FORMAT HARD DRIVE INSTALL WINDOWS

I have a computer that was running Windows.
The Hard Drive has been formatted.
How do I install Windows after it has been formatted?
Do I just insert the CD and will it install???

[Uranium-235]

/me moves to operating systems

it depends on the operating system and you are attempting to install, and if it's boot cd installable, depends on if your bios supports the El torito standard for bootable cd's.

Tell us what operating system you are attempting to install please.

[wizbones]

When you first power on your system you should see something on the screen that says press this for setup. It should be DEL (delete key) or F1 F2 something like that.

Once in the bios see if there is a menu labled boot at the top, select this and make the CDROM following the onscreen directions the first bootable device.

If you do not have a menu called Boot then look under advanced you should find a section that has A,C toggle through the options until you get CDROM, A, C

Either way save changes and exit the BIOS.

With your Windows CD in the drive power up again and you should be prompted to install windows.

Now if you cannot boot to the CD then you will need a bootable Diskette with CDROM drivers : anyone running windows 98 can create one of these boot disks for you or you can download one online at http://www.bootdisk.com

Once you boot with a 98 bootdisk just type in the drive letter of your CDROM which you should see asigned as the last part of the boot up.

Type setup and press enter. Follow the prompts. Hope that helps. Good luck

/me points out to wiz that not all BIOSes are the same

best bet instead of messin around with BIOS is to get a dos cd boot disk (www.bootdisk.com), put that in, put in your windows CD, reboot the PC, when it finishes loading type

d:setup

(im presuming you only have 1 hd, fdd and cd drive)

then follow the oncscreen instructions

[Uranium-235]

setup will not work in dos when you're installing NT4/5 XP(I think xp). That will only work with 95/98 rouge.

Edit: Unless you use 2k boot disks

Thanks for the info.

All you guys ROCK!
Thanks for the info!!!!!
I will be working on it next week.

[vee_ess]

Don't forget, you need the key! If you by chance have a backup of your hard drive or didn't actually format it yet, make sure you get the key before you do. You won't get very far in the setup without it.

Yeah, you can use Win2k bootdisks for any descending from the NT line, and U235, XP is NT 5.1 (based of 2000 which is NT 5.0; but let's not go there again!).

And it shouldn't take ya too long, I format and reinstall Windows & Linux every 2-3 weeks . Now that it is routine, it takes me less than an hour for the format and both OS's to be installed and completely configured. One of the first times though, it took me over an hour and a 1/2 to format and install just 1 OS.

Rogue...we both too lazy to login sometimes!

[Uranium-235]

ve! I already knew that, I just wasn't sure if M$ put a 16-bit installer with XP, unlike 2K

you can get into XP setup from DOS but it isn't d:setup and i can't remember it off by heart... /me wonders if this guy is even still here?