How to Format?

[13ilbo]

Hi!
Was going to format my computer now, I have done it before and just googled it but I cannot get it to work...

I have the Vista prem cd and everything.

Basically I just want to clean my entire Hard Drive and install Vista again so the computer is "from the box".

How do I do it?

Thanks!
/Erik

 

[coldsleep]

When you boot up after putting the CD in, it should ask you if you want to repair your existing installation or go ahead with a new installation.

Select new installation, and part of the process will be to format the drive. In this case, I would choose the regular (not fast) format.

 

[13ilbo]

When you boot up after putting the CD in, it should ask you if you want to repair your existing installation or go ahead with a new installation.

Select new installation, and part of the process will be to format the drive. In this case, I would choose the regular (not fast) format.

I have the CD in and I just rebooted, started up as normal :/

 

[coldsleep]

Is the CD drive ahead of the hard drive in the boot order?

Next time you reboot, enter the BIOS and verify that the CD drive is first in boot order.

 

[13ilbo]

Is the CD drive ahead of the hard drive in the boot order?

Next time you reboot, enter the BIOS and verify that the CD drive is first in boot order.

It says, in order then: Floppy, Hard drive, [something else]

so well, dunno

 

[coldsleep]

Put the something else as first. I'm guessing it's a company name followed by a long string of letters & numbers?

At any rate, if there's nothing there, then it won't hurt anything. Assuming that is the DVD drive, that's what you want booting first for a system install.

 

[13ilbo]

Put the something else as first. I'm guessing it's a company name followed by a long string of letters & numbers?

At any rate, if there's nothing there, then it won't hurt anything. Assuming that is the DVD drive, that's what you want booting first for a system install.

Yeah it did the trick, put the something else first and got the question to boot from disc.

I got to the installation screen, I guess I just choose language, go on with the installation and format C when I get the chance (in the end of the install if im not wrong?)?

Anything else I should think about?

 

[coldsleep]

That's pretty much it.

You might want to consider doing a 64-bit installation if your hardware will support it. Of course, that's not necessary if you have 3 GB of RAM or less.

And after the install, you probably want to set your hard drive back to first on the boot order list.

 

[13ilbo]

That's pretty much it.

You might want to consider doing a 64-bit installation if your hardware will support it. Of course, that's not necessary if you have 3 GB of RAM or less.

And after the install, you probably want to set your hard drive back to first on the boot order list.

Okay, well, I was gonna install some drivers, I wanted to have the absolute latest drivers, so i went to msi.com to get my motherboard drivers.

My card is an intel p35 neo,
http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1215

but, there are like 4 drivers there, I figured I needed the one at the bottom and the one at the top (chipset and sound)
But what are those in the middle and for what do I need them?

Also, when Vista was installed it said at the welcome screen, standard VGA graphics card (the built in one)

But when restarting it said 8800 GTX, and I havent manually installed graphics drivers yet, is it so that Vista auto updates graphics drivers? Can you trust that it is the latest if thats the case?

 

[foscooter]

Yes, Vista updates the drivers as part of "windows updates" automatically after a few boots ups after install (or all the time?). Same thing happen to me, no video driver, then on the next reboot, the onboard video driver/sound/and LAN all get updated.

Since your mobo was out (way) before Vista's release, Microsoft (probably) included all the drivers you need to run. And I trust windows to get the latest ones...at least for older equipment.

Like when I re-installed XP on an old Asus A7V machine, XP (SP2) had all the drivers I needed, even for add on card (Sound, graphics, LAN). I checked the "version" numbers of the drivers, they were same or newer than the driver form the manufacture disks and/or downloads. So I left well enough alone.

P.S. Don't forget to "reset" the boot order back to hard drive first...but not critical.

 

[13ilbo]

Yes, Vista updates the drivers as part of "windows updates" automatically after a few boots ups after install (or all the time?). Same thing happen to me, no video driver, then on the next reboot, the onboard video driver/sound/and LAN all get updated.

P.S. Don't forget to "reset" the boot order back to hard drive first...but not critical.

Okay, But can I be sure its the latest drivers from nVidia that Vista updates?


Also, is the second and third drivers on http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1215 necessary and for what?