How Do I Install Windows XP On A SATA Hard Drive

Serial ATA (SATA) drives are the latest in the hard drive fashion and, in theory, installing Windows on the drive should prove relatively simple. The problem is that Windows XP doesn’t contain the necessary drivers to allow windows to see the drive so that Windows can install it. To load Windows XP onto a SATA drive you need to proceed as follows: 1/ Copy the SATA drivers (these can usually be found on your pc or motherboards support disk. Usually these consist of PIDE/SATA Folders and TXTsetup.oem files. Alternatively they may have been supplied on a separate CD that accompanied your SATA drive, assuming you purchased it separately from the pc.) 2/ Insert the Windows XP CD (full retail version – you should not need to follow these instructions if your pc came with a recovery disk) into the CD-ROM and Reboot your PC 3/ Watch carefully as the Windows XP installation progresses and look carefully at the text at the bottom of each screen. 4/ At the Windows Setup Screen (this should be the second screen after installation starts) you should see, at the bottom of the screen) a message saying “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.” 5/ At this point press the F6 button 6/ When the next screen appears press S to specify an additional device 7/ Now insert the floppy disk containing the SATA drivers into your floppy drive 8/ Windows will next ask you to select a driver from the provided list 9/ Select VIA Serial (or whichever controller your motherboard supports) ATA RAID Controller (Windows XP) 10/ The SATA drivers on your floppy disk should now load 11/ After the drivers have loaded Windows XP will recognise your SATA hard drive and you can continue installing the Windows XP operating system

Converting Hard disks formatted to the FAT file system to NTFS

NOTE: This command is one way only, by doing this you will not be able to convert your drive back to FAT32 without 3rd Party utility or reformatting the drive.

The advantages to using the NTFS file system:

• Ability encrypt files on the hard disk (Windows XP Pro only)

• Set security permissions on folders and files allowing only certain users to access, write or delete.

• The ability to set quotas

• File compression

• Supports larger partitions (32Gb limit for FAT32 when installing Windows XP, with NTFS volumes of 2 TB and greater are possible) and file sizes than Fat/32 (On an NTFS drive the maximum file size is equal to that of the drive volume, on Fat16 there is a 2Gb size limit on each file, with Fat32 this is 4Gb).

• Improved resilience to data loss and efficiency vs. FAT

NTFS conversion should not be done in the following instances:

• In a dual boot scenario with another operating system that cannot read NTFS (Such as Windows 95, 98 or ME) when converted is the boot drive. (converting the boot drive will prohibit access to operating systems that cannot read NTFS).

• If you wish to access the converted drive using a dos boot disk (A 3rd party utility must be used to access an NTFS drive via Dos, encrypted files will remain inaccessible to dos).

• If you have upgraded from Windows 98 or ME and wish to uninstall Windows XP without having to reformat your hard disk.

With FAT formatted drives created with earlier versions of Windows there may be 2KB system sectors before the data starts and as the cluster size is often larger than 4Kb, you may end up with 512byte clusters which isn't an incredibly efficient conversion. You can align the data into a 4Kb area before you convert with a tool such as BootitNG - Compare Cluster Sizes
FAT32 partitions formatted by Windows XP do not contain 2kb system sectors..

To Convert a drive go to start, select run and enter cmd into the run box. When the cmd windows appears enter the following as shown in the picture below

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

Within Windows, covert will not be able to obtain exclusive access to your hard drive if any files are in use, as such the conversion must be done the next time Windows starts to load

On the next reboot the process will start by checking the drive for errors, before proceeding to determine the disk space required for the conversion and thereafter the conversion of the file system to NTFS.

Your drive should now be using the NTFS file system.

(XP) - How Do I Create An Emergency Start Up Disk For Windows XP

For those of you wanting to create an Emergency boot disk that will boot you straight to the desktop here is a simple method.

1/ Insert a floppy disk into your floppy drive.
2/ Open the command prompt (Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt
3/ Type format a: and press Enter.
4/ Next open Windows Explorer
5/ On the top toolbar click Tools followed by Folder Options
6/ In the Folder Options Windows click the View tab
7/ From the list select Show Hidden Files and Folder and place a check mark in the box to the left of this option.

8/ Still in the folder options window scroll down another two lines and then remove the check mark next to the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) option. A message will appear telling you that you have decided to display operating system file. Press OK to close this message. Now press Apply followed by OK
9/ In Windows explorer again look for the C: directory - this is the root directory
10/ You are looking for the following files NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM copy these to the floppy drive.
11/ Next open Notepad (Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories/Notepad) and type the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows [operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Windows XP"

12/ Next click the File menu and select the Save as Command. In the text box type "a:\boot.ini" (You must include the quotation marks. The boot ini file should then be saved to the floppy. You can now exit notepad
13/ Now reboot your machine to test the emergency disk. If all has gone well you should be able to boot to the desktop.

Please note the boot ini file applies only to a single partition hard drive. If you are dual booting this will need to be altered accordingly.

How Do I Convert My FAT32 File System To NTFS

Windows XP supports two types of files system, FAT32 and NTFS. Of the two, the NTFS is by far the more secure. Unfortunately, your operating system may have been installed using the FAT32 files system and now, after some considerable thought, you may decide that you really want an NTFS file system. This doesn't present a problem to Windows XP although you should be aware of a few important points.

On Converting you may loose files. You are warned about this when you begin the conversion. Another point is, do not covert if you have a multi-boot system containing Windows 98, 98 or Me. If you do have these operating systems and you decide to convert you will be unable to start the previous versions of Windows. If you need to multi boot with these operating systems and you still want an NTFS file system you would be advised to completely reinstall Windows XP and, at the format stage, select that the partition be formatted in NTFS.

1/ Click the Start Button

2/ Next click All programs, followed by Accessories

3/ In the Accessories drop down menu select Command Prompt

4/ At the Command Prompt type: Vol C:

5/ You should now see the following information:

Volume in drive C: is XP Home (or whichever version of XP you have)

Volume Serial Number is FF47-80EB (obviously yours will not be the same, but you get the general idea)

7/ Make a note of the Volume in drive details and the Volume serial number.

8/At the Command Prompt type: convert c: /fs:ntfs (Replace the c: with whatever drive letter you are converting)

9/ Press Enter

10/ When asked for the Volume Label for drive C: type XP Home (or XP Pro depending upon your current operating system)

11/ Press Enter

12/ Because you are converting the C: drive (this contains the operating system), a message will appear informing you that the drive cannot be converted. You will then be given the option of scheduling a conversion the next time you boot your machine.

13/ Schedule the conversion and reboot

14/ After rebooting the conversion should proceed as normal.

How Do I Create An Emergency Start Up Disk For Windows XP & Disable Error Reporting

How Do I Create An Emergency Start Up Disk For Windows XP

For those of you wanting to create an Emergency boot disk that will boot you straight to the desktop here is a simple method.

1/ Insert a floppy disk into your floppy drive.
2/ Open the command prompt (Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt
3/ Type format a: and press Enter.
4/ Next open Windows Explorer
5/ On the top toolbar click Tools followed by Folder Options
6/ In the Folder Options Windows click the View tab
7/ From the list select Show Hidden Files and Folder and place a check mark in the box to the left of this option.

8/ Still in the folder options window scroll down another two lines and then remove the check mark next to the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) option. A message will appear telling you that you have decided to display operating system file. Press OK to close this message. Now press Apply followed by OK
9/ In Windows explorer again look for the C: directory - this is the root directory
10/ You are looking for the following files NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM copy these to the floppy drive.
11/ Next open Notepad (Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories/Notepad) and type the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows [operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Windows XP"

12/ Next click the File menu and select the Save as Command. In the text box type "a:\boot.ini" (You must include the quotation marks. The boot ini file should then be saved to the floppy. You can now exit notepad
13/ Now reboot your machine to test the emergency disk. If all has gone well you should be able to boot to the desktop.

Please note the boot ini file applies only to a single partition hard drive. If you are dual booting this will need to be altered accordingly.


How Do I Disable Error Reporting

Error reporting is particularly useful for sending details of faults etc to Microsoft. However, because most users never get any feedback from these 'bug' reports many users never bother to send an error report. If you are one of these people then it is far more convenient to have the option disabled. To disable error reporting proceed as follows:

1/Click the Start button

2/ Next click Run

3/ In the Run dialog box type: msconfig

4/ The System Configuration Utility will now open

5/ Click the Services tab

6/ Remove the check mark next to the option Error Reporting Service

7/ Click OK

8/ The alterations will not take effect until you have restarted your PC

How Do I Format My Hard Drive Using Windows XP

Before formatting your hard drive you should take the opportunity to back up all important files and folders. As soon as you reformat your hard drive ALL data on that drive or partition will be destroyed.

1/ Before you can format your drive from the Windows XP CD you must ensure that your pc is able to boot directly from the CD - see Enabling CD-ROM support in the BIOS

2/ Insert the XP CD into your CD-ROM and reboot your machine.

3/When the Welcome to Setup screen appears press Enter

4/The next screen will show the license agreement. To accept press F8

5/Setup will now scan your drive for existing copies of Windows.

6/ If another copy of Windows is found you will be given two options

a) Repair

b) Install New Copy

7/ You need to install a New Copy so press ESC

8/ The next Window will show a list of all current drives and partitions.

9/ Select the C: drive for your installation to be installed to and press Enter

10/ The next window will show the format options. These are:

Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (quick)

Format the partition by using the FAT32 file system (quick)

Format the partition by using the NTFS file system

Format the partition by using the FAT32 file system

Leave the current file system intact (No Changes)

The FAT32 file system is not available if your hard drive or selected partition is larger than 32GB

11/ Select the file system you want to use and press Enter

12/ Your hard drive/partition will now begin to format

13/ After formatting has been completed Windows XP will continue to install on your hard drive.

How Do I Remove NTFS File System

If your hard drive is formatted in NTFS and you need to reformat the drive to use either FAT or FAT32 all you need to do is insert your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM, reboot your system and follow the instructions below:

1/ After restarting your PC the Windows Setup will begin

2/ At the Welcome to Setup screen press F10

3/ Pressing F10 opens the Recovery Console. This is a DOS based screen so you need to first specify the operating system location, i.e. C: Drive and then log in as using your Administrator Password.

4/ After logging in type map and then press Enter

5/Highlight the drive you want to reformat. Drive letters may differ in recovery console to those in windows xp

6/ Type format x: /fs:fat32 Substitute the 'x' for the drive letter you wish to reformat and then press Enter.

7/ Confirm your choice by typing Y and then pressing Enter

8/ Once the hard drive has finished formatting type Exit and then press Enter to restart your computer.