first house built PC Help Please [hd maxtor] [cpu motherboard]
Q: My first DIY PC. From reading all the posts here at AnandTech igot the confidence to build my own PC. Thank you all. Putting all the componets together was a snap. CPU, motherboard, vid card, HD, CDRW, floppy, and for now. all installed componets and posted awesome ! powered up, power LED lights, lights hd, F2 bios for you ! Now, what should I do ? I install os? (XP) Do I Format HD ? (Maxtor).
Best Answer: Cool max 400-W PSU
Cool max / V-400 / 400-Watt / ATX / 80mm Fan / SATA-Ready / 20/24-Pin / Power Supply
Only $14.99 * There are about 100 power supplies avail at this site, but 400 to 450 Watts is as much s you will need on that particular board….Cheers
Re:thanks for the help new problem loaded xp, set up partitioned and formatted c-drive installed windows on c-drive well system rebooted entered set-up again and formatted e-drive, windows started to install again on e-drive oops cancelled set-up now i got two windows at boot up one on c-drive installed and a partial install on e-drive. oops how do i remove the partial install on e-drive???????????
Re:Just set up your bios so that it will boot from the cd first and have the windows XP cd in the drive. It will say on your screen to "press any key to boot from cd". Windows XP will begin setup and will allow you to create a partition for windows, etc. and then format it using whichever file system you choose to use.
Re:thanks for the great replies. I got in my head that the hd must be formatted first before the os can be installed. Is this correct???????? I'm using a max blaster II floppy. or must i install os first (xp). then max blaster. Still confused:confused: i'm getting (cannot load dos error). when i boot from mb II floppy.
Re:I concur with guy's suggestion as those are the best reasons for a dual partition on that little drive. You can always back up to CDRs and if you find that to small a medium, when you have the money get a 2nd HDD to use strictly for storage.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
My rule of thumb for a single drive used in a PC would be to use 2 partitions.
C: this would be my OS partition with anything related to the operating system , I'd probably use around 3/4 gigs as XP can be quite greedy (XP alone can use well over a gig just from a fresh install.)
D: would be my storage partition , mainly used for installing games , mp3's, video's ,etc
This way if you ever have to reformat/re-install your OS then you still have all your other data on the 2nd partition.
this is true, there's that benefit of not having to wipe out the data on d drive for storage.
but with 20GB, how much would you give?
it just seems like a such a small drive to be breaking up like that.
Re:My rule of thumb for a single drive used in a PC would be to use 2 partitions.
C: this would be my OS partition with anything related to the operating system , I'd probably use around 3/4 gigs as XP can be quite greedy (XP alone can use well over a gig just from a fresh install.)
D: would be my storage partition , mainly used for installing games , mp3's, video's ,etc
This way if you ever have to reformat/re-install your OS then you still have all your other data on the 2nd partition.
Re:while it may not be the best overall OS,
for the best gaming performance, install win98.
since it can access directly to Hardwares, it'll out-perform XP.. or anything NT based.
if you want a best overall machine… then go with XP…
as for partitions are concerned… i personally like to have 2.
for your 20GB, i'd go with…
19GB NTFS
1GB FAT
you can give more to NTFS and take away more from FAT.
but the benefit of having FAT drive is… when you want to do Bios update or … those few times when you need to boot to dos and have access to files.
anything more than 2, under one OS machine, i think is an overkill… especially with XP.
keep in mind, different people will have different preference.
this just happens to be mine.
Re:Thank you for the fast reply. I will be using new cp mainly for gaming. Any ideas for how many partitions, partition size??????? I have a 20gb maxtor hd.
Re:in order to install OS… you'll have to format your HD accordingly to your OS.
MS uses FAT(many versions of it) and NTFS.
Since you said that you'll be installing XP,
i'd say go with NTFS… as long as your hd is not an old one…(small one)
a general rule of thumb is … to use NTFS on anything larger than 8GB.
if it is smaller, you might benefit more by going with FAT32.
also… if you plan on dual booting, (have more than one operating system)…
then you might want to go with the lowest common denominator.
you can install win 98 on Fat, but not on NTFS.
NTFS has more security than FAT. Fat partitions can be accessed in dos, but not NTFS.
so create a partition
format the partion
if you pop in your XP installation cd… when booting (set your boot sequence to start with CD rom)
all you have to do is follow the instruction.
welcome to AT forum.
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Tags: cpu motherboard, hd maxtor