How to Load an Operating System on a Computer

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Dave Andrews. Today I'm going to show you how to load an operating system onto your computer. What we're going to use is Windows XP and what you're going to need is a Windows XP CD in order to do this. Now it's going to say Windows XP on it and you get these from either an OEM or equipment manufacturer when you purchase your new computer so you should have one laying around from your purchase or you get it when you a purchase a computer from somebody else and they give you all the CDs. Or you if you don't have one, you actually have to go to the store and buy a new license for one. So take your Windows CD and pop it in your computer and we'll be ready to go. So you're going to see now if the system is actually booting from our Windows CD that we just inserted. Now it's going to be loading down at the bottom all the Windows subsystems that are used during the installation process. It's loading those into memory so that it can actually install the OS. This could take some time. Now what you're going to see after everything is loaded is a welcome to setup screen. It's going to ask you to press the Enter key to continue, so let's press Enter. And then you have to press the F8 key to comply with Microsoft's license. Now this is a very important screen, this is a list of the partitions on the hard drive that you're installing Windows on. Now a partition is a system by which you store files. It's important before we go any further from here that if you have any data that needs to be backed up, that you've already done that. If you haven't, turn your computer off, reboot and get any data that you need off. Now what we want to install on is unpartitioned space, that's the second entry I see here. But I have another entry here that I need to clear out before I can install. So let's select it, make sure you have a backup, press the D key, it's going to warn you that this is irreparable, press Enter and then to finalize the delete, press L to delete. Now that data is now gone, this is not a recoverable process to get that data back so as I said, make sure you have a backup. Select your unpartitioned space and press Enter. Now we need to format our new partition. You need to use the NTFS file system to format this. You have a quick entry up here, I don't suggest you use it because that does not check the disk for problems before it installed. So use the third option here, format using the NTFS. I'm going to go with the quick just for demonstration. Now this next screen is where it's formatting your hard drive and formatting is a process that must be gone through before you can copy files to a disk. Once that's done, it actually begins the process of copying the files and installing the operating system. My name is Dave Andrews and I've just showed you how to install an operating system."