Steps for operating system reinstall

Following are the steps to reinstall the operating system on your computer.

1.       Load the XP CD in the top CD drive and restart.

2.       Press F12 for BOOT MENU at the dell logo screen.

3.       Select IDE CDROM hit enter.

4.       When you get the message “Press any key to boot from CD” hit enter immediately.

5.       Windows XP Setup screen will appear loading files.

6.       When the screen “Welcome to windows” appears.

7.       Press ENTER.

8.       Press F8 for license screen agreement.

9.       Press ESC to continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing.

10.   You will see an option in a rectangular box which states "C: Partition 2 {NTFS} 38107 MB <25237 MB Free> or Unpartitioned space 8 MB".

11.   Highlight the one which states C: and hit "D" to delete the partition.

12.   You will see a message on the screen which states "To delete this partition", Press Enter.  Setup will prompt you for confirmation before deleting the partition or to go back to the previous screen without deleting the partition, press ESC".

13.   Press D to delete the partition.

14.   You will see a screen which states "You asked Setup to delete the partition C: Partition 2 {NTSC}, to delete this partition, press L Caution all data on this partition will be lost or To return to the previous screen without deleting the partition, press ESC.

15.   Press "L".

16.   Check the screen which says "To set up windows XP on the selected item, press Enter" or to Create a partition in the unpartitioned space press C, or to delete the selected partition, press D.

17.   Highlight the unpartitioned space and press "C" to create a new partition.

18.   The new screen will state "A new partition for Windows XP has been created on 38147 MB disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on atapi {MBR} ".

19.   In case you get an option to select the size while creating the partition please select the maximum size available.

20.   Now Format the partition using the NTFS file system(Quick).

21.   Now the new screen will state, “Set up is formatting and set up is copying files now”.

22.   It will take 3-4 minutes to copy all the files, after that it will restart the computer, please do not press any key while the system is restarting.

23.   After the system restarts the actual installation of windows Xp will happen, which generally takes almost 45 minutes, during the installation you will be asked to select country, name, language, time zone, etc. Please select the relevant entries.

24.   Once the 45 minutes process is complete , it will restart the system one more time, make sure not to press any key again, the system will do every thing by itself and then will take you to the windows xp desktop.

25.   You will get a screen that sates "An exciting New Look". Installing Windows in red. Setup will complete in approx 34 minutes".

26.   After installation you will get the welcome screen for the first time.

27.   Wait till the system reaches the desktop.

28.   Restart the system.

All the steps along with the screen shots are also available at http://rcc.bgsu.edu/info/Windows_XP_Installation

If you face any issues in following these steps, please feel free to reply to this e-mail without changing the subject line.  Thank you for your time.  Assisting you is a pleasure for us.