Hello,

I recently had a virus take over my computer and decided to reinstall Windows because things were getting cluttered anyway.

I bought a Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM Sata hard drive to be used in two partitions. 200 gig for operating system, the remaining 440 for storage.

I have an Asus A8V deluxe motherboard. I know it will support this new drive.

How do I install win XP to this drive that is brand new?

Thanks,

Steve

Assuming you've got the drive plugged in etc -

Put the XP CD in
Go into the BIOS and make sure boot from CD is before boot from HD
Save and exit the BIOS
Follow the instructions to boot from the CD
Follow the instructions in the Windows setup
Create 2 partitions using NTFS (Quick), one 200GB, the other using the remaining space (~440GB)
Continue to follow the instructions

You can't go too far wrong really. If you have an XP Service Pack 2 or better CD it'll be straightforward. If not, you *may* have to install SATA drivers for your motherboard. You may have been given a floppy disc with your motherboard with the drivers on, or you may have to download them and put them on one. You then need to press F6 when prompted during setup. Hopefully you won't have to bother with this though.

Unplug the old one, plug in the new one, and boot from your XP CD, and it'll install.


Once XP is up and running, you can plug the old drive back in if you still want to use it as a secondary drive.

The XP install cd-rom isn't user friendly when trying to create partitions.

Here's a freeware collection of useful tools for setting up and testing a system:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Quote from speedfreak227 :

Hello,

I recently had a virus take over my computer and decided to reinstall Windows because things were getting cluttered anyway.

I bought a Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM Sata hard drive to be used in two partitions. 200 gig for operating system, the remaining 440 for storage.

I have an Asus A8V deluxe motherboard. I know it will support this new drive.

How do I install win XP to this drive that is brand new?

Thanks,

Steve

1. Get (or make) a SP3 install cd, normal XP either doesn't recognize HDDs over 250 gigs or can't make a partition over that size...
2. Make sure you set your SATA devices to be recognized as IDE in the BIOS or you will need a SATA driver for the XP-setup to find the HDD...

Quote from bbman :

1. Get (or make) a SP3 install cd, normal XP either doesn't recognize HDDs over 250 gigs or can't make a partition over that size...
2. Make sure you set your SATA devices to be recognized as IDE in the BIOS or you will need a SATA driver for the XP-setup to find the HDD...

Ahh number 1 is a good point, but with the XP SP3 CD there won't be a problem with the SATA drivers I think, as they sorted it out by SP2.

Quote from pb32000 :

Ahh number 1 is a good point, but with the XP SP3 CD there won't be a problem with the SATA drivers I think, as they sorted it out by SP2.

I had to do it, otherwise it wouldn't find the HDD...