[GMill]

Hey guys, I didn't know where to ask so I'm asking my trusted SV friends

So I'm building a computer for a friend and I am a little confused on how the whole HDD installation takes place, when I built mine I had a tech friend come help me with it and I totally forgot what I did.
So firstly, is it possible to just plug in the HDD, boot it up and install Xp on it with no trouble? Or do you have to partition a HDD before you use it?
My current system has 1 HDD and is partitioned but I forgot to ask my tech friend if the partition was needed.

[Fozzik]

A hard drive has to have at least one partition in order to work. Typically, the whole drive is set up as a single partition (the full size of the drive) and then formatted, and then the OS is installed. This used to be more complicated, requiring the use of floppies and mysterious DOS prompt commands...but now it's all handled automagically by the Windows install CD (XP or Vista).

When you get the computer all put together, boot up first and head into the BIOS. Usually you just press the Delete key during POST to get into the BIOS. Once there, check and make sure things are being detected properly - is the amount of RAM correct? Is the CPU speed correct? Do I see the physical drives being detected properly? Is the boot order set to check the optical drive before the hard drive?

Once that's done, stick the Windows install CD into the drive and reboot. It will probably ask you to hit any key to boot from the CD. The simple install application will walk you through the process of setting up a partition or partitions (if you'd like to break the drive up into smaller chunks for some reason), formatting, and then installing.

[Giftmacher]

Just a thought I'll mention just in case, if you've an older copy of XP and you're installing a SATA drive you may need to direct it towards the mobo's HD drivers when prompted for additional drivers. It usually requires a floppy drive but if you don't have one to hand try this. Nlite is a pretty useful little tool for bundling service packs too if you want.

Gift.

[GMill]

Alright so, I just plug in the HDD normally, check to see everything is good and pop in the Windows CD and it should be cake after that?

Also I was wondering, he still has his old computer, is it possible to just unhook that HDD and plug it into this new one after the new HDD is setup? Or even before? It has windows on it, so maybe I won't even need to buy a new HDD and just plug in his old one? (His PSU and CPU were fried I believe so he's asking me to build him a new one). And he wants to recover some files off of his old HDD, which is why I ask this second question.
Thanks everyone

[Fozzik]

It's generally very bad to move a windows install from one computer to another and just try booting from it. If you do get lucky and actually get it to boot (there's no way to know if it will work at all), you'll have a lot of problems with stability. You really need to do a fresh install of Windows and drivers when you change to a new motherboard and other new hardware.

Once the new hard drive is set up with a fresh install of Windows + drivers, you can attach the old drive to the new machine as a secondary drive and get data and things off of it. I wouldn't recommend leaving two hard drives that both have a Windows install in the machine permanently, though. Once you move all the needed data off the old drive, repartition/reformat it and use it as a second storage drive.

[Giftmacher]

Originally Posted by Fozzik

It's generally very bad to move a windows install from one computer to another

Hehe that's an understatement.

Gift.

[Renekal]

I like to have windows on it's own partition, makes for an easy reinstall with out worrying about your other data.

[GMill]

Alright thanks for the help Foz, Ill just install it regularly and hook up the old HDD, retrieve files, then remove it from the build.

Thanks for all the help guys, you guys are the greatest