installing for the first time

I am going to be building my first PC. I have a full install CD for Windows 98 which I wish to use (I will upgrade to XP later). How do I go about installing an operating system? do I just press the 'on' button and slide the CD in?

thanks

By chance did you get a diskette with the CD?

If not, goto www.bootdisk.com and download the win 98 boot disk
image, create your bootable floppy (make sure it is the image with CD
support) and boot using that.

Then use fdisk to partition your disk and format each partition. Select
FAT32 when using FDISK (if the HD is big enough, fdisk will ask if
you want to activate FAT32, just say Y. After partitioning, reboot.
After reboot, format you partition (or partitions if you created more
than one). Then install the CD and run setup.

AFAIK, The Win CD is not bootable, but I could be wrong. To test,
enable the CDROM as a boot device in the ROM BIOS, insert the
CD in the drive and reboot. If it boots, then hooray! you wont need the
boot disk, if not.. then proceed with plan A :-)

Good luck
Saga


"Gbizzle" wrote in message
...
I am going to be building my first PC. I have a full install CD for
Windows 98 which I wish to use (I will upgrade to XP later). How do I go
about installing an operating system? do I just press the 'on' button and
slide the CD in?

thanks

1. Why upgrade to XP later? If you have a WinXP Upgrade edition, you don't
have to install 98 first, just show the CD to XP Setup at the appropriate
time.

2. If waiting to install XP until later because you don't have it yet, or
you aren't ready for it, you need to make sure your new hardware is
compatible with 98. There are several issues to consider. Knowing the specs
of your machine would help us help you.

3. With Windows 98, you first have to partition the hard drive, then format
the partition(s), then install Win98. This is all done using a Windows
Startup floppy disk.

Suggest you answer the above questions before we get into the nitty-gritty
of installation.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"Gbizzle" wrote in message
...
I am going to be building my first PC. I have a full install CD for
Windows 98 which I wish to use (I will upgrade to XP later). How do I go
about installing an operating system? do I just press the 'on' button and
slide the CD in?

thanks

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
snip
2. If waiting to install XP until later because you don't have it yet, or
you aren't ready for it, you need to make sure your new hardware is
compatible with 98. There are several issues to consider. Knowing the specs
of your machine would help us help you.

Although most of today's hardware should be, make sure it is compatible with XP as
well.


--
Brian A.

Jack of all trades, Master of none.
One can never truly be a master as there is always more to learn.

If the CDrom is in the Bios boot sequence? The OS Cd can
be insterted into the drive at initiation of boot. When
trying to install 98 even if the HD is not formatted the
install will see that and ask if you want to format and
set active partition.
About a month ago I did this to an unformatted drive.
Thinking it was formatted. Was really surprised that the
install would recognise this and direct me to the proper
steps to correct it.
-----Original Message-----
I am going to be building my first PC. I have a full
install CD for Windows 98 which I wish to use (I will
upgrade to XP later). How do I go about installing an
operating system? do I just press the 'on' button and
slide the CD in?

thanks
.