Installing the Operating System

In almost every situation, a laptop computer already has an operating system installed when you receive it. However, if you perform a hard disk upgrade or if you want to wipe out the contents of the existing drive and reinstall Windows, you might need to install or reinstall the operating system. If you are using a non-Windows operating system, follow the documentation for the installation procedures.

On a newer system in which you are installing an OEM version of Windows 98 or later (which comes on a bootable CD), there isn't really anything you need to do, other than simply boot from the CD (you might have to enable the CD-ROM as a boot device in your BIOS Setup) and follow the prompts to install the OS. Windows 98 and later versions automatically recognize that the drive needs to be partitioned and the partitions formatted before the installation can proceed. Additionally, if you prefer, Windows 98 and later versions can execute these functions for you, with prompts guiding you along the way. This is the method I recommend for most people because it is relatively simple and straightforward.

If your laptop's operating system comes on a recovery CD, booting from the recovery CD usually brings up a menu that lets you select whether you want to repair your existing Windows installation or reinstall Windows and the computer's original applications.

Caution

Using a restore CD to reinstall Windows and the computer's original applications wipes out the existing installation, so be sure to back up all data and configuration files (such as Web site favorites and email accounts) you want to keep before you use the restore CD. If the computer doesn't include a restore CD or a Windows CD, it might have a hidden disk partition that contains Windows files that can be used to rebuild the system's original configuration. See the system's instruction manual or online help to determine how to use the files in a hidden partition.

If you want to do the partitioning and formatting manually (prior to installing the OS), follow the guidelines in the next few subsections.

Partitioning the Drive with Windows 9x/Me

From the A:> prompt, with the startup disk inserted in the floppy drive, type the following command:

 FDISK 

This command is used to partition your drive. Follow the menus to create either a single partition for the entire drive or multiple partitions. Usually, the first partition must also be made active, which means it will be bootable. I recommend you answer Yes to the following prompt:

 Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)? 

This enables the partition to be created using the FAT32 or NTFS file system. Then, you can continue accepting default entries for all the prompts to partition the drive as a single bootable partition that covers the entire drive.

Next, exit FDISK; this causes the system to restart.

Note

For more information about FDISK and file systems, see Chapter 9, "Hard Disk Storage."

Formatting the Drive

After rebooting on the startup floppy, you need to format each partition you've created. The first partition is formatted using the FORMAT command as follows :

 FORMAT C: 

All other partitions are formatted in the same manner: Merely run the command, changing the drive letter for each partition that needs to be formatted.

After the FORMAT command completes on all the drives , you should reboot again from the startup floppy. Now you are ready to install Windows.

Note

Drive installation, setup, and formatting are covered extensively in Chapter 9.

Loading the CD-ROM Driver

If your system supports booting from a CD and you are installing an OEM version of Windows 98 or later (which comes on a bootable CD), you can disregard this section because the CD-ROM drivers automatically are loaded as you boot from the CD. You can then either proceed with the installation from the CD or copy the OS files from the CD to the hard drive and install from the hard drive instead.

If you must first boot from a floppy (because your system can't boot from a CD or your version of Windows isn't bootable), you must make sure your startup floppy disk is properly configured to support the CD/DVD drive in your system. This requires that real-mode (DOS-based) drivers be installed on a disk that is compatible with your drive. The easiest solution is to use a Windows 98 or later startup floppy disk because it is already prepared with the proper drivers for 99% of all systems on the market. Even if you are installing Windows 95, you can still use the Windows 98 or later startup disk to start the process.

If you are using a Windows 95 startup disk and you don't have the CD-ROM drivers on it, you should look for a CD-ROM driver disk that normally comes with your drive. It should have a driver installation batch file on it, which, if run, will copy the drivers to your startup disk and create the appropriate CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to enable CD-ROM support. If the driver is called CDROM .SYS , that file, along with the following line (or something similar) should be added to the CONFIG.SYS file on your Windows 95 startup disk:

 device=CDROM.SYS /D:oemcd001 

This causes the CDROM.SYS driver to be loaded and assigns it an in-memory driver designation of oemcd001 . Any designation can be used here, but it should be eight characters or fewer and must match a similar designation in the next step.

Next, you must load the Microsoft CD-ROM extensions driver in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This driver is called MSCDEX.EXE and is already included on the Windows 95 startup disk. If you used the designation I listed in the previous step, add the following line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the Windows 95 startup disk:

 LH MSCDEX.EXE /D:oemcd001 

This loads the MSCDEX.EXE driver (in upper memory via the LH or LoadHigh command, if possible) and looks to attach to the CD-ROM driver loaded earlier via the driver designation oemcd001 , in this case. Note that the CD-ROM designation used by MSCDEX.EXE and the CD-ROM device driver in CONFIG.SYS must match.

After these statements are added to the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, you should reboot on the startup floppy. Now you also should be able to access your CD-ROM drive. It will appear one drive letter after your last drive partition. If your hard disk partitions are C: and D:, the CD-ROM drive will be E:.

Note that these procedures require that you find your CD-ROM driver and copy it onto the startup disk. If you can't find the driver or have a SCSI hard disk (which uses different types of drivers), I recommend you borrow a copy of a Windows 98 or Me startup disk. These startup disks already include a series of drivers that work with virtually any CD-ROM drive on the market, even SCSI versions.

Tip

If you are unable to locate a Windows 98 or Me startup disk, or the drivers on the disk don't work with your CD-ROM or DVD drive, check out the Website www.cdrom-drivers.com. This site has pointers to an enormous library of CD-ROM device drivers, including the AOATAPI.SYS driver, which works with most desktop and notebook CD-ROM and DVD drives.

After you have successfully created a startup disk with the CD-ROM drivers (or have the Windows 98 or Me startup disk), install the Windows CD in your CD-ROM/DVD drive. After booting from the startup floppy, change to the CD-ROM/DVD drive letter. Then, at that prompt run the SETUP command. This starts the Windows installation program. From here, you can follow the prompts to install Windows as you see fit. This procedure can be somewhat lengthy, so be prepared to spend some time. You will be installing not only Windows but also the drivers for any hardware detected during the installation process.

Whether you are booting from floppy or CD, I recommend copying the Windows files to your hard disk and actually running the installation from the hard disk and not the CD. This is helpful in the future should you want to reinstall or install any additional parts of Windows because it will then work directly from the hard disk and you won't be asked to insert the CD.

To do this, first check the CD for the directory containing the *.CAB files and copy them to the hard disk. For example, using Windows 98, it would go something like this:

 copy E:\WIN98\*.* C:\WIN98 /S 

This copies all the files from the WIN98 directory on the CD (the E: drive in this example) to the hard disk and places them in a directory called WIN98. Then, you can remove the CD (it is no longer needed) and run the installation directly from the hard disk by entering the following commands:

 C: CD\ C:\WIN98\SETUP 

These commands change you to drive C:, place you in the root directory, and then run the Windows Setup program to start the installation. From there, the menu-driven Windows installation routines guide you. If you are using a different version of Windows, merely change the directories used in the previous example to the appropriate directories for your version of Windows.

Note

If you want to create a bootable CD containing your Windows installation files, see Chapter 10, "Removable Storage."

After Windows is installed, you can install any additional drivers or application programs you want. At this point, your system should be fully operational.

Installing Important Drivers

After installing the operating system, the first thing you need to do is to install drivers for devices where drivers were not found on the Windows CD. This often includes things such as chipset drivers for your motherboard, drivers for newer video chips, USB 2.0 drivers, and more. Of these, the motherboard chipset drivers are the most critical and should be installed first. If your version of Windows didn't include these drivers, download them from your laptop vendor and put them on a CD or floppy disk. Then install other drivers if they're not already installed, such as video, network, modem, and so on.

See Chapter 16, "Problem Solving and Troubleshooting," to learn how to determine which drivers you need and where to obtain them.