Installing Operating Systems on Laptops & Netbooks

To those of you who have never installed an operating system, I will explain the basic process
taken before going any further. Always remember that when reinstalling an OS, you will also need to
re-setup your Wi-Fi… So if this repair is not for yourself, you must ensure that the person you are
doing an Operating System Reinstall for knows their WEP or WAP key to be able to reinstall their
Network SSID and KEY.

There are a couple ways to start this process. First would be putting the OS install cd/DVD into
the optical drive. You must be powered on to eject the optical drive tray or to insert cd into slot.

Next you can try using your corresponding ―Fǁ key, such as F12 or F11 to tell the laptop to boot
from CD/DVD. Some laptop default BIOS splash startup screen settings will show you for a brief
second the correct ―Fǁ key to press to boot from CD, if not, you can power back off and on and try a
different F key until you find the one that takes you to the Boot menu choice screen. Another way to
start the OS install is to go into your BIOS Setup screen (usually F2 key will take you there, or ESC
key) where you can choose to set the CD/DVD as the laptops first boot choice. Doing this will allow
the laptop (once rebooted) to launch the CD/DVD auto start script and start the install of the operating
system.

If for some reason you can not get the laptop to boot to the CD, try using a different CD if able to.
If you can not boot to cd, you will need to troubleshoot why… Typically a cd/DVD rom drive will
not fail but on rare occasion they can and do. First, ensure the optical lens that is located directly on
the slide out tray is clean and free of dust or debris. Next you will reinsert the cd and watch for the
data light on the tray to see that it is blinking and that the actual cd/DVD is spinning. Next you would
check to see that the hard drive is working and that it is recognized.

It will be present in the BIOS
setup screen list, usually in the advanced section. Also you will need to determine if the operating
system you are installing is able to be installed on that specific laptop. Some operating system NON
OEM cd’s will not come with the corresponding SATA drivers and therefor will not be able to
correctly associate the SATA drive that is indeed installed to be recognized.
Let’s move on to installing the Operating System now.

Word Of Warning!!! Do Not Reinstall Any Operating System Unless You Are Sure You
Have A Copy Of The Ethernet and or Wireless Corresponding Drivers… The OS Install itself
might not load drivers for either which will leave you with no internet capability until they are
installed.

The Cd Starts... XP install will be different than Windows 7 install. With XP, it is a little less
graphical and will ask you more questions than will Windows 7. In a Windows 7 install, you will
start by choosing Custom install. I never ever recommend doing an Upgrade of any version of OS
install… simply not needed. Follow through the prompts and until you get to the screen showing the
hard drive partitions. Here you will make a decision to wipe the entire hard drive clean or to save

certain partitions or partial partitions.

If you need to save DATA from the previous Operating System install, then you can leave all
partitions as they are, even if the Windows 7 operating system is an upgrade to what was previously
on the drive (like XP or Vista). Simply keep the default choice partition selected… which will be the
largest sized partition, the system partition… and in this window you will just choose ―NEXTǁ and
not mess with any other setting.

A pop-up window will show up on your screen informing you that ―no data will be lostǁ and that
―the process will save all previous data to a folder which it will label: Windows.oldǁ. Note that
upon completion of the new operating system, that Windows.old file that was saved will be located
directly on the C – Drives Main Folder... (Open My Computer, Click on The Main Hard Drive Icon
(usually C) then scroll down that list, and right below Program Files and Windows Folders will be
Windows.old.

Let’s back up here to the install, back to before reaching the Partition screen of the install process.
Here you will also need to choose what operating system you are installing (if using a multi install
cd), and you will choose what kernel the OS will run, whether you will use a 32 bit OS or a 64 bit
OS. A 64 bit OS is meant for todays Dual Core CPUs and for Laptops with more than 3 gigs of RAM.
Ok, lets now move forward again to the Formatting/Install of the OS.

If you find that you are installing the operating system and it seems to stop at about 80 to 90% and
then Errors out and quits the install, You will need to swap out that install OS with a different one, as
either the CD itself (unsupported drivers) is the issue or the Fact that it does not contain the needed
install drivers on it. Again, most pirated OS installs will eventually encounter this issue. A hard drive
in its beginning stages of failure will sometimes cause this dilemma as well where it almost gets
through the install, then errors out and doesn’t complete the install. Then check the BIOS Setup to
ensure that SATA is enabled (if you have this ability in your BIOS version).

Assuming you have completed the windows CD install of the Operating System, I will now
discuss what goes on after the completed install.

Most OEM Operating System install discs will include most of the correct drivers needed for
your Laptop, and will load and install them upon the initial install of the Windows OS. Though, most
of the time you will be left with numerous drivers that did not get installed and it will be your job to
correctly install them.

The wonderful thing about the majority of the laptops is that it will not harm the operating system
if the incorrect driver is attempted to install, rather, it will deny the install with a caption showing the
error in incompatibility. Even if the incorrect driver is installed, it will usually warn you upon
reboot, that there is a problem, or you will get a pop up error explaining that the driver installed is
not compatible. You simply uninstall the bad driver or software to correct the issue and continue on
trying other related drivers. Hopefully you have done as I stated earlier and saved internet drivers to
allow yourself to easily reinstall them. Sometimes even your saved drivers might not work say for
instance you had XP and now have Win 7, the drivers you saved from the XP install might not be
compatible with your Win7 OS… You can try right-clicking on that XP driver and choosing to ―run
in Compatibility Modeǁ which will allow WIN 7 to ―Mockǁ a different OS version to allow the file
to correctly install and run.

To obtain the latest drivers released for your specific laptop model, you will go to the
manufacturer’s website, for ex: Sony.com or Dell.com…

Once at their main page of the website, you will look for a ―Services & Supportǁ or ―Drivers
& Downloadsǁ or similar to get to their Drivers Page for your model. Next, you will be allowed to
choose your Laptops model number and series number. There will usually be a list to choose from or
an Auto Detect feature on that Web Page. Once at your Drivers Web Page, you can see the list of all
your drivers such as Ethernet, Chipset, Audio, Wi-Fi, BIOS, etc…

Download one or all of them, and if needed, you might have to flip through the different operating
system versions to find all the drivers… there will be a place somewhere on that page to change what
operating system version the drivers are for…

If installing from a USB device, make sure that you set the BIOS
setting to allow the laptop to boot to that USB device first.