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Building Your Own PC - Part 3

Great, we've completed building your PC - hardware wise. All that's left is installing the operating system, drivers and the applications you need. Be sure you have prepare their installation CD / packages. Driver(s) software for your hardware usually comes on the CD bundled with your hardware. If you don't have them for some reason, it might be a good idea to download them first from your vendor's or the manufacturer's website. By the way, drivers are usually updated pretty often, so it's a good idea to check these websites regularly, even if you have the original driver CD that came with your hardware. An updated driver usually contains bug fixes, additional features and performance improvement.

So, prepare all of this in advance (before you start installing Windows XP):

Turn on your PC and then place your Windows XP installation CD inside your CD / DVD-ROM. Make sure you've configured the BIOS to boot from the CD first and then the hard drive. If you're going to use a RAID array, then choose the CD first and then the controller that holds the array. Your PC should boot into the CD now and the installer will start. Press 'F5' if you're going to install Windows XP on a RAID array or a S-ATA hard drive. This will bring up an option to install the necessary drivers (your S-ATA / RAID controller drivers) so the installer will be able to detect the hard drives and arrays. It may take some time, just make sure you've pressed the 'F5' key until the menu appears. Continue with the installation until you see new menu - the 'Welcome to Windows XP installation' menu.

Windows XP is Easy

Follow the instructions displayed and you should be fine. The installer will try to detect all the hard drive you've connected to the motherboard. After this, you will be asked where you want to install Windows XP into. Pick the appropriate option (hard drive or array). Since we're installing into an empty hard drive, we must make a partition for that drive and format it. ATTENTION: this will erase any data on the hard drive / array, so make sure it's empty. If you have any data on them, exit the installation process and back it up first.

If you're using a hard drive bigger than 8 GBs, you will have to choose the NTFS format if you want to use a single partition. This is basically the easiest option so just follow it for now. To do this, just enter the maximum number indicated by the installer. Afterwards, choose NTFS and choose the 'quick format' option. This will save some time, since the installer don't have to format your hard drive (or array) physically. The installer will then check the partition for any errors and starts formatting. Next, it will copy the necessary files to complete the installation process, then it will restart your PC.

After restarting, let the PC boot from your hard drive, but don't remove the installation CD. We still need it since the installation process is not finished yet. The installation process will continue copying files and configuring your Windows XP installation. Keep your Windows XP product key handy, because the installer will ask for them. In some point, you will also be asked other things such as your PC's name, what will be name the domain / workgroup your PC belongs to and also the password you want for the Administrator account. Basically, your PC's name is the name your PC uses to identify itself to other PC in your LAN / network. Your LAN / network usually comes in two categories, either as a domain or a workgroup. If you're not sure, check with your LAN / network Administrator. If you don't have one, just choose the workgroup option and pick any name you want. You can leave the PC's description blank for now. For the Administrator password, put in the password you want - make sure you remember this password. The installation process will continue and restart your PC once again. Afterwards, before going into your desktop, you will be asked what are the names of the users that will use your PC. Just fill in the first one with your name (or nickname if you prefer). That's it. You should be able to see your Windows XP desktop now.

Drivers: the Correct Way

Patience. We've haven't finished installing Windows XP, rather Windows XP have finished installing itself. We need to install drivers (remember them?) so Windows XP could use your PC's hardware to their full potential. Start with your motherboard's drivers: this basically means you have to install the motherboard's chipset drivers first, and then the sound card and network adapter / LAN controller drivers. The last drivers to be installed should be the graphics card drivers.

When asked to restart, do so. It's a good idea to restart every time you've finished installing one set of drivers. This way, if anything bad happens during drivers installation (not that we wish it), you'll be able to figure which drivers cause the problem. You may also see a warning dialog complaining that the drivers are not digitally signed or not certified - ignore them for now and press 'Continue' to continue installing them. These drivers will work fine, but it's a good idea to update them after you've finished installing all the drivers, utilities and applications.

DirectX and Service Packs

Drivers are only the first part of the equation. You also need to install updated libraries and patches. The important libraries are DirectX (for your hardware, basically it's used for games and multimedia) and the .NET framework (for your applications, since some applications require this). You can download them from Microsoft's website. It's also a good idea to check some game / application installation CD. They sometimes came with these libraries so you don't have to download them.

Since its launch, Windows XP have been updated quite a lot. Every now and them, Microsoft release a cumulative patch for all of Windows XP components, in what's called Service Pack(s). Windows XP has two service packs: Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2. You probably only need Service Pack 1 for now, since Service Pack 2 causes problems with some applications. But if you could only find Service Pack 2, you should have no problem using it (remember, we haven't installed any application).

After several restarts and everything's done, it may be a good idea to set up your connection to the Internet. Just follow the steps given to you by your ISP or cable provider and you should be able to connect to the Internet in no time. Besides browsing, you might want to check the Windows Update website or download any driver updates from your vendor.

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