Tycho's New Computer

TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Part 2: The Softwareining</div>So the last part for my computer (3d card) arrives today, which means it's time to move from Stage 1: The Hardwareining to Stage 2: The Softwareining. Tell me if this sounds like it'll work:

<b>Step 1</b>: Install Windows XP on a partition 5 gigs smaller than the entire hard drive, formatted NTFS. (WinXP might not recognize the entire drive at first, I'll fix it later)
<b>Step 2</b>: Format the other 5 gigs as FAT16 and make them the sole repository of my swap file (this computer has 2 gigs physical RAM, I figure 2.5 times is what a swap should be).
<b>Step 3</b>: Update my mobo BIOS.
<b>Step 4</b>: Install Service Pack 2.
<b>Step 5</b>: Install latest nVidia drivers and DirectX9.
Pray to Jesus that it all works out at this point
<b>Step 6</b>: Assuming computer is functional, install Soundblaster drivers, joystick drivers. I think that's it for drivers.
<b>Step 7</b>: Install all that stuff a computer needs, like a browser (Opera yo), tweaks to the Windows XP shell, undelete software, WinDirStat, Startup Explorer, Spyware/Adware/Virus nukers, uTorrent, VLC, DivX, Winamp, OpenOffice, Foxit Reader, Maya, Photoshop, IrfanView, 7-Zip, GAIM, Hamachi, UltraVNC, defrag software, maybe a partition manager and Crap Cleaner.

If you guys have any tips for other software to add for Step 7, fire away. I have 500 gigs. It's not going to fill up soon.

<b>Step 8</b>: Install Steam, other games.
<b>Step 9</b>: Connect to Internet, install Windows updates.
<b>Step 10</b>: ? ? ?
<b>Step 11</b>: Profit.

Tips? Comments? Advice? Pity? Suggestions? Oh, I also have to build the computer. If you've got any tips for that, it would be good too.
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Comments

  • RuByRuBy Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10732Members
    How about fixing yourself up with a <a href="http://www.nliteos.com/" target="_blank">slipstream</a> install of XP with SP2 and most of your options already figured out? Easy to do, legal, and all you need is a cd burner and a copy of XP (which you probably have).
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    edited July 2007
    Ahah whoops, for some reason I thought I needed a DVD burner for that. I guess it all fits on a CD.

    Well, I guess I'll go ahead and do that. It ought to save me a bit of time <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

    Edit: On second thought, slipstreaming all this crap is a little complex. I'm scared to take parts out and it doesn't seem like it'll save a HUGE amount of time by putting stuff in. Plus the XP CD makes crunchy noises as I copy it to my hard drive. I'll just do things the old fashioned way; I can always slipstream something for the first reformat.
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  • DepotDepot The ModFather Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7956Members
    You've got it pretty well covered TC.

    Thanks for reminding me about the unused space on my hdd. I have a 5 year old version of WinXP Pro, which only recognizes 130gb of drive space. Once SP2 is installed the other (in my case) 105gb magically appears, but is unallocated. I STILL haven't formatted that yet, lol.
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  • puzlpuzl The Old Firm Join Date: 2003-02-26 Member: 14029Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
    Between Steps 4 and 5 you will probably need drivers for your chipset, onboard sound, onboard nic etc.

    If you are install an XP based off of service pack 1, then it might not contain drivers for some of your devices ( e.g. NIC or even worse, SATA controller ). The XP install gives you an option to load drivers from a floppy before you install, so be prepared to do this if it doesn't work out.

    I'm not sure what the point of step 2 is. You're swap file will always be at the end of the disk, and your drive will have to constantly seek there on a page fault. I would expect the best place to 'force' your swap file to would be the middle of your disk, but tbh, I'd just let windows deal with it.

    I presume this partitioning technique comes recommended, can you link me to something on it?

    My approach to disk setup is to have a raptor for your OS, Apps and Games, and a normal disk for your data. I actually store all my files on a NAS, so my PC has 140MB of in system storage, of which there is usually about 30-40GB free.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    The paging file suggestion comes from MonsE's Windows XP tweak guide. He used to work at Microsoft, doncha know. The guide is lost to time (at least, a minute of Googling can't find it. It used to be up at the Readyroom) but I remember that's what he recommended.

    It's possible XP won't have my SATA controller drivers, seeing as it's like, a really old XP disk. Does this mean I have to slipstream at least some stuff on to avoid the whole floppy disk thing? I've always used IDE hard drives up until now so I've never had to deal with this crap.
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  • puzlpuzl The Old Firm Join Date: 2003-02-26 Member: 14029Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
    Well, if XP SP1 doesn't have drivers for your sata controller, then you will have to use nlite or something to bundle them into it. While you are at it, you may as well add SP2. I wouldn't bother doing more than that though.
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  • RuByRuBy Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10732Members
    If your system drive is using SATA then you <b>must</b> slipstream the driver for it or have a floppy with the driver on it (there's a point in the installation where you can add custom drivers).
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  • ThansalThansal The New Scum Join Date: 2002-08-22 Member: 1215Members, Constellation
    I admit to being confused.

    I just did a rebuild and installed xp SP1 on my 80 gig SATA drive with no problem.....
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Okay, well, the whole thing's assembled, although I couldn't screw the 8800 in as tight as I would have liked. Everything else went fine.

    I booted it up and got in to BIOS; I changed the boot order to Hard Drive then CD drive (I have no floppy). I figured since the hard drive is empty it would just bypass it and move on to the CD drive. Unfortunately, when it boots up, it gets to the JMicron RAID Controller Screen and hangs at "Detecting Hard Drives" or something like that. Worse, it won't let me get in to BIOS during POST. I dunno why. I hit DEL a bunch and everything but nothing happens. I know the keyboard works since Numlock, etc. work.

    I would probably just pop the CMOS battery for a bit (that resets the BIOS, right?) but to do that I'd have to take out the 8800 (hooray mobo design), and I'm loathe to do that because it wasn't much fun to get that thing inside the computer in the first place.

    Any suggestions?
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  • WarriorWarrior Join Date: 2003-02-16 Member: 13624Members
    What mobo?

    For my mobo, I needed to install the raid controller drivers to install the OS. This required me to put the drivers on a floppy. It was dumb since the mobo disk gave me the option to make the floppy...why couldnt it just install the damn drivers. So get a floppy drive and try that. Hopefully that fixes the problem and its not something else. You could also try a different sata port, or just one drive if you have more then one.

    Removing the CMOS for a minimum of ten minutes to reset the BIOS. It may sound silly but sometimes a few minutes wont be enough.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    It's an ASUS P5B Deluxe. My problem is that I can't even get in to the BIOS; if I could do that I would be fine.
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  • ThansalThansal The New Scum Join Date: 2002-08-22 Member: 1215Members, Constellation
    quick note:

    alot of newer mobos have a nice little jumper for resetting the bios.

    rtfm <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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  • enf0rcerenf0rcer intrigued... Join Date: 2003-03-16 Member: 14584Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1640934:date=Jul 27 2007, 09:51 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Jul 27 2007, 09:51 PM) [snapback]1640934[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Any suggestions?
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    <img src="http://amisharmada.com/pictures/Computer_smashing.JPG" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
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  • WarriorWarrior Join Date: 2003-02-16 Member: 13624Members
    edited July 2007
    <!--quoteo(post=1640947:date=Jul 27 2007, 08:05 PM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Jul 27 2007, 08:05 PM) [snapback]1640947[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    quick note:

    alot of newer mobos have a nice little jumper for resetting the bios.

    rtfm <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Mine didnt. Have to take CMOS battery out.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Well, turns out I just had to wait 2-3 minutes. After that, it let me in to the BIOS, where I turned off the stupid RAID controller and set the boot order to hit the CD drive first.

    Unfortunately, now what hapepns is that, whether or not the XP disc is in, it POSTS and then says "Boot and Select Proper Boot Device: Insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key."

    The XP disc is in there, and I press a key, but it just pauses for a sec and prints the message again. I searched on Google and apparently this has happened to a whole bunch of people for a whole bunch of different reasons, and all the people who have fixed it either don't say what they did or all did something different. Erp?
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  • WarriorWarrior Join Date: 2003-02-16 Member: 13624Members
    Have you tried not changing the boot order. I dont recall every having to change it on any of my computers.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Yeah, it doesn't matter whether the HD is first or not, since the HD's empty anyways.
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  • A_Boojum_SnarkA_Boojum_Snark Join Date: 2003-09-07 Member: 20628Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1640857:date=Jul 27 2007, 01:59 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Jul 27 2007, 01:59 PM) [snapback]1640857[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    <b>Step 2</b>: Format the other 5 gigs as FAT16 and make them the sole repository of my swap file (this computer has 2 gigs physical RAM, I figure 2.5 times is what a swap should be).
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    FAT16 volumes cannot be larger than 2 gigs, so you'll have to go with FAT32 or a smaller swap file.
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  • BlackMageBlackMage [citation needed] Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17474Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1640985:date=Jul 28 2007, 12:56 AM:name=A_Boojum_Snark)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(A_Boojum_Snark @ Jul 28 2007, 12:56 AM) [snapback]1640985[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    FAT16 volumes cannot be larger than 2 gigs, so you'll have to go with FAT32 or a smaller swap file.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I'd NTFS-ify it since journaling can prevent a lot of headaches and it has some other nifty features that will either prevent or warn you of impending doom.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    edited July 2007
    <!--quoteo(post=1641010:date=Jul 28 2007, 02:38 AM:name=Black_Mage)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Black_Mage @ Jul 28 2007, 02:38 AM) [snapback]1641010[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    I'd NTFS-ify it since journaling can prevent a lot of headaches and it has some other nifty features that will either prevent or warn you of impending doom.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Impending doom in my paging file? Riiiiight.

    In any case, I'm not formatting anything until I can get past this stupid boot device thing. I think it might be the DVD drive; I'm going to try the CDRW from the old computer to see if I can get that to work.

    Edit: Well, swapping in a different CD drive didn't work. This is really irritating. Searching the Internet, people say it's anything from a loose SATA cable to the wrong jumper settings on the CD drive to a busted hard drive to a broken motherboard to unupdated BIOS to anything you can really imagine. Almost everyone who has fixed it doesn't really bother to explain how. I updated my mobo's BIOS to see if it was that, but it still does the same thing. Grr...
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  • BlackMageBlackMage [citation needed] Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17474Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1641041:date=Jul 28 2007, 08:12 AM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Jul 28 2007, 08:12 AM) [snapback]1641041[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Impending doom in my paging file? Riiiiight.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    whatever, your disks.
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    The rest would be NTFS. Just the paging file would be FAT.

    Here are <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244008-31-cannot-boot-install-windows-computer" target="_blank">two other threads</a> <a href="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=2077692&enterthread=y" target="_blank">that describe my problem in more detail</a>. I've managed to stump everyone but that's not really much consolation, I'd say.
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  • BlackMageBlackMage [citation needed] Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17474Members, Constellation
    <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994" target="_blank">boot disk?</a>
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Okay, for the record and for anyone who has this problem in the future, I FINALLY fixed it. Here's how:

    The DVD drive wasn't working for booting, and neither was the CDRW drive that worked in another computer, so eventually I plugged both the DVD drive AND the CDRW in (DVD set to master, CDRW set to slave, DVD in the top part of the IDE cable, CDRW the bottom). I set the JMicron controller to IDE, and it was able to recognize both drives perfectly. Go figure.


    As for my new computer, now the only task is to load it up with all ze goodies and get going. Here's what I've got so far:

    <b>SYSTEM JUNK</b>: Intel chipset drivers, DirectX, nVidia drivers, sound card drivers, Service Pack 2

    <b>PROGRAMS</b>: Opera (I think have my profile info), Process Explorer, Diskeeper, 7Zip, AdAware, AVG Antivirus, CDisplay, CeltX, FoxitReader, Hamachi, K-Lite Codec Pack, mIRC, Pidgin (GAIM), SpyBot, StartupList, uTorrent, Winamp, Steam, Partition Magic, WinDirStat

    <b>JUST JUNK</b>: All my music, some miscellaneous files I want to move, my growing archive of Garfield comics that I have edited to remove Garfield's thought bubbles from.

    Does anyone have anything to add to the list? Or does anyone know how to get a Maxtor OneTouch drive just to act as a normal drive so I can get my crap on it?
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  • myrigthmyrigth Join Date: 2003-02-08 Member: 13270Members
    Porn.
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    You should use firefox instead of opera. It's better.

    Also, you should put the picture of Bazil from my website as your desktop background, for great cute.

    --Scythe--
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  • BlackMageBlackMage [citation needed] Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17474Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1641296:date=Jul 30 2007, 06:22 AM:name=Scythe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Scythe @ Jul 30 2007, 06:22 AM) [snapback]1641296[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You should use elinks instead of a GUI browser.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    fixed.
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  • DrfuzzyDrfuzzy FEW... MORE.... INCHES... Join Date: 2003-09-21 Member: 21094Members
    Man you can do a fresh install pretty quick, it takes me atleast 2 days to install and download everything i want on a 10mbps connection <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Well, I downloaded most of the stuff I mentioned in the first post before the parts even came, and stuck it on the external hard drive that we use for backups. Windows takes less than an hour to install, and everything's actually pretty fast and painless. But yes, I'm an efficient person <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" />
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