Rebuilding a System with New SATA HDD

[Jim H.]

Warning, I'm a newbie.

I just purchased an ASUS P4 (3G) machine from Craigslist but it only has a
40G ATA HDD and an illegal copy of Win XP.

So, I picked up a 320 GB SATA HDD and a legit XP Pro OEM pack from Fry's and
now I don't know how to go about rebuilding the machine using the new SATA
HDD as my boot drive (I don't want to save any software presently on the
machine).

I've got the SATA HDD in the system and can see it in Control Panel under
Computer Management/Disk Management (it shows up as a 298.09 GB drive, not
the 320 advertised by Maxtor) but I cannot see it in Windows Explorer.

Question: Should I format this drive using the existing bootleg version of
Win XP before I try to set it as the primary drive and install the legit
version of XP? The documentation that came with my new XP says it is a newer
(OEM) version (XP2c)that is not compatible with previous images of XP2.

 

[Xandros]

If you don't want to save anything on the old drive just remove the drive.
Pop in the SATA. Ensure that the BIOS is set so the boot sequence lists the
CD-Rom drive first in order. Start the computer with the XP CD in the drive.
If the OEM version has SP2 then it should see your SATA drive and begin the
installation. You will be able to create the partition and format as NTFS at
this time. XP should then install. There is no need to partition and format
the SATA drive using the old boot leg copy of XP.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Warning, I'm a newbie.

I just purchased an ASUS P4 (3G) machine from Craigslist but it only has a
40G ATA HDD and an illegal copy of Win XP.

So, I picked up a 320 GB SATA HDD and a legit XP Pro OEM pack from Fry's and
now I don't know how to go about rebuilding the machine using the new SATA
HDD as my boot drive (I don't want to save any software presently on the
machine).

I've got the SATA HDD in the system and can see it in Control Panel under
Computer Management/Disk Management (it shows up as a 298.09 GB drive, not
the 320 advertised by Maxtor) but I cannot see it in Windows Explorer.

All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes, while
the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines it as 2 to
the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 320 billion byte drive is
actually approximately 298GB. Some people point out that the official
international standard defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not
1,073,741,824. Correct though they are, using the binary value of GB
is so well established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.

Question: Should I format this drive using the existing bootleg version of
Win XP before I try to set it as the primary drive and install the legit
version of XP?

No.


The documentation that came with my new XP says it is a newer
(OEM) version (XP2c)that is not compatible with previous images of XP2.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

 

[Jim H.]

Excellent answers, thanks to you both.

 

[Nepatsfan]

Warning, I'm a newbie.

I just purchased an ASUS P4 (3G) machine from Craigslist but it only has a
40G ATA HDD and an illegal copy of Win XP.

So, I picked up a 320 GB SATA HDD and a legit XP Pro OEM pack from Fry's and
now I don't know how to go about rebuilding the machine using the new SATA
HDD as my boot drive (I don't want to save any software presently on the
machine).

I've got the SATA HDD in the system and can see it in Control Panel under
Computer Management/Disk Management (it shows up as a 298.09 GB drive, not
the 320 advertised by Maxtor) but I cannot see it in Windows Explorer.

Question: Should I format this drive using the existing bootleg version of
Win XP before I try to set it as the primary drive and install the legit
version of XP? The documentation that came with my new XP says it is a newer
(OEM) version (XP2c)that is not compatible with previous images of XP2.

You might want to check ASUS's web site before you begin trying to install XP on
your new SATA drive. You may need to download drivers for the SATA controller on
your system's motherboard. These drivers are placed on a floppy disk. Early in
the XP installation process, the following screen will appear.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP Home Setup Graphic/BB.gif

At this point you would need to put the floppy disk in its drive and hit the F6
key. If your computer does not have a floppy drive you could install one or
attach a USB floppy drive to the system.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[a2mgoog]

Warning, I'm a newbie.

I just purchased an ASUS P4 (3G) machine from Craigslist but it only has a
40G ATA HDD and an illegal copy of Win XP.

So, I picked up a 320 GB SATA HDD and a legit XP Pro OEM pack from Fry's and
now I don't know how to go about rebuilding the machine using the new SATA
HDD as my boot drive (I don't want to save any software presently on the
machine).

I've got the SATA HDD in the system and can see it in Control Panel under
Computer Management/Disk Management (it shows up as a 298.09 GB drive, not
the 320 advertised by Maxtor) but I cannot see it in Windows Explorer.

Question: Should I format this drive using the existing bootleg version of
Win XP before I try to set it as the primary drive and install the legit
version of XP? The documentation that came with my new XP says it is a newer
(OEM) version (XP2c)that is not compatible with previous images of XP2.

As one who recently went through a very similar experience, let me
warn you that before you install from your CD onto the new drive, turn
off the other drive in the BIOS, or disconnect it if you have an old
BIOS. Changing the boot order is not enough. If the XP install finds
the old drive active, it will do two things which you will hate:

1) Your future boots will have a menu asking you which OS you want to
start with, and both choices will be XP, with no indication which is
on which disk.

2) Your new XP system will call its partition the D: drive, and the
old one will still be the C: drive. At that point, even if you remove
the old drive, there will be no way to change your new drive back to
C: without reinstalling from scratch.

Good Luck.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Excellent answers, thanks to you both.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[M.I.5¾]

All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes, while
the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines it as 2 to
the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 320 billion byte drive is
actually approximately 298GB. Some people point out that the official
international standard defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not
1,073,741,824. Correct though they are, using the binary value of GB
is so well established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.

Some Euro standards organisation or other has proposed the use of the term
'Gibibyte' to represent Gigabytes that are actually 2^30 bytes. Although it
hasn't exactly caught on to any degree, Wikipedia uses the term extensively
to avoid confusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibit but don't get too excited. It doesn't
tell you a lot more than I did!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Some Euro standards organisation or other has proposed the use of the term
'Gibibyte' to represent Gigabytes that are actually 2^30 bytes. Although it
hasn't exactly caught on to any degree, Wikipedia uses the term extensively
to avoid confusion.

Yes, thanks, I know Wikipedia does. I don't like the term, am very
glad that it hasn't caught on, and my personal view is that it just
*adds* confusion.