Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
motherboard manual to save the settings and exit the Setup menu.
Installing the OS
At this point, if you are starting with a new drive, you must install the OS. If you are using a non-
Windows OS, follow the documentation for the installation procedures.
On a newer system in which you are installing Windows, there isn't really anything you need to do,
other than simply booting from the disc or flash drive (you might have to enable the optical or USB
drive as a boot device in your BIOS Setup) and following the prompts to install the OS. Windows
automatically recognizes whether the hard drive needs to be partitioned and formatted and allows you
to do that at the beginning of the installation.
Windows comes with integrated drivers for most newer chipsets, so you should not need additional
storage drivers in most cases. However, if the hard drive is not recognized at the start of the OS
install, storage drivers are probably required. The good thing is that you don't have to supply them
via floppy as with Windows XP; instead, you can supply them via optical disc or USB flash drive,
which is much more convenient.
You can also install Windows from a bootable USB flash drive. Installing via a flash drive not only
works faster than when using a DVD, but it also enables you to easily install Windows on systems
that don't have an optical drive, such as netbooks. To create a bootable USB flash drive for installing
Windows you need
• A 4GB (or larger) USB flash drive
• An original install DVD
• An ISO file creation tool, such as ImgBurn (
www.imgburn.com
)
• The Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (
http://tinyurl.com/4qfdm4x
)
Note
Despite the name, the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool works for Vista just as
well as it does for Windows 7.
When you are ready, create an ISO file from your original install DVD using an ISO creation tool,
such as ImgBurn, and then use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to copy the ISO file to the
flash drive. When complete, you'll have a bootable flash drive that will work just like your original
DVD for installing Windows.
To install Windows 8 from a flash drive, purchase the Windows 8 Pro upgrade from the Microsoft
website and use the Install by Creating Media option. To learn more, see “How to Download
Windows 8” at
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/how-to-download#1TC=t1
.
During
the initial part of the installation, you can delete any existing partitions and create new ones if
desired. On a drive with no partitions, if you simply tell the installer to install Windows into
“unpartitioned space,” the installer automatically creates and formats a partition using all the
available space.
After you have the OS installed, I recommend installing the drivers. In general, older OSs have fewer
drivers included on the installation disc, meaning you have to install more drivers after the OS is
installed. This often includes chipset drivers for your motherboard, drivers for newer video cards,
