... sounds like your ISP needs a slap upside the head.
I would settle for a prorated bill!
Well, right now my connection seems to be working so I'm hoping it will stay that way!
Ok, so getting back to the task at hand... Warning long post!
It's too bad we couldn't identify the motherboard, but I have a good feeling it's an 800 series Intel chipset. The video card also looks to be an 800 series, so I think we're safe to start now.
Rather than downloading the DiskWizard from Seagate, I have an older version that I've uploaded
HERE. Just click on "Free User" to download it... there is a slight waiting time you have to endure. This is the old DiskWizard Seagate used to have on their website. The utility will create 2 bootable floppy disks so hopefully you have some empty ones available and a floppy drive in the computer we're working on. If not, you will have to go with the utility from the Seagate website where I think it can make a bootable CD.
Either way, the utility is pretty much straight forward to use just following the menus. If you're unsure how to do any of the following, or need some help, just let me know.
Once you get the floppies made, you will need to ensure your bios is set to the boot sequence below…
Floppy first
CD second
Hard drive third
To get into bios, start or restart the machine, and continually hit the delete key on your keyboard. The bios screen should appear. If Windows starts instead, you will have to restart the computer to try again. If the machine still won’t go into bios, then try hitting the F1, F10, or F12 keys instead.
Once in bios, you can navigate using the up/down/left/right arrows on your keyboard. There are also instructions displayed on the bottom and/or right of the screens to tell you how to command actions while in bios.
I’m not sure what bios you have, but it’s probably Award, or AMIBIOS, or other. In any case, somewhere in one of the menus, there will be a place you can change the Boot Sequence. Make the changes as noted above, and then hit the F10 key on your keyboard, then confirm to save and exit the bios. If the F10 key doesn’t prompt you to do this, then look somewhere in one of the menus where you can choose to save and exit the bios. But… before you exit bios, put in the first DiskWizard floppy disc you made so the computer can boot from it.
I took the following pictures so you could see what the screens look like. Sorry they're so blurry, but at least they’re still viewable.
Ok, once DiskWizard finishes booting, the application will launch its window and give you a warning that the drive may already have an OS installed. Just confirm to continue. You should then see the main window…
[attachment=25345:IMG_1564.JPG]
In the left menu, click on Utilities. In the next window, select Zero Fill drive (full). You may get a warning again… just confirm to continue…
[attachment=25346:IMG_1565.JPG]
Zeroing the drive = low level format… the same condition the drive was in when it left the manufacture. The thing about zeroing is that doing so will wipe the drive data and write either “1”s or “0”s to the drive... thus, cleaning it up and getting it ready for the new install. Since Windows XP only occupies about 4-6 gigs of drive space, you really don’t need to zero the entire drive, but only about 4-6 gigabytes. In your case, that would be about 15%. So, when the zeroing function reaches about 15% to 20%, you can cancel it. Once you cancel, you will be returned to the main DiskWizard window (after a few confirmations, that is).
Once back at the window, you may get a message that there is a newly detected drive asking if you want to set it up. Just cancel the message window. Now back at the main window, select the choice to Setup your Hard disk. You will see the next window…
[attachment=25347:IMG_1566.JPG]
Click on the icon of the disk and then click next.
Here is where I had to stop or take a chance of formatting my laptop. Didn’t want to do that! In any case, if you follow the prompts, you should be able to format your drive. I think you’ll get a window asking if you want to set it up automatically or manually. I never set up automatically since I always partition my drives. However since your drive is a
puny 40 gigs (LOL!!), you can select automatic. DiskWizard should then format it.
Once that’s all done, you can exit the application. Pull out the floppy and insert the Windows CD before restarting your computer. Make sure you have the license number written down as Windows will ask for it during the installation.
I don’t imagine you will have any problems installing windows because all you really have to do is follow the prompts. But if you do, let me know here.
Once Windows is finished installing, you will need to remove the CD from the drive and get back into bios to change the Boot Sequence again. Just set it as follows...
Hard drive first
Floppy/CD second or third... doesn't really matter
Save and exit the bios like you did before.
During the time Windows is being installed, you might want to download some drivers. Go
HERE to download the Chipset and Video (Graphic) drivers. Remember that the Chipset driver goes in first so install it directly after Windows is done, then install the video driver.
Next we're going to have to do a little investigating to see what, if anything, Windows didn't install drivers for. So, go to Start> run... type in
devmgmt.msc In the Device Manager window, look for any yellow or red marks. If there are any, list them here... or at least list the category if possible.
Well that may be a lot absorb, so I'm going to stop here. There's not much else to do but wait to see how things turn out anyways.
Let me know if you have any problems at all. Have fun!
Edited by makai, 11 December 2008 - 08:12 PM.
Sign In
Create Account
