Formatting and installing Windows XP

With all the desired information safely stored on your external hard disk, it’s time to wipe the hard drive of all its information and start fresh. Place your copy of Windows XP in your CD-ROM and restart your PC. This will begin the Windows XP reinstallation process as outlined below:

Step 1: Beginning the install

The first screen of the installation process

This is the welcome screen for the Windows XP installation. At this screen, you’ll merely want to press enter to begin the process.

Step 2: Partition configuration

At this screen, you may see several entries that may be labeled C:, D:, or E:. Select each one of these entries and press D — confirming your decision each time — to delete the partitions. This will destroy the information contained on the disk and prime our hard drive for a fresh installation of Windows.

Next, create the first of two brand new partitions by pressing C. In the box, type 15000 and press enter. This configures Windows XP to be installed on a portion of your hard drive that is 15 gigabytes large. Your screen will now look similar to this:

The new C: drive for Windows XP is approximately 15GB in size

Next, press C on the unpartitioned space to create a second partition on the drive that contains all the remaining space on your hard disk. Going forward, all information that you own should be stored on this second portion. This best practice assures that you will have a place to store information from C: should you decide to format in the future, and it corrals your saved files so wiping the contents of C: will leave the majority of your files alone.

Press enter at this screen to create your second partition.

Now that you’ve created both of your partitions, your partition screen should appear similar to this:

The final partition structure. C: will contain Windows and E: will contain all your future files.

Note that our E: drive could be your D: or F:, as the number of optical drives configured in your system are assigned drive letters ahead of the second partition we created. Note also that the size of the second partition can vary wildly based on the size of your drive.

With that finalized, select C: and press enter.

Step 3: Formatting for Windows

On this screen, you will be given the option to format the C: drive. In our case, we’re going to proceed with an NTFS (Quick) format which will briefly scrub the partition of data and prepare it for installation.

Select NTFS (Quick) and press enter to wipe the partition.

Step 4: Copying files to disk

Windows will now begin copying files used for installation to the hard drive. This is a passive step that requires no interaction, but appears as below:

Windows is now copying files to your hard disk.

Step 5: Rebooting

Now that Windows has copied all of the files to hard disk for installation, the following screen will ask you to press enter to reboot:

Reboot your PC now by pressing enter. Do not remove the Windows XP CD from your CD-ROM.

Step 6: The XP installation GUI

Now Windows will start what’s known as the GUI portion of the installation routine. You will be able to use your mouse and keyboard to navigate menus, enter information, and select settings that pertain to the appearance and operation of Windows. The start of this section appears as below:

The first screen in the GUI portion of the Windows XP install routine.

Step 7: Regional settings

Most users will want to skip this screen by pressing next, but users outside of the US may want use this menu to adjust their language, region and keyboard settings:

Customize the cultural settings for Windows here. Languages, keyboard configurations, monetary symbols and number notations can all be set.

Step 8: Name and organization

Next, enter your name and the organization to which the PC will belong:

We have entered the information appropriate for our guinea pig machine. Your turn to enter yours!

Step 9: Product key

Enter your Windows XP product key in the boxes seen below:

Normally a CD key would be here. Ours seems to have fled for Privacyville.

Step 10: Computer name and the admin password

Next, configure the name of the PC as it will appear on the network, and configure a memorable user password to access the administrator account:

Our PC is rocking the Icrontic name, and we have the password in place so we can administrate the system securely.

Step 11: Date and time

Make sure you’ve set the proper date, time, and timezone:

Step 12: Copying files to disk

Now that you’ve configured some settings, Windows will finish copying files to disk and prepare the system for the creation of user accounts and the desktop:

Step 13: Enable automatic updates

Now that your computer has restarted and successfully loaded into the fresh install of Windows, make sure you keep your computer up to date with automatic updates:

Step 14: Create users

Next up, recreate the users that were on the previous installation of Windows:

Yngwie Malmsteen! Hell yes!

Step 15: Finish up

Now that you’ve gone through the steps of installing Windows, you’ll be treated to the login screen of your fresh installation of Windows!

Shwing! A copy of Windows that works!

And more importantly, a functioning desktop!

Look at all that functional real estate! Om nom nom.

Now it’s time to restore the information that we stored to your external hard drive.