To use this tutorial you first must have prior knowledge of computing and basic experience within them.




1. Backup all important information on your computer, as everything will be deleted.
2. Make Sure you have your Windows XP CD at hand (We need this to re-install Windows!)
3. Restart your PC and press 'DEL' (or the key that boots into your bios) when prompted.
4. Change the boot sequence to boot from your CD drive first. (This varies over different computers)
5. Save settings.
6. Insert the Windows XP disc into the CD drive.
7. Restart the PC.
8. Press any key to boot from CD upon being prompted.
9. Some Files will load.
10. When it asks you if you want to install Windos, push Enter.
11. Read the License Agreement and press F8 when finished.
12. Now choose the partition to install to (Install to the partition Windows is currently on!)
13. Select NTFS format procedure. (Note: Not NTFS quick)
14. Setup will continue and eventually restart the computer.
15. When restarted do not boot from the disc.
16. Follow the on screen instructions...
17. DONE!

There we go, that was my first tutorial I have given on Trap17 and I hope that it was a good one. Please let me know if there have been any fatal errors during this installation and I will be able to assist you with finding the solution.




This post has been edited by bradley908: Oct 6 2007, 11:20 PM

a couple of points

- You will not damage your Pc or any hardware if you do it wrong,you will have to delete all your partitions and format them and start again

- Not every pc uses the delete key to boot into BIOS

- If you want to partition your computer, ie. have a partition for backup then you will need to use a Partition manager to change the size of the XP partition and create another partition Either fat 32 or NTFS, i would suggest fat 32 as you can boot from a custom boot floppy and run Old Classic PC games that are not designed for NT based machines.

You can even load XP on a fat32 partition this will allow you to runn classic "Dos-Based" games.

- also with your XP CD you will need your product code, which should be on the System case of your PC (where everything plugs into), without this you won't be able to install or activate XP.

apart from those mentioned above, not bad for your first tutorial

True, my Intel Desktop board uses the F2 key.

Some more questions:
What is the difference between FAT32 and NTFS??
I've heard people say they with FAT32 you cannot have partions bigger than 32G
Bs(don't remember the exact figure). Is that true?

What is the minimum space to run Windows XP smoothly?

What are the advantages of format over quick format??

Is it legal to create an unattended copy Xp for yourself?

Good first tutorial. Neat, simple and to-the-point. Keep up the good work.

OK here are few more addons. ON this topic firstly of all as one of members pointed out it in fact cannot damage any of hardware issues and it certainly cannot destroy any of your computer hardware components however I deeply suggest that you backup all your informations that you will need as they will go and you will not be able to retrive it. Also I would like to point out tht you should make sure that you keep it up and running all the way the procedure goes because blackouts and otehr things that might happen will force you to start over again, and sometimes it can be hard and tyring also I would like to point that you do not neccessery need Windows operating system installed on you computer you can use some of free Linux distributions and so on. And to continue I am coming to the most important reason or bug in your tutorial and that are drivers.

This is so important that if you don't do it you will regret so much. Why because when you restart your operating system you lose all data on it as it was already pointed out. But if you don't have correct drivers nothing will work correctly and this is really big problem. So drivers are neccessity. And you will have some hard time finding them without proper internet connection when you restart your system. And this happens once to me so I always double check whether I ahve all the drivers at hand before I start reinstallation of Operating System or formatting complete hard drive. And before I forget double check that you ahve backed up all the things that you might need or you do not need but yout think it might come handy sometimes. So to continue with drivers. How to obtain drivers. Check out first what components you've got in your machine and then go to internet and search for drivers download all the drivers and burn them on CD this is suggessted because then you will not need to do it once again when you have to restart your computer that is reinstall your system once more. Instead you could just put them on USB stick but after some time you would delete it and then you would need to go trough this procedure once again when you decide to reinstall your system. OK to continue with story you've obtain all your drivers and you procede with installation and when you finish you install all your components and everything works OK.

Now next step is to update drivers, you should go (Beware this procedure is only for Microsoft's Windows users) to mycomputer you have it either in stat or on the desktop as Icon and right click on it then choose properties and then choose leeflet tat is called hardware and then go trough each and every device and update driver. Also I would suggest that you really check whether it is accurate and latest driver. Because this will make sure that your computer operates at optimal efficiency.

And finally before I conclude I would like to say that I am aware that todays operating systems as Windows and as Linux have much drivers in their library but they will always have some that are missing and if you are the unhappy one that you have such bad luck that your driver is missing then you will really appreciate the uproach presented above. As it will solve much of your problems.

Good Luck with Disk Format or Operating System reinstallation. I so much adore format C: from DOS

The difference between Fat 32 And NTFS is NTFS has increased fault tolerance and enhanced security.

About Fat32 Partition size, under 2000 or XP the limit that you can create is 32GB, Under Linux as far as i know there is no limit.
So no it is not true, here is a link to create a Fat32 to Install XP on fat32 Click Here

The minimum space to run XP with ease, from what i have herd, by cutting out loads of junk programs is 700mb, but i would suggest at least 2gb, for pagefile (or swapfile).

The advantages of Format over Quick format, is if you create a new partition it needs to be fully formated, quick format is handy if you are backing up data to a HDD.

Yes it is legal to create an unattended copy of XP, this helps with Reinstalling, As long as you own the copy of XP and have the COA on your case, you won't have an issue.

I have a Program that will compile a disk to install XP unattended and also give me instant access on the same disk to My Core applications and Drivers for My Hardware.


Hope this answers you questions

Thanks for your help guys, most of those points I had thought about putting in but I didn't want to get you all confused.
Thanks for your points, and that was my first tutorial so I thought it wasn't that bad.

over time you will get better i am sure.

I have done several tutorials for my company, Long and drawn out, but i haven't had one person come and ask me anything on them cos i had all the info in there.

One thing i could suggest for better tutorials, is give an explanation why you did it this way or that way.

One point I would like to ask is why you chose Full Format over Quick Formet.

The only difference between them is that the Full Format checks the drive for physical errors before formatting while the other skips to formatting.....
I doubt using Full Format often will be necessary and also you forgot to add details for SATA harddisk installation!

This is essential only for users of SATA harddisks.

1) Take the floppy containing SATA drivers from motherboard manufacurer or create one using the otherboard CD.
2)After Step 7 of Bradley's tutorial, press F6 when prompted at bottom of screen
3)After some files are copied, it will ask you to insert floppy
4) Insert it and press S
5) Select the drivers
6) Now proceed with Bradley's tutorial!

Still good work on your tutorial!

Nice tutorial, bradley908, simple and clean!