Partition or not to partition?

[MarleneD]

Hey all,
I finally got Windows XP software (I currently have ME) and during installation I got the following options:

1.  To set up on selected item press Enter
Caution: installing on multiple op system on a single partion not recommended
2. To creat a partition in unpartitioned space press C
(THERE WAS NO "C" OPTION)
3.  To delete press D
Caution:  system partitions may contain diagnostic or hardware config programs, programs to start OS such as windows XP  Delete a system partition only if you are sure that it contains no such progrmas or if you are willing to lose them
Selected item:  C:Partition1 [FAT 32] 38162 MB < 23073 MB FREE
Seems to me that I don't have much of a safe choice!
I'm stumped as to what to do?  Obviously, I escaped and never finished installation of XP.
How do I find out if my system partitions have important diagnostic or harware configs.
What do I next?

[Cary_GRant]

Hi there, i hope this helps, do this ONLY and i do mean ONLY if you have the recovery (or an original copy of win 95,98 or ME), what you want to do is actually do a CLEAN install, you will have a prompt at the start of the process. Considering you have Millennium installed now, i highly recommend you do a clean install and not the upgrade. I don't know if you bought the FULL version of XP or merely an UPGRADE cd, if you do have the full version, go ahead and delete the existing partition (as it contains millennium files which you do not want to save) and install XP. If you only have a upgrade version of XP, go ahead and have handy a windows 95-98 or millennium cd handy and do a CLEAN install as the XP Upgrade cd will prompt you for any of the previous operating systems i mentioned to check for certain validity files. Then merely do a clean install from the upgrade as well. I hope this helps, and Cheers!

by the way, you can always borrow a copy of win95/98/ME from a friend to do a clean install from the upgrade XP disc, that also works as it only needs to read the 95/98/ME for a lil bit, then it will ask for the XP disc

[Raptor]

If you remove a partition and then reformat the partition/Hard Disk Drive you will loose all information stored.

If you have no data you wish to keep, you can safely remove the partition you have as Windows XP contains all the diagnostic and hardware configurations that you need to use your computer.

[MarleneD]

I did get the full version of XP and I already backed up my important files.  So, it looks like my choice should be to press D and delete and ignore the caution message.
It's so intimidating to me!
Once I install XP, should I go online and download the latest various drivers (which ones?) or should the software come with all the latests? I should probably check for Windows update to, right?
Thanks!

[dl65]

MarleneD....Glad to hear your finally making the move to XP ....... Here's the order that I would follow.

Format hard drive .... ( remove everything and do a clean install)  I would suggest using the NTFS .

Install win Xp ....  Do not go online at this time.

If you have SP2 on a cd ...install it now.....if you don't have it on a cd you can download it later .

Install your Anti -virus program ........... Now go on-line and update your anti-virus program.

Now go  to M/S update page and get all the available updates ......... Priority updates first  then the optional updates and then the driver updates .

When you have the updates......you should activate your xp ....now .   Note activation is differant than the product registration.

Once you activation is done , I would install any spware scanners you want ..... ie..  M/S antispware Beta and probably Ad-Aware SE personal ........

Next I would open up Outlook Express and set up your mail account ......... ( you should have saved the setup info you used before )  

Now set up your Outlook Express to go directly to the inbox on opening .
Be sure sure to shut down the preview pane option .

Now you can reload whatever programs you wish .....

go into the control panel and make sure the auto updates are turned on .

Enjoy .......

dl65  

[Raptor]

Once I install XP, should I go online and download the latest various drivers (which ones?) or should the software come with all the latests? I should probably check for Windows update to, right?
Thanks!

1. Immediatly after (Preferably before) connecting to the Internet run Windows update.

Once that is done, install the following programs:

AVG Free
-- Anti virus scanner
Adaware SE Personal
-- Anti spyware scanner
Microsoft Antispyware
-- Anti spyware scanner. Windows XP Home and Professional only.
Spybot Search & Destroy
-- Anti spyware scanner
ZoneAlarm Free
-- Free firewall - more user friendly
Sygate Personal
-- Free firewall - more configuration options

And take the time to configure them properly.

Windows XP will most likely autodetect and autoconfigure all your hardware. Unless you wish to use specific drivers for certain hardware, it is not necessary to install drivers. Although you may need to install the drivers that came with the motherboard.

[MarleneD]

Thank you all so much !  I will probably begin installation again in a few days (Father's day stuff to do today).  I will let you know how the install goes.
By the way, Happy Father's day to those who are Dads!

[merlin_2]

yep got the cards from the kids

back to the plot......what winxp was asking you to do was dual boot......winme/winxp.......like winxp would be drive c/winxp d/winme.......

more info on installing here>http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

[MarleneD]

Hey Merlin_2,
Thanks so much for the site - fantastic!  Now, I feel more confident in installing.  

[Cary_GRant]

Marlene, after you install your various add-on programs (adaware,spybot,avg,zoneAlarm) and rebooting as needing during the installs do this: Make sure ZoneAlarm (or whatever firewall you installed) is running, then start your antivirus and try to update it, your firewall should alert you that it is trying to connect to the internet, make sure you select to always allow it to connect. Then go ahead and do the same for Adaware, SpyBot etc, make sure to try to update them WHILE the firewall is running so you can configure it to always allow those programs access to internet (so they can auto-update without probs). Hope this helps. Cheers

[MarleneD]

Excellent advice Cary_GRant! BTW, love your ID.
I'd never have thought to start the firewall first - good precaution advice.
Wish me luck!

[dl65]

MarleneD......Just a tip ......theres a firewall built into SP2
which by default is set on .......you can shut it off if you wish ......so once you have sp2 installed you have a firewall. ( it wont do as good a job as zone alarm , but it willl do a decent job preventing things comming in .

dl65  

[Cary_GRant]

Excellent advice Cary_GRant! BTW, love your ID.
I'd never have thought to start the firewall first - good precaution advice.
Wish me luck!

....Break a leg

[MarleneD]

Good News  !
Just installed Windows XP and love it!  Even though icons look rather "cartoonish", it's much more intuitive.
I'm still getting to know it but so far, I'm very happy with the change.  The website www.windowsreinstall.com really helped tremendously.
All the advice from all, as to  what to do first before and after installation ,was great advice.
Thanks to all of you  !

[Mac]

Partitioning is the best way to go. Now that you have installed it is a bit late but can you tell us what you did? How big is the drive and how big are the partitions?

How much RAM does your system have? 512 Mb or more is great for XP as XP needs to have plenty of RAM.

So here are a few 'extras' for you to make a note of...

XP Clean Installing
XP Compatability Test
XP Partition Management
XP Installing Recovery Console

RAM Knowledge Base
RAM And What it Does
RAM Virtual Memory Paging
RAM Reseating & Fitting PDF File

Processor Temperatures
Service Pack Slipstreamer
Power Supply Wattage Calculator
Everest Home Edition Computer Diagnostic Program

EmpTemp
CCLeaner File Cleaner

And here is a cleanup program which you will need as you use XP...

"Run Disk Cleanup and remove all but the last restore point. See if your System Restore cache and Recycle Bin size is set at a reasonable level (Say 1024Mb) on each drive, and reduce the IE Temporary Internet Files cache and History cache to the minimum. Install CCLeaner and clean out all of the junk files. Unhide all files and folders and remove the hotfix uninstallers ( $NTUninstaller$ ) from the hidden C:\Windows folder and remove their entries from Add-Remove programs. Then remove the contents of:

The C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Installations folder
The C: WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder
The C:\WINDOWS\Temp folder
The C:\Windows\pchealth\Datacoll folder, and...
The C:\Windows\Prefetch folder

(You can add these folders to EmpTemp if you have this program installed.) Then run chkdsk and defrag."

TweakUI is useful to have on your system for certain repairs... Powertoys/TweakUI

And you shoud install the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service to ensure that your shut down works cleanly.

This is a really handy program if you can afford it...

If you download Diskeeper 9 Professional (not home) 30 day evaluation copy and use the inbuilt Frag-Shield program to see if the MFTs are in need of adjustment. You can then defragment them, and the paging file, using a boot-time defragmentation. If the MFTs are not big enough then you increase the likelihood of fragmentation and performance can suffer as a result.

IN DK9 open "Change your settings" then choose Configure MFT/Paging file. The program will tell you if the MFTs need to be padded (made bigger) and I suggest you use the advised setting. If it doesn't respond to the change then set a higher value manually in the box. After re-boot the program should take over and adjust the MFTs automatically from then on.

When you come to uninstall DK9 PRO it will revert to your normal XP Defrag. Both the XP Defrag and Diskeeper 9 Professional are made by Executive Software.

I have had to pad the MFTs on a number of drives as they were too small and not allowing sufficient addressing on the drive. This seems to be a recurring problem when rezizing partitions.

TuneUp Utilities is a good program for maintaining the registry too.

Now that you have a fresh install you should condider making a drive image and also backing up your data.

I use the Partition Resizer which comes with BootIT NG from TeraByte Unlimited (see link below). If you get the full BootIT NG suite, you also get Image for Windows and Image for DOS so you can resize partitions, make drive images and backups to CDRs or data DVDs and restore them.

So add these items to your Christmas Present list!