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Clean Install of XP

This document provides step-by-step instructions and screenshots for performing a clean install of Windows XP from start to finish. It outlines the 15 phases of the text-based installation process, including booting from the XP CD, selecting installation options, creating partitions on the hard drive, formatting partitions using NTFS, and copying installation files. The process concludes with an initialization step before automatically restarting the computer to begin the graphical user interface portion of setup.

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Francis Musau Wambua
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47 views6 pages

Clean Install of XP

This document provides step-by-step instructions and screenshots for performing a clean install of Windows XP from start to finish. It outlines the 15 phases of the text-based installation process, including booting from the XP CD, selecting installation options, creating partitions on the hard drive, formatting partitions using NTFS, and copying installation files. The process concludes with an initialization step before automatically restarting the computer to begin the graphical user interface portion of setup.

Uploaded by

Francis Musau Wambua
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Clean Install Procedure with Illustrative Screen Captures

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition - Upgrade Version


System: Personal Computer

Phase I - Text Phase

 Unpartitioned and Unformatted Hard Drive


 CD ROM Drive
 Keyboard
 Mouse
 Network Interface Card
 Bootable XP CD

The preferred method for initiating a clean install of Windows XP is by


booting from the XP CD. If the CD drive is not set as the primary boot
device it will be necessary to access and modify the BIOS settings. Once
the CD drive is set to be polled before the hard drive, insert the XP CD
into the drive and power on the system. If the screen shown in Figure 01
appears, all is well and the clean install of Windows XP Professional is
underway.

Figure 01
Almost immediately after Windows setup begins the screen shown to the
left will appear. Unless you have the very latest in hardware you probably
won't need to press the F6 key to install and SCSI or RAID driver.
However, when XP is first installed it tries to determine what type of
BIOS is available on the computer. Newer systems have what is known as
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) capability.
Unfortunately, XP doesn't always recognize a computer BIOS is ACPI
capable and doesn't install the support for ACPI. Pressing F5 at this point
allows you to select the proper HAL. A full description of the process is
here.

Figure 02
Once the initialization process completes the screen in Figure 03 loads to
guide the XP installation process. More than anything, this screen is a
fork in the installation road. This guide deals with a clean install and to
accomplish that goal select the first option by pressing Enter. If you
wanted to use the Recovery Console with an already completed XP
installation, pressing R would be the proper choice. F3 ends the current
installation process. After pressing Enter, setup will search the drives for
an existing XP installation.
Figure 03

Pretty much any way you go at an installation anymore you're going to


run into the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, better known as the End-
User License Agreement or EULA, shown in Figure 04. Press F8 if you
agree to the terms or press Esc and start researching alternative
operating systems if you don't agree. There's no middle of the road.
Since you agreed to the terms of the EULA in the previous step, and
because this is a clean installation from an upgrade version of XP to an
unpartitioned and unformatted hard disk, the screen in Figure 05 appears
Figure 05 asking you to verify you qualify to use the upgrade product. Of all the XP
installs I've done I could count on two hands the number of times they
have been done from full version CD's rather than upgrade CD's, so it's
pretty likely you'll see this screen. The qualifying products are listed on
the screen. Replace the XP CD with the qualifying product CD and press
Enter.
Once Microsoft is convinced you've agreed to the EULA and qualify to
install the upgrade version, the screen in Figure 06 appears where you
choose a drive and partition on which to install XP. For those familiar with
Figure 06 prior Windows operating systems, this section of setup is equivalent to
FDISK when a clean install is being performed. In this example, since
there is only the one hard disk it will be used to create the install partition
by pressing C.
Once the partition creation has been initiated, the screen in Figure 07
opens and prompts for the size of the partition that will be created. As
long as you adhere to the minimum and maximum listed on the screen
Figure 07 you have the freedom to set partition sizes as you wish. Keep in mind
that there are minimum space requirements to install XP. Set the size of
the desired partition and press Enter.
Once the partition has been created you are returned to the screen in
Figure 08. If there is still unallocated space on the drive and you want to
create another partition, highlight the unallocated space entry and press
Figure 08 C again to repeat the partition creation process. If you want to change
the partition that was just created, highlight it using the up and down
arrow keys and press D. A confirmation message will be displayed. Once
you're satisfied with the partition scheme, highlight the desired install
partition and press Enter.
The final step after creating and selecting the install partition is specifying
the file system to use for formatting the partition. The available choices
will be shown on the screen that appears as in Figure 09. In most cases
Figure 09 you'll want to use NTFS. It's far more secure than FAT32 and supports
permissions, encryption, and compression. The only reason for
considering FAT32 would be data sharing with W9x/Me installations and
since this scenario deals with a clean install it's not even a consideration.
Remember a few steps ago when XP wanted you to insert a CD to prove
you qualified to use the upgrade version of XP? What it didn't do was tell
you to remove the qualifying version and reinsert the XP installation CD.
Figure 10 That time has arrived. Why it doesn't do this immediately after the
verification I have no idea, nor will I waste more time on this screen.
The XP CD is back in the drive and the partition is being formatted. This
part of the process is totally non-interactive and a tad less interesting
than watching paint dry - unless of course the paint is the same hideous
Figure 11 yellow color as the progress bar.
You thought the part where the partition was formatted was boring?
More of the same in this section of setup where the files needed for
installation are being copied to the hard drive. You'd think at the least
Figure 12 they could have changed the progress bar color.
Almost there; the configuration is being initialized. This screen has a
blissfully short appearance.

Figure 13

Finally. A red progress bar that indicates the system will reboot in 15
seconds so the Graphical User Interface portion of setup can begin. If
you're still awake, tap the Enter key to speed up that 15 seconds until
Figure 14 restart. This is the end of the text portion of setup.
This is it - Prepare yourself for what is possibly the longest commercial
for a piece of software that has ever been presented, also called the
Graphical User Interface phase of XP setup. Click the Onward to Phase II
link below.
Figure 15

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