S96J Format + Reinstall Questions

1. I heard something about needing SATA drivers during install in order to prevent an install error. Is this true and how would I install them?

(I have a Windows XP Home SP2 Install Disk)

2. Can I install the essential drivers from the Asus driver CD and then use Windows Update to find and install latest drivers for everything else?

3. When I install ATI Mobility Catalysts for the first time after reformat, do I have to uninstall Windows basic VGA drivers? Or can I just install.


Anything else I should know or that may be helpful?


Thanks!

I wanna speed up my computer for the new year! I have put alot of junk on it!

 

Maybe this will help.

 

2) Either way works, but i would suggest installing the essentials because you will need these for other functions to work. SP2 has a lot of security related updates which are good.

3) You can simply install ATI Mobile Catalyst, your laptop will recognise what drivers to use.

 

1.If you have sp2 slipstreamed on the disk you should get no error
2. you should not. The drivers on the asus driver cd works the best and proven not to have any problems
3. You should use the cd for your drivers. if you plan on using other read the posts on this forum. There is no end to error reports for people who use other drivers

 

EBE's Windows install guide is excellent.
I also reccommend:
Tweakhound XP Install Guide
Tweakhound XP Supertweak guide

 

Ok well thanks guy!

I guess since I have SP2 the SATA drivers should'nt be a problem then!

Its ok, I know how to reinstall XP!!! Thanks anyways

I have one other questions.

I would like to install XP on a seperate partition...how much does XP take up?

 

XP is roughly 3 GB, but i would recommend giving it a 4-10GB partition depending on what other programs will go in the same partition.

My C drive basically only has windows, but sometimes i put other important programs there too, so I made my C partition 30GB i have used 8GB so far, meaning i have 22GB of freedom.

 

Ok Alright, im going to do the math and im gonna do something like this:

XP + Apps = 20gb

Media + Documents + Games = Remaining gb

Anyways, this hard drive currently in my laptop is going to soon be replaced and im gonna put this one in an enclosure.

 

Oh ok, i see what your doing, let me explain my set up.

C Drive for Windows and Very Important Programs
D Drive for Apps and Games
G Drive for ALL Downloads, depending on how much you download, you can make the partition size what you think would be sufficient.

For me 130GB for downloads it not enough, wouldn't mind more hard drive space. hehe.

 

Yup, mines gonna be something like that....except not such a big downloads folder!

Anyways thanks!

 

Oh!!

1. If I reformat, my BIOS version will not be reset right?

2. Will Boot and Nuke be the best for completely wiping the HDD?

 

The BIOS doesn't reset when you reformat, so no worries there. As for wiping the HD, I've never used Boot & Nuke but I would recommend downloading Hiren's BootCD 8.6(newest), which has a bunch of utilities(Acronis Disk Director, Norton PartitionMagic, etc), which you could use to partition and wipe the HD is you want to do that. But just so you know, XP CD has the option to format also, so if that's all you want to do, just use XP's,

 

Oh, ok alright thanks!

 

My guide also has a section on partitioning, usapatriot... I have the feeling you've just looked at the title ;

Anyhow, if you have a 'clean' XP kit (i.e. not recovery CDs) you're going to be able to do whatever you wish with your partitions just using the XP cd, like said before.