Powering Up

[teamo]

I am all done assembling my new build (I think). What is the first things that I have to do regarding it powered up and running. I know how to access the bios and I know a few of the settings that I have to change. What is after that? Do I download any drivers before the operating system gets installed? I read something about using f6 for third party software. Is this prior to the windows os getting installed? What other things do I need to do initially? Someone mentioned running tests on the ram prior to installing anything else. Is this necessary and how do I go about doing that?
Thanks

[ktkendall]

You can not load any driver till OS is up and running, because there is nowhere to load them to. It is the OS that needs the drivers, so the OS must be installed. The F6 thing is if your going to use a sata or scsi hardrives to load windows on, or you want to set up a raid array. The windows installation program needs to be able to recognize and access those drives if that is what you are going to load windows on, F6 will allow you to to load proper sata, scsi or raid drivers from a floppy just for windows setup program to be able to recognize and access those type drives.

[teamo]

Okay I am using a sata hd so I will need to use f6 and load those drivers prior to installing xp?
Also, I am using a version of xp that does not have the service packs installed. I read that without service pack 2 the xp os will not recognize large hard drives over 137 GB or something around that size. I will be downloading the service packs after I get everything up and running. Will the xp recognize the larger hard drive once I get the download or do I need to get another version of xp on disc to start with?
Thanks

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by teamo Okay I am using a sata hd so I will need to use f6 and load those drivers prior to installing xp?

You shouldn't have to. Most newer motherboards use chipsets that have native support for SATA HDDs so you don't have to install any SATA drivers prior to OS installation.

Originally Posted by teamo Also, I am using a version of xp that does not have the service packs installed. I read that without service pack 2 the xp os will not recognize large hard drives over 137 GB or something around that size. I will be downloading the service packs after I get everything up and running. Will the xp recognize the larger hard drive once I get the download or do I need to get another version of xp on disc to start with?

WinXP will recognize the entire HDD after you install SP2, but you'll have to create a new partition within the newly recognized unallocated space and then format the new partition so Windows can use it.

Or you could slipstream SP2 with your current WinXP.

Cricket