Appendix A: Installing or Upgrading to Windows XP

Starting the Installation

Before starting the installation process, you need to take a few steps, depending on whether you are installing on a blank hard disk, upgrading an existing Windows installation, or creating a dual-boot system.

Installing Windows on a Blank Hard Disk

You must be able to start up the computer to start the Windows installation. If you don't have an operating system installed on your hard disk, you need to be able to boot from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

Formatting your hard disk (or a partition) deletes everything on it. You can't use the Recycle Bin or other unerase programs to get files back. Be sure to make and verify a backup copy of all the files you want to save.

The Windows XP CD-ROM is bootable; that is, it contains startup operating system files so that you can use it to start your computer. However, your computer must be configured to boot from the CD-ROM. Your computer may look first in the floppy drive and then on the hard drive for operating system files at startup. Try putting the Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD drive and starting your computer to see if the computer loads the Setup Wizard from the CD-ROM. If not, follow the instructions in the rest of this section.

To tell your computer to look on the CD-ROM during startup, you need to change your computer's BIOS setup. The method to do this varies from computer to computer, and you should check your computer's documentation. Generally, you press a key (usually F2, F6, F10, or DELETE) during startup, while the computer manufacturer's logo is on the screen, before you see the Windows logo. Some computers display a prompt to tell you what to press (for example, "Press &la;Del&ra; key if you want to run setup").

Once you press the correct key, you see your computer's BIOS configuration screen. Follow the instructions on the screen (or in your computer's documentation) to change the boot sequence (or boot order) to start with the CD-ROM. Then follow the instructions to save your changes and reboot with the Windows XP CD-ROM in the drive. The Setup Wizard should run. Follow its instructions to install Windows XP.

Upgrading to Windows XP

When you upgrade to Windows XP, the Windows Setup Wizard can save your old operating system's files and settings, so that you don't need to reinstall all of your programs. You can upgrade to Windows XP Professional if your computer has Windows 2000, NT 4.0 Workstation, Me, or 98. You can upgrade to Windows XP Home Edition from Windows Me or 98 (not from Windows 2000 or NT 4.0 Workstation). If you run an older version of Windows (Windows 95 or earlier) or DOS, installation replaces your old operating system entirely, and you must reinstall and restore all your programs and files.

If you want to be able to run either another operating system or Windows XP when you start the computer, you can set up a dual-boot configuration.

If your hard disk has become full of junk, or your Windows installation is unreliable, you may want to start from scratch anyway, rather than installing Windows on top of what you already have on the hard disk. Installing from scratch is called a clean install, and it reduces problems with older incompatible program files and with unneeded files that waste disk space. You can save the data files you want to keep, reformat the hard disk, install Windows, install the programs you want to use, and restore your data files. The Windows Setup Wizard can even do the reformatting for you. A clean install usually saves time in the long run, even though you need to reinstall your programs.

We prefer to make a separate partition for data (usually D:), move our data files there, and use the C: partition for only Windows and programs. This allows us to reinstall Windows any time we like without disturbing our data.

To upgrade from a previous version of Windows, follow these steps:

1. Start your current version of Windows.
2. Put the Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. You see the Welcome To Microsoft Windows XP window. If you don't see this window, use Windows Explorer to look at the contents of the CD-ROM and run the Setup.exe program. Another way to run the program is to choose Start | Run, type d:\setup, and press ENTER (if your CD-ROM drive is drive D:).
3. Follow the instructions that the Windows Setup Wizard displays. The Setup Wizard creates an upgrade report that lists hardware and software issues that may arise.

The Windows Setup Wizard asks in which folder to install Windows XP (usually C:\Windows). If you choose a different folder than the one in which the previous version of Windows was installed, you must reinstall all of your application programs, and possibly all of your hardware drivers.

Creating Dual-boot Installations

A dual-boot or multiboot installation is an installation of Windows that leaves another operating system intact on your computer. When you start your computer, you can decide which operating system to run. In order to keep the versions of Windows separate, you install each in a separate partition.

The Windows Setup Wizard can create a new partition if your hard disk has unused, unpartitioned space. It can install Windows XP into this new partition, leaving your existing operating system intact. You do not need to use a third-party partitioning program.

However, you will probably want to get a third-party partitioning program like PartitionMagic (from PowerQuest Corp., at http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic) or BootIt NG (from TeraByte Unlimited, at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com) to adjust the sizes of your existing partitions to make space for Windows XP. We like to create a separate partition for each operating system, plus one for our data. This arrangement enables us to switch or reinstall operating systems without disturbing our data.

Dual-booting with Windows 2000, Unix, or Linux

You can't use the Windows Setup Wizard to create a dual-boot system with Windows 2000 and Windows XP unless Windows 2000 is installed in a FAT32 partition. This is because the Wizard will upgrade Windows 2000's NTFS partition to Windows XP's slightly newer NTFS format, and Windows 2000 will no longer be able to read its own partition. However, PartitionMagic, BootIt NG, and similar third-party partitioning programs provide a way to create a dual-boot system with Windows 2000. Use a third-party partitioning program to create a new partition for Windows XP and to hide the Windows 2000 partition. Then install Windows XP on the new, blank partition. This method also works for creating a dual-boot system with Unix or Linux.

Dual-booting with Windows Me or 9x

To create a dual-boot system with Windows XP and Windows Me or 9x, install the older version of Windows first, and then install Windows XP. During the installation process, Windows XP creates a file named Boot.ini in C:\, listing the bootable partitions and which partition is the default. When the Setup Wizard displays the Setup Options window, click the Advanced Options button and select the I Want to Choose the Install Drive Letter and Partition During Setup check box. This setting causes the Setup Wizard to display a list of your partitions and enables you to choose the partition in which you want to display Windows XP. You also have the option of deleting existing partitions and creating new ones. The next section steps through the installation process.

Once you have both versions of Windows installed in separate primary DOS partitions, you can switch back and forth by using the boot menu that Windows XP displays:

Please select the operating system to start:



Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Microsoft Windows



Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.

Press ENTER to choose.

Seconds until highlighted choice will be started automatically: 30

Windows Me, 98, and 95 appear simply as "Microsoft Windows." You can change the text and entries in this boot menu, as described in the "Setting Boot Options" section later in this appendix.

On a dual-boot system with Windows NT or Windows 3.1, you can't use FAT32 for your data partition, because Windows NT and Windows 3.1 don't support FAT32 (as Windows 2000, Me, 98, and XP do). On a dual-boot system with Windows Me or 9x, you can't use an NTFS partition for your data partition, since these versions of Windows can't read it.