Many friends still have old computers in their hands, and sometimes they have to take them out and use them, or tinker with the old equipment for the elders in the family.
Implementing Windows XP system installation operations sounds like an outdated behavior, but when you actually do it, you will find that just making the computer boot with the help of a CD and properly partitioning the hard disk is already extremely tricky.
Just as it is said that "sharpening a knife will not delay the time needed to chop wood", these preparations must be done correctly before installation, so that the system can run smoothly and there will be fewer problems when used later.
This article, from the perspective of an old player, will analyze and explain this process in detail, especially how to use hard disk partition tools to organize the hard disk in an orderly manner.
1. Enter the BIOS and change the startup items. The optical drive must be ranked first.
When most old motherboards perform the power-on self-test operation, a prompt will be given at the bottom of the screen to press "Del", or it will prompt you to press "F2" to enter the BIOS settings.
If you are using a laptop, or if you are using a branded machine, it may be "F10", or it may be "F12".
After entering, use the keyboard arrow keys to find the "Boot" tab, and change the first startup item, which is "First Boot Device", to "CD-ROM".
A little trick to remember here is that some older motherboards call the optical drive "CDROM" or "DVDROM", choose which one is correct.
After making the changes, press "F10" to save and exit. The computer will automatically restart.
When a line of prompts labeled "Boot from CD…" appears on the screen, immediately press a button at will, so that the system will boot from the CD.
If this step is not pressed, or if it is pressed too late, the computer will bypass the CD-ROM drive and start the startup program from the hard disk. In this case, all the efforts will be in vain.
2. Use the system’s own tools to partition, or use PQ to partition independently?
After the CD boots successfully, you will enter the blue installation interface of Windows XP.
If you want to continue, press the Enter key. If the license agreement agrees, you need to press F8 again, so that you can see the hard disk partition list.
If it is a completely new blank hard disk, you will not see anything in the list. At this time, press the "C" key to create a partition.
Many people will have difficulties here: How big is the appropriate size of C drive?
Just for installing the system, 10GB is completely enough. The remaining space can be divided into D drive or E drive for storing data.
However, the partition tool carried by the system itself has a shortcoming. It can only create primary partitions and extended partitions, which is not very flexible and convenient.
At this moment, you can consider using a hard drive partitioning tool with unique properties, such as PQ Magic Partition, which is well known to experienced players, that is, Partition Magic.
When the CD starts, do not press Enter immediately to install. Instead, enter the DOS tool menu that comes with the CD, find PQ there and run it.
Select the hard disk space that has not yet been allocated, and then click the operation button to create a partition. The first thing to do is to "mainly divide the partition", that is, to create a primary partition, set its size to a value of about 10000MB, and use it as the C drive.
Create the remaining space into "logical partitions", then click "Execute" and wait until the operation is completed before restarting.
This partitioning is clear and secure, and is more intuitive than the method that comes with the installer.
3. Choose a file system: NTFS is more reliable than FAT32
After the partition is completed, return to the installation interface, select the C drive you just created, and press Enter.
Next, you will be faced with the situation of choosing a file system. In the XP system, you will be given the choice between FAT32 and NTFS, allowing you to make a choice.
Many people struggle with compatibility, thinking that old FAT32 devices can be easily recognized.
But in fact, even old USB flash drives and old mobile hard drives don’t care much about this anymore.
In actual use, NTFS shows obvious advantages in terms of security, disk utilization, and support for a single file exceeding 4GB.
Especially the hard disk of old computers is not large in nature, and NTFS can use space more efficiently.
Therefore, don't hesitate, just choose "Format partition using NTFS file system" and perform a quick format.
After the system completes the formatting operation, the installation program starts quickly and starts copying files to the hard disk. This copying operation takes about ten minutes. In the middle of the copying process, the system will automatically restart. You don't need to pay attention to it, just wait patiently.
4. Did the car overturn when using the GHOST disk? Check hard drive mode
Many friends want to save trouble and just use GHOST version XP CD to install the system.
It turned out that it either had a blue screen or got stuck after copying the image and restarting.
This is especially common on slightly newer laptops.
The reason is simple: hard disk mode wrong.
Many notebooks set the hard drive to "AHCI" mode by default in their BIOS. However, the old GHOST version of XP does not integrate this driver, and a blue screen will appear once it is entered.
The solution is not complicated. Enter the BIOS, find "SATA Mode", or find "SATA Configuration", and replace "AHCI" with "IDE" or "Compatible".
Save and exit and then boot from the CD again, GHOST will be able to run normally.
After completing the mode change and installing the system, if you have to use AHCI, you can install the driver in the XP system in the subsequent process, and then change it back to its original state. However, for those older computers, using IDE mode can fully meet the usage needs.
5. What other precautions should be taken when using partitioning tools?
Use something like PQ Hard drive partition tool When doing so, there are a few things to pay attention to.
First, you must click the "Execute" action, because if you do not do this, all the partition-related actions set before will not have any actual effect.
Many novices who have just started to work think that as long as they draw the partition map properly, they forget the last step to save the changes, so that after restarting, they find that it is still the same as before.
Secondly, after completing the area division, do not rush to pull out the CD or perform a restart operation. Instead, return to the main interface of PQ, click the "End" option, and then exit in the normal way.
Third, if there is important data on the hard disk, do not perform partition operations at will, because all changes will cause the data to be cleared.
Fourth, if you use a U disk to boot and then enter the PE system, and then use DiskGenius in PE to partition, the process is similar. First select the hard disk, then perform quick partitioning, then set the size of the C drive and the number of partitions, and finally confirm them. It is also very stable.
Regardless of PQ or DiskGenius, the principles are the same, and the focus is on clarifying the concepts of primary partitions, extended partitions and logical partitions.
After installing the system and successfully entering the desktop, don't forget to take out the installation disk placed in the CD-ROM drive, then enter the BIOS interface and change the first boot item back to the hard disk. Otherwise, whenever you start the computer, there will be a lag in the "Boot from CD" area.
After completing the installation of the XP system on the entire computer, the driver is then supplemented and improved, so that an old device can run smoothly again.
Remember the key steps, which are: adjust the boot sequence in the BIOS, use partitioning tools to divide the disks in advance, select the NTFS format, and if you encounter a blue screen in GHOST, change the hard disk mode.
Following this idea, installing XP is actually much simpler than imagined.
