partiton confusion

catford

My son has just been given a pc to use and the system has been wiped;). We have a copy of XP pro and a download of SP 2 ready to install. Do we need to partition the drive?? and why?
Thanks all:D

Chippy_Minton

If the hard drive has been completely wiped then it won't have any partitions, so you will need to create one - the C : partition, on which Windows is normally installed. You can allocate the whole drive to C :, or split it into separate partitions, e.g. for data. The Windows XP Setup CD can create these partitions, or just create the C : partition with it and then use Windows Disk Management later to create extra partition(s) in the unpartitioned space.

See http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

catford

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

If the hard drive has been completely wiped then it won't have any partitions, so you will need to create one - the C : partition, on which Windows is normally installed. You can allocate the whole drive to C :, or split it into separate partitions, e.g. for data. The Windows XP Setup CD can create these partitions, or just create the C : partition with it and then use Windows Disk Management later to create extra partition(s) in the unpartitioned space.

See http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

There's more:eek: apparently it has 2 hdd's--will that be a problem?

Chippy_Minton

No, that shouldn't be a problem. Windows can be installed on either drive, however to make it a normal Windows installation put it on the 'Disk 0' drive.

catford

Well--that bit went ok :Dbut because it was wiped b4 our install there are no drivers on it and no security-:o-what do you advise--I've got an avg disc which is quite up to date--should I install that and then my wireless driver and go online for the updates??;)
Is there a download anywhere which will install all the drivers I need.??

Chippy_Minton

Install SP2 first. By all means install the AVG disk if it's fairly up to date and the subscription period is still active, otherwise download one of the free antiviruses (e.g. AVG free) on another computer and install that. Then get the wireless working, go online and visit www.windowsupdate.com.

Other useful free software to install is Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG anti-spyware and Superantispyware.

catford

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

Install SP2 first. By all means install the AVG disk if it's fairly up to date and the subscription period is still active, otherwise download one of the free antiviruses (e.g. AVG free) on another computer and install that. Then get the wireless working, go online and visit www.windowsupdate.com.

Other useful free software to install is Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy, AVG anti-spyware and Superantispyware.

Thanks--I thought it was going too well :rolleyes: I used avg free then went online. During the process of checking how many updates I needed I found that the copy of XP I have is not genuine :rotfl:so I didn't even bother with SP2--I will use the windiz updates instead.:eek:

catford

Sons PC was updated from windiz and m/soft even let us download SP2;) even though the copy isn't validated.
I found out that the xp disk has been used and registered which I suppose is why m/soft won't validate it again.
Anyway today, when we went online we had 70+ updates missing!!!:eek:-they were all there last night so it's all a bit strange.

Back to the question--I've downloaded eset on a free trial so do I need to keep the windows firewall turned on as well??;)

Advice please?

Chippy_Minton

No, you shouldn't have 2 firewalls. Turn off the Windows Firewall in Control Panel - Security Centre.