Clean install xp laptop

Turn on suggestions. Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type. Showing results for. Search instead for. Did you mean:. Last reply by SlamX Unsolved. Anonymous 7 Gold. New clean install of Windows XP. Hey I recently formatted my harddrive of my Dell Inspiron Now I'm trying to reinstall win XP sp2 from the CD I got with the laptop, but in the windows setup, when it is copying files, I'm getting lots of messages of missing files.

I finished the installation for the first time but it didn't launch windows my laptops spec is: Dell Inspiron Intel T Duo Core 1. All forum topics Previous Topic Next Topic. Replies 6. BigBrother 5 Iridium. In almost all cases, if you have errors copying files during a Windows XP install, you will find that the cause is failing memory RAM.

Generally there are several variants for Video Driver e. Ignore any for TV tuners at this moment. There may be a few variants of graphics cards for a laptop and you must select the correct ones. I n desktops if there is no dedicated graphics card in the card slot, then they have the onboard generally Intel driver.

Generally there are several variants of graphics card per desktop model and you need to pick the correct one. Conexant Drivers - Under Communications. Network Ethernet Driver - Under Network. Sometimes Intel, Atheros but the later two can be the wireless card. Wireless Card - Under Network. Not present for all Desktops but most that come with Windows Vista or later will have a wireless card included. There are generally several variants of Wireless Cards and you will need to pick the correct one.

For some newer systems the wireless and bluetooth card are one and the same. Touchpad usually mentions Synaptics or Alps - Input. Generally for laptops only. There may be additional drivers if you purchased a non-standard keyboard for a desktop e. Audio - Under Audio. Ensure you install any drivers before Audio Applications. Again pick the correct one for your system, there is generally not that many variants in the Audio. This is a dedicated soundcard. There will be a driver available but you may be able to get a later driver from the Creative Website.

There is sometimes also Creative Applications available for the onboard Audio. Many systems don't have these and are only added via customisation. Bluetooth If applicable - Under Network. For some newer systems the wireless and bluetooth card are one and the same and the driver will be installed alongside the wireless driver. This is for the power settings and Fn keys. Usually this is for laptops only. Webcam Driver found - Under Input.

Most desktops won't have a webcam driver or will use a dedicated Logitech or Creative webcam which can be downloaded from the perspective vendors. Note for desktop systems with a webcam integrated into the monitor, the webcam driver may be found bundled with the monitor driver. Installation of the monitor driver will install the webcam. Mobile Broadband Drivers - under Communications. Most users don't have these but the drivers are there for users that do.

These are the main drivers and I have tried to give a basic guide to cover all systems. There will of course be some other variants from model to model and customisations within the same model such as mobile broadband cards, TV tuners and other drivers depending on your systems configuration. There may also be security drivers for Latitude and Optiplex series. The check for any missing drivers is via the Device Manager Step 12 and you should post on the Microsoft OS forum if you run into problems there.

These can be updated if you wish but I would recommend leaving these well alone. Sometimes if these updates go wrong, things seriously break. If you have no problems with any of these devices then leave them be. You may look through Applications to see if you find anything else useful. Note for Windows XP it is generally better to slipstream the SATA drivers using nlite see here opposed to using a floppy Disk as floppy disks are obsolete.

Step 7a is for advanced users, most regular users should skip it. Not all systems have card readers. Remove any USB devices in particular external hard drives! DBAN will then load. The easiest way to use DBAN is by typing autonuke and then pressing enter. You should get these two screens. DBAN will then begin to securely format your hard drive. Note DBAN can take a very long time to securely format a large capacity hard drive.

When completed you should get a screen like this. Hopefully it will say DBAN succeeded although sometimes it mentions an error. Most of the times that it has mentioned an error to me it has actually fully formatted the drive and ran for the same length of time as it should i.

Note using DBAN may sometimes cause some issues with product activation using upgrade product keys as the original version of Windows is not there. To get around this reinstall the old operating system, activate it and then proceed with the clean install of Windows XP. This step is only for systems shipped with Media Direct. These systems will have a MediaDirect button in close proximty to the power button as shown below.

If your system doesn't have this button skip this step. The partitions for Media Direct must be set up before the installation of Microsoft Windows otherwise pressing the Media Direct Button while the system is powered down can corrupt your Operating System.

It should look like the following:. Power down your computer. Select option 1 recommended or option 2. Note: The application must be installed after the system drivers while on the Windows Desktop Step 14a.

This will begin the Windows setup. The first screen of the setup will prompt you to press F6 if you are needing to install a SATA driver from a floppy diskette. This screen flashes in a couple of seconds, if you miss it you will have to press F3 2 screens down and start again.

The next screen is important. Here you may create a partition, or delete any existing partitions. The way you do this is optional. I am just going to select the largest partition and select Enter.

It will then begin to format. Once it is formatted Windows will begin to copy files to the partition. The setup will copy all the files and then reboot the computer. The computer will restart and the setup will continue. You will be asked to input your Regional and Language options American is usually default. Select customise and change to your own preferences I have selected U. Click OK and then select details to ensure the keyboard is also set to as your desired.

Select OK and finally change the top from US to your personal preference or the American Keyboard layout will still selected. Select OK. In the next screen enter your name and organisation. You will then be asked for network settings, choose typical unless you want to configure everything yourself.

Choose a Workgroup, just make one up of your own and put all your home computers on it or choose a Domain if you have a large organisation. Don't worry if it looks bad, likely the Video drivers aren't installed yet.

The setup is almost finished. Here the Welcome to Windows XP Theme starts playing unfortunately most people don't hear it as the sound drivers aren't installed at this point Click next.

You will be asked for network settings, most people won't have their network drivers isntalled so i recommend just selecting skip. Note for non-Dell Media you will likely have to input a product key. For Dell media this and activation should be sorted out automatically in the BIOs. Note for XP Media Centre Edition there will be a few additional steps, it will install the Media Centre Edition programs, you shouldn't touch your computer at this point.

It often works out better installing the latest Service Pack and Internet Explorer before installing the system drivers Downloaded at Step. It prevents a great deal of problems with Windows Update. The Installation of Microsoft. Ensure you keep to the order listed above for best results. You should again have downloaded these at Step 4 and have them readily accessible on a USB stick or External Harddrive. Running the. For some older systems the drivers will have individual instructions which you will need to follow.

Unfortunately often no installer runs and the file just extracts. To actually install the driver you will need to navigate to the folder where the driver extracted to and run any setup. Many users think they have installed the driver when they haven't. We will take for example R the chipset driver for my Latitude D Double click the downloaded. Select yes. Select Ok. At this stage the setup should start and you should follow through with the installation. If it does not the driver is not installed.

I usually tell it not to reboot until I install all the drivers it is faster this way and always worked for me however it is probably best to reboot when prompted. You will get a prompt if you need to activate. If using a Dell disc on a Dell system in the method described above, then this shouldn't happen.

Press the [Windows] and [Pause Break] or go to start, right click computer and click properties. If you have an error, you likely have not installed a system driver and should quickly check that you haven't missed downloading or installing something. Right click the device with the error and select properties. Go to the driver tab and select Hardware IDs. If you wish you can check the Windows Update Catalogue with this information.

In order to help us assist you with driver issues on the forums, start a new post in the Microsoft OS forum , include the above information alongside the model of Dell and the Operating System. It doesn't matter if you load the disc from inside windows or when your booting up, but you will only be able to load from inside windows if you have it pre-installed. Then click custom install. If you're not sure whether you computer can handle Windows 7 If your going from vista it will be able to click the other option first again this only applies if you have windows pre-installed.

Follow the instructions that come up. If you want to completely erase your hard-drive and do a clean reinstall you can re-format it. You will be able to do this when it asks you which partition of the drive you want to install on. Again, if you have windows pre-installed you will be able to create extra hard drive partitions with a program called Ease-us.

You can do this once you've installed Windows. Just create a new partition on the rest of your drive if doing a clean install. This means you'll just repeat the bit you've just done. When it asks you for a license key it may not depending on whether it is a pre-activated edition you're using or not enter it.

Finally, once its installed, some of your drivers that's what connects the software to the hardware may be missing. Your Realtek AC'97 Audio driver will be this can be downloaded from Realtek search in the start menu for devices. The ones that have a yellow symbol next to them are either missing or not compatible with windows 7.

Click on them and click update driver. If you have a USB port you may be able to install through that instead. I would recommend updating to Windows 10 though, as Windows 8 was not one of the better operating systems made by Microsoft.

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