New build install help.

Dferguson said:

Hi all,

I am building a new pc from scratch. I was just wondering when its all put together do i simply put te Windows 7 disk in the drive & instll or is there more to it?

Many thanks in advance.

Before installing, you are to do some more things like partitioning the hard disk drive and formatting at least one partition to NTFS primary to install windows there, but all the tasks can be done with the windows instillation disk .

After the installation completed , you are to install display driver, sound driver and network driver to make the installation complete.

Dferguson said:

Hi all,

I am building a new pc from scratch. I was just wondering when its all put together do i simply put the Windows 7 disk in the drive & install or is there more to it?

Yes, pretty much that's it. (Easy answer)
On a new, unformatted, clean drive Windows will create it's own partitions, format them, and install using the entire drive. By default Windows will create a 100MB System Reserve partition and a C: drive.

There is a point in the installation of W7 where you can configure (customize) your new hard drive. You can create partitions of your desired size, and set up your drive for installation.

Lots of folks, like myself, set up partitions and format them on a new, clean drive before starting the Windows installation. Creating partitions using the installer can be kind of clunky to the uninitiated. There are some good third party tools that do this job but lately I've just been using the Diskpart utility that can be accessed through the installation DVD. The third party programs (like Partition Wizard - bootable CD) have easy to use graphical interfaces. Diskpart is more retro/advanced - it has a DOS like interface.

If you are installing more than one hard drive in your new build it is advisable to disconnect all drives except the one you will be installing W7 on. This will resolve any confusion about which physical hard drive gets the OS on it, and just simplifies the installation.

You can create all your additional partitions on the hard drive(s) easily after Windows is installed. So to save time and effort I usually just create and set up the one partition for W7 and leave the rest of the disk blank.

One note: If you install W7 on the entire disk and then go back later to shrink the partition from within windows, you will be limited/restricted as to how small you can make the Windows partition. Windows is like a bad bed partner - it likes to take all the sheets! You can overcome this by using the third party partitioning software, but it is more efficient to plan the partitions in advance and install Windows into "it's side of the bed".

Clean Install Windows 7
Pay attention to steps 7 & 8