xp re-partition it.

I just put in XP Pro and I chose FAT32 File system as my HDD. I later read that myrkat believes these are crummy hard drives.

Adam is that correct?

Anyone know why NTFS is better than FAT32. Please don't tell me I have to reinstall my XP Pro and drivers. I just defragged the C (17GB) drive and will do E (40 GB) drive but I noticed that it took fricken forever to defrag a 17 GB HDD in FAT32 mode why is that?

Does it have to do with being a FAT 32 file system

Please help.

Main points of that I know of in favor of NTFS. You don't loose as much space when formating and it also has a superior file system. You'll never see the scan disk pop up again after an incorrect shutdown. I believe there is a program to turn an fat32 to ntfs but I don't think it works if its the drive with the OS. So you'll have to run the win xp pro system disk and tell it delete your old partition and use NTFS. You will have to reinstall windows.

Try this...

You can read on the web why NTFS is better than FAT32...

Of course if you plan to use linux you will need at least on FAT32 partition...

Better to redo the whole thing and choose NTFS normal and not NTFS quick at least for the first time. It will take you close to 3 hours to get the formatting (slow) of C: ; OS install ; Formatting the other partition D: ; Installing Drivers ; SP! and other windows updates...

Just dont install the DX9.0a yet...use the default drivers and keep DX8.1 initially...

The next time you do this (Which I predict will be in approximately one week after your first OS install with NTFS) you dont have to do slow - you can do a quick format for C:, install OS and then check the quick format for the other drives when you format them through windows - this way it takes less than 45 minutes for the full job

gsferrari,

why do you think I should re-format in one week, is that for maintenance/ I am doing a search on why NTFS is better than FAT32 is it speed of file organization or accesibility?

I guess security is better. IBut is the security they are reffering to with NTFS mean preventing loss of files or preventing people hacking into my files? Man I hate feeling stupid with computers.

Here's an extremely long answer from experts exchange.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Oper..._20281807.html

Or I can make it easier for you, use NTFS. As to reinstalling in a week I have no idea why gsferrari said that. You'll have to ask him. I don't reinstall a win xp after a week after the first install buy maybe he has good reasons.

NTFS vs Fat32


FAT32 is an enhanced version of the FAT file system that can be used on drives from 512 megabytes (MB) to 2 TB in size. The partition size limit is approximately 128GB. FAT and FAT32 offer compatibility with operating systems other than Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

FAT32 can be accessed by Win95B (OSR2, OSR2.1), Win95C (OSR2.5), Win98, Win98SE, WinME, Win2K and WinXP.
It cannot be accessed by DOS (prior to version 7.0), Windows 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 (without the use of third party utilities).

The majority of systems are formatted with FAT32 as the default.
NTFS (New Technologies File System) has all of the basic capabilities of FAT, and it provides the following advantages over the FAT and FAT 32 file systems:

File security. Access rights can be assigned to files and directories, allowing users full access, partial access or no access at all to data on your hard disk.

Disk compression. File and directory compression can be performed directly without the need for third party utilities, saving space, while allowing for transparent access and operation to the user.

Support for large hard disks, with a theoretical limit of 16 ExaBytes, and up to 2 TeraBytes (TB).

NTFS supports Unicode, and natively supports long file names.

Disk quotas can be assigned, limiting the amount of disk space users can access on a partition.

Encryption. The NTFS 5.0 file system can automatically encrypt and decrypt file data as it is read and written to the disk.

NTFS can be accessed by Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Note that there are some differences between the NTFS used by Win2K/XP and WinNT; you need to apply Service Pack 4 to Windows NT in order to access NTFS5.

Fault tolerance: file system journaling. See below.

Mounted drives: attach volumes to an empty folder. Operates much like the Assign command from DOS.

Hard links: create an NTFS-based link to a given file.

Sparse files: assign and reserve hard disk space to specific files.

File Streams: multiple data streams are supported and accessible with NTFS.

Each file system in depth:

The following limitations exist using the FAT32 file system with Windows 2000 and Windows XP:

Clusters cannot be 64 kilobytes (KB) or larger. If clusters were 64 KB or larger, some programs (such as Setup programs) might calculate disk space incorrectly.

A volume must contain at least 65,527 clusters to use the FAT32 file system. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so that it ends up with less than 65,527 clusters.

The maximum possible number of clusters on a volume using the FAT32 file system is 268,435,445. With a maximum of 32 KB per cluster with space for the file allocation table (FAT), this equates to a maximum disk size of approximately 8 terabytes (TB).

The ScanDisk tool included with Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98 is a 16-bit program. Such programs have a single memory block maximum allocation size of 16 MB less 64 KB. Therefore, the Windows 95/98 ScanDisk tool cannot process volumes using the FAT32 file system that have a FAT larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size. A FAT entry on a volume using the FAT32 file system uses 4 bytes, so ScanDisk cannot process the FAT on a volume using the FAT32 file system that defines more than 4,177,920 clusters (including the two reserved clusters). Including the FATs themselves, this works out, at the maximum of 32 KB per cluster, to a volume size of 127.53 gigabytes (GB).

You cannot decrease the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so that the FAT ends up larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size.

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Win2K/XP. The Win2K/XP FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behaviour is by design. Microsoft recommends using NTFS for partitions greater than 32GB.

If you need to format a FAT32 partition greater than 32GB, you will need to do it under Windows 98/SE/ME.

NTFS is the native file system that Windows 2000 and Windows XP uses.

Security is one of the most often touted advantages of NTFS: the administrator can assign various rights to each file and/or directory on an NTFS partition. Rights can be assigned according to individual users or groups of users, allowing or denying reading, writing, execution, deletion, and other attributes.

One key advantage of NTFS is that it is a recoverable file system because it keeps track of transactions against the file system. When a CHKDSK is performed on FAT32, the consistency of pointers within the directory, allocation, and file tables is being checked. Under NTFS, a log of transactions against these components is maintained so that CHKDSK need only roll back transactions to the last commit point in order to recover consistency within the file system. Under FAT, if a sector that is the location of one of the file system's special objects fails, then a single sector failure will occur. NTFS avoids this in two ways: first, by not using special objects on the disk and tracking and protecting all objects that are on the disk. Secondly, under NTFS, multiple copies (the number depends on the volume size) of the Master File Table are kept. The role of the MFT is critical in NTFS, and it is easily fragmented: regular use of a good defragmentation tool is recommended. Programs such as Diskeeper, PerfectDisk and O&O Defrag will do the job. The Defragmentation Tool that ships with Win2K and WinXP DOES NOT defrag the MFT.

Another key feature of NTFS is the ability to encrypt files and directories; this process is transparent to the user. Win2K/XP includes the ability to encrypt data directly on volumes that use the NTFS file system so that the data cannot be used by any other user. Files and folders can be encrypted by setting an attribute in the object's Properties dialog box. The Encrypting File System (EFS)is the file encryption technology Microsoft uses to encrypt data directly on volumes that use the NTFS file system. You can use the encrypted data the same way you use non-encrypted data. In addition, you can configure permissions for your encrypted data to prevent unauthorized use. Someone who does not have the correct permissions receives an Access Denied error message if they try to open, copy, move, or rename an encrypted file or folder.

NTFS also has a disk quota system, where disk space can be allocated to different users: again this is transparent, the user simply sees the disk space available to them. Administrators can limit the amount of disk space users can consume on a per-volume basis. The three quota levels are: Off, Tracking, and Enforced.

As drive sizes and the sheer number of files on a partition increases, NTFS's performance does not degrade. On partitions or directories with several thousands of files, FAT32 operations slow to a crawl.

Mounted drives, also known as volume mount points or drive paths, are volumes attached to an empty folder on an NTFS volume. Mounted drives function the same way as any other volume, but are assigned a label or name instead of a drive letter. Mounted drives are robust against system changes that occur when devices are added or removed from a computer. They are not subject to the 26-volume limit imposed by drive letters, so you can use them for access to more than 26 volumes on your computer.

You can use the fsutil hardlink create command to create hard links. A hard link is an NTFS-based link to a given file. When you create a hard link to a file on an NTFS volume, NTFS adds a directory entry for the hard link without duplicating the original file. You can use the same file name as the original file but appear in different folders; use different file names from the original file but appear in the same folder and use different file names from the original file and appear in different folders.

Sparse files provide a method of saving disk space for files that contain meaningful data as well as large sections of data composed of zeros. If an NTFS file is marked as sparse, then NTFS allocates disk clusters only for the data explicitly specified by the application. Non-specified ranges of the file are represented by non-allocated space on the disk. When a sparse file is read from allocated ranges, the data is returned as it was stored. Data read from non-allocated ranges is returned as zeros. An example of a program that uses sparse files is Indexing Service, which stores its catalogs as sparse files on NTFS volumes.

Finally, if you do a lot of file searching, the indexing feature greatly speeds up searches by maintaining an index of all files on a drive.

All of the above does have its impact on performance though, and it is recommended that you disable any features that are not needed if you use NTFS. If you encounter problems, remember that you will not have the comfort of being able to boot into DOS: installation of Microsoft's Recovery Console, or some other recovery software is recommended.

You can access the Recovery Console from Win2K/XP's boot menu, or selecting Repair when you boot up from the Win2K/XP CDROM.

From the above, it can be seen that NTFS is the better file system with many advantages over FAT32. In most cases where Win2K is going to be the only Operating System, it would be best to use NTFS. However, there are times when you should consider FAT32.

If you're setting up a dual-boot configuration, you should probably use FAT or FAT32.

If you're dual booting Win2K/XP and another operating system, choose a file system based on the other operating system, using the following criteria:

Format the partition as FAT if the installation partition is smaller than 2 gigabytes (GB), or if you're dual booting Win2K/XP with MS-DOS®, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT.

Use FAT32 for use on partitions that are 2 GB or larger. If you choose to format using FAT during Win2K/XP Setup and your partition is greater than 2 GB, Setup automatically formats it as FAT32.

If you're using a dual-boot configuration (using both Win2K/XP and another operating system on the same computer), you may not be able to gain access to files on NTFS partitions from the other operating system on your computer. For this reason, you should probably use FAT32 or FAT if you want a dual-boot configuration. The NTFS used by Win2K/XP is not compatible with the version used by Windows NT4. There are programmes available that will make NTFS partitions accessible under Windows 98/ME such as NTFS for Win98 and NTFSDOS Professsional Edition.

http://www.winternals.com/products/fct/ntfswin98.asp
http://www.winternals.com/products/r...ntfsdospro.asp

info : http://is-it-true.org/nt/utips/utips154.shtml

and more info : http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ntages+of+NTFS

LOL


about the reformatting in one week. You will do it sooner or later - trust me Somewhere some driver will behave like a dick and you'll wanna set things up differently, adjust your partitions...

But second time onwards is quicker and easier...

Its just the search for the perfect set up - you'll understand as you really get INTO this computer business...I started less than 3 years back with my first PC. I had a Mac for 2 years before that and no computers before the mac So I am still a noob compared to most peeps on this forums...

They are not crummy hard drives, rather FAT32 lacks the performance and self-maintenance of NTFS (they are Filesystems, not hard drives).

You do NOT need to reformat and reinstall XP, you can simply CONVERT your FAT32 filesystem to NTFS with the built in command in WinXP (although you CANNOT convert back to FAT32, as NTFS is immensely more complicated).

CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS [/V] [/CvtArea:filename] [/NoSecurity] [/X]

volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:NTFS Specifies that the volume is to be converted to NTFS.
/V Specifies that Convert should be run in verbose mode.
/CvtArea:filename
Specifies a contiguous file in the root directory to be
the place holder for NTFS system files.
/NoSecurity Specifies the converted files and directories security
settings to be accessible by everyone.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid.

Be sure to have a THOROUGH defrag and error check prior to doing this. It will then, at next bootup, convert your filesystem.

-myrkat

Usefull information. I wasn't sure if you could convert a partition the os was on.