Despite its hopeless obsolescence, the Windows XP operating system is still very popular among users, due to its ease of use and fairly high stability. In some ratings, it is even ahead of the "seven". Next, the question of how to install Windows XP from disk and perform the initial setup of the system is proposed for consideration. It is believed that the installation of this particular modification should not cause particular difficulties, but in fact it is necessary to pay attention to some important nuances, without which the installation of the system may be unsuccessful.
Create a Windows XP installation disc
At the first stage, we will proceed from the fact that the user does not have the original installation disk. Downloading Windows XP can be done in the form of an image from the official Microsoft website or from another (necessarily trusted) source.
In this case, you should immediately pay attention to the contents of the download distribution. It is recommended to download only the one in which initially there are second and third service packs, so that then you do not have to deal with their manual installation.
Writing an image to an optical storage medium is not difficult. To do this, you can use many programs for working with images (for example, UltraISO or Nero Burning ROM). If you want to create a multi-boot disk Windows XP, it is best to use a tiny utility called WindowsSetupFromUSB, but already to record the distribution on a USB flash drive.
BIOS Presets
So, we assume that the installation distribution is recorded. Now you need to make sure that you can boot from it. To do this, use the BIOS settings of the primary input / output system. Typically, on desktop computers, the input is performed by pressing the Del key, but different keys (F1, F12) or their combination can be used on different laptop models.
In order for the optical disk to be recognized as bootable, you need to find a section with the name like Boot, Boot Priority, Boot Sequence and install the optical drive (CD / DVD-ROM) by pressing PgUp / PgDown by pressing PgUp / PgDown.
Start of installation
After carrying out all the preparatory steps, you can proceed to solve the problem of how to install Windows XP from disk directly. After turning on the computer and starting from a removable device, a black screen will appear with a line prompting you to press any key to boot from disk. Keep in mind that you will only have five seconds to make a decision. Otherwise, it will boot from the next device (usually a hard drive), provided that it has a bootloader installed or even damaged by the OS.
Next, the pre-boot screen for the basic components of the installation appears and the line at the bottom prompts you to install additional SCSI and RAID drivers. In most cases, this is not necessary, however, if the computer has several hard disks combined in the same RAID array, the installation must be applied. But it will come from the fact that the user has one hard drive.
Partition selection and formatting
At the next stage, a welcome screen appears with a suggestion of actions to choose from:
- immediate system installation;
- recovering a damaged system through the console;
- failure to install.
Select the first item by pressing the enter key. Next, we agree with the license agreement and to continue the installation, press F8 (prompts will appear at each stage of installation).
After that, the previously installed copies will be scanned, after which you will need to make a choice in favor of installing the new system (Esc).
Now, in the matter of how to install Windows XP from disk, the most important thing begins. First of all, you need to decide on the system partition and its size. In case of installation on a new hard drive, on which there were no logical partitions, an unallocated area (full volume) will be shown.
It is undesirable to allocate all the space under the system partition (this may subsequently play a trick). It is better to split the disk immediately by pressing the C key and indicating the required volume in MB (for the system, you can allocate 40-60 GB, but not less than 20 GB). Immediately pay attention to the moment that for the normal functioning of Windows XP in the system partition, about 10-15% of its size should always remain free after installing the OS and after installing user programs. After returning to the partitioning screen, you can start formatting (but more on that later).
If the hard drive has already been broken, and it has an old system, the user will be shown all available partitions. If necessary, all sections can be deleted (when you select a section, press D). If the user’s disk structure is satisfactory, simply select the desired partition in which the system was installed earlier, and proceed to formatting.
In the case of new hard drives, you can immediately choose quick formatting in NTFS. If the operation is applied to an existing section, several options will be offered for selection. It is best to perform full formatting in NTFS. But to save data, you can leave the file system unchanged. Most likely, a warning will be issued that the Windows system directory already exists, with a suggestion to overwrite the current copy or select a new folder. Here - at will (all the same, the Windows XP folders of the old version, if one was previously present, will be saved).
Now it remains to wait for the copying of files to complete, after which a reboot will take place and the installation of the system in normal graphic mode will begin.
Setting initial parameters
In the next steps in the question of how to install Windows XP from disk, user actions are quite simple. When rebooting, it is necessary to remove the optical media from the drive, otherwise you will again get the preliminary start screen.
After the installer starts, the language and region are selected (usually nothing needs to be changed if you have a Russian copy of the system), then, if required, the user name and organization name are entered (optional), after which the product key is entered (the installation will not continue without it ) Working keys, by and large, can easily be found on the Internet.
At the next stage, you need to register the computer name and specify the administrator password (this can be done later). Next, the date and time is configured (usually nothing needs to be changed), and at the end a screen with a choice of network card settings may appear. Feel free to select "Normal Settings" and indicate that the computer is not involved in the network (it is better to select the group and domain after installation).
Installation complete
Just now the installation of the system and device drivers will begin. Upon completion, several additional windows may appear. For example, the system will ask for consent to set the optimal screen resolution. We must agree with this.
Then the welcome blue screen starts, in which most of the actions can be skipped (for example, defer protection, check the Internet connection and register with Microsoft). Finally, it remains to enter the names of the accounts that will be registered in the system. You can enter only your data, after which a notification will appear on the completion of the installation.
Pressing the “Finish” button will lead to the appearance of the “Desktop” with all the familiar picture. On this, the installation can be considered completed (if service packs were present in the distribution, they will be installed automatically, otherwise they must be installed independently).
Common system installation errors
Infrequently, of course, but you can also encounter Windows XP errors, moreover, during the installation process. The most common occurrence is BSoD (blue screen). Installation is not possible due to an incorrectly set SATA controller mode for the hard drive.
In this case, it is recommended to change it in the BIOS settings by setting the value to IDE or Compatibility.
If a message about BIOS firmware mismatch appears, disable ACPI mode during installation.
Perhaps the disc itself is damaged or scratched. Just write the distribution to another medium and try to install the system again.
Initial setup of Windows XP
Initially, the system usually does not need special settings. But to reduce the load on computer resources, it is advisable to disable some background services, activated by default and starting with the system.
In the Run console (Win + R), enter the msconfig system configuration access command, go to the startup tab and disable everything that is there, leaving only the ctfmon process, which is responsible for displaying the language in the tray and changing keyboard layouts.
Additional software required
Then, be sure to install security software, since there is practically no protection in the "e-book" itself. Antiviruses for Window XP are quite diverse and do not cause installation problems. However, assuming that this version of the system is usually used on relatively low-power machines, you should not install heavy packages like Kaspersky Lab software products. It is better to limit yourself to some lite versions (Avira, Panda Cloud, etc.).
Nevertheless, if you look at antiviruses for Window XP from the point of view of providing maximum protection, you can use the NOD32 or Smart Security packages from ESET. True, they will have to be activated monthly using special keys that are freely distributed on the Internet.
Finally, it remains to install the archiver, a set of codecs, a flash player for the browser, an office suite and some other applications that the user may need while working.