0) Make a boot floppy

The very first thing you need to do is make a boot floopy to start the system with before you can start the Windows installation. You can make one by downloading and running this program; when run it will ask for a blank floppy disk and then write a startup disk on it.

1) Initial Menu

This menu should appear as you boot from the startup floppy. Pick the first option, which is also the default.

2) Unpartitioned disk

The system will complain that there is no valid system on the hard disk (which is true, because the only hard disk in the system is the brand new one). Things to note:

• Point one says that we may need to partition the disk with FDISK. That's exactly what we're going to do next
• The message says that diagnostic tools were loaded onto drive C. This doesn't mean the hard disk, it's refering to a ramdisk - you can access it just like a real drive, but it exists in temporary RAM, not on an actual physical disk.
• MSCDEX is the cdrom driver, note that it says the cdrom drive is drive D:

Start the partitioning program by typing 'fdisk' at the prompt.

3) FDisk Large Disk Message

Since the new disk is larger then 512M fdisk will ask whether you want to use large drive support; there's really no alternative, so just answer Yes.

4) FDisk Main Menu

This is the initial menu of the fdisk program. We need to partition the disk even if we want to use it as one large chunk, in that case we just create a single partition usinh the entire disk. Alternatively we could create more than one partition that would appear as separate drives on the finished system, for example one for programs and one for data files. Either way we need to create something so we want to pick option one.

5) FDisk Create Partition

We need one primary partition to install Windows on, we may need extended and logical partitions in addition if we want to subdivide the disk, but either way we need to start with a primary, so pick option one.

6) FDisk Full Space Question

FDisk asks if we want to use all the available space and make the partition 'active' (which marks it as suitable for loading Windows from, so we do). Assuming we're going for the all in one chunk layout then just answer yes. If you want to go for two separate chunks then have a look at this and then come back to here.

7) FDisk Restart System

The newly created partition(s) need a drive letter so that we can refer to them, and this will mean that some of the current drive letters will need rearranging. Just press Escape and the computer will restart.

8) Second Boot

On this second startup a few things have changed; firstly there's no error message about the disk not being partitioned, and secondly the drive letters for the diagnostic tools and the cdrom drive have moved up to be above the letters for the newly created partition(s).

9) Start Format

The next thing we need to do is format the new partitions, the first (or only) one will be drive C: start the format program as shown, as answer Yes to confirm it.

10) Label Partition

Once the format is finished the system will ask for a name for the disk, within the eleven letter limit you can call it whatever you like. If you've just created one partition then it doesn't really matter, if you've created more than one it makes sense to give each a name relating to its intended purpose.

11) Finished Format

Once you've set the label you get some summary information about the disk and are then returned to the prompt. If you created more than one partition then you'll need to format the rest of them, so repeat the last three steps for the other drive letters (D:, E:....)

12)ontents of Windows CD

Next we need to run the Windows installation program from the CD, so change to the cdrom drive by typing its letter and a colon, then type 'dir' to show a list of the contents if the CD. If it doesn't look like this then you're probably on one of the hard disk partitions and not on the CD.

13) Setup Initial Confirmation

Run the installation program by typing 'setup', and confirm by pressing enter at the prompt.

14) Scandisk results

Scandisk should show no errors, if it does (like this) then you can just exit; if it reports problems then let me know.

15) Start of Main Setup Program

As soon as you've exited scandisk then the opening screen of the installation program should appear like this.

16) License agreement

Accept the usual formalities....

17) Enter Product Key

This screen should appear with the key already filled in; if not then use this one.

18) Installation Directory

Best stick with the default; a lot of programs expect to find Windows here and get upset if it's anywhere else.

19) Setup Options

Despite the scary message the custom option is not difficult to use and gives some extra flexibility. It's also the one I've used for the rest of this run-through, so it's probably simplest to go with it.

20) Setup Owner's Name

You need to give an owners name here, but it doens't have to be real :-) You can leave the company box blank though.

21) Choose Components to Install

This box allows you to pick things to install or not; if you keep the defaults you get the same result as a 'typical' install. Have a look though and see if anything grabs you as worth having. Don't worry about stripping things out, since you've got stacks of disk space now.

22) Set Computer Name

This is another pick a random name box; it's worth leaving the workgroup name as 'WORKGROUP', but call the computer whatever you fancy.

23) Main settings dialog

The keyboard layout and region settings default to American, pick each one and click the 'Change' button...

24) Set British keyboard

...first the British keyboard layout from the list...

25) Set British region settings

...then set the region (which sets things like curreny symbol and time/date formats)...

26) Set location

...and finally tell it that we are actually in the UK.

27) Make startup floppy disk

The installer now wants to create a startup disk. This would be essentially the same as the disk we've already been using to start with so you could skip it, however, if you've got a spare floppy to hand you might as well just go with it.

28) Startup disk part two

IIRC this appears even if you've tried to skip creating the startup disk; just click next and it will move on.

29) Final Confirmation

This is a final confirmation before the installer actually copies Windows from the CD to the hard disk, just click past it.

30) Copying files

When this process finishes there should be a working Windows installation on the new hard disk. At the end of the installation the compter will restart, at that point you'll need to make sure the startup floppy and the Windows CD are out of their respective drives to make sure that the computer starts from the hard disk.