I won't go into that part right now but here are some of the most important things you should take into consideration when planning for your XP installation:
* Check System Requirements
* Check Hardware and Software Compatibility
* Determine Disk Partitioning Options
* Choose the Appropriate File System: FAT, FAT32, NTFS
* Decide on a Workgroup or Domain Installation
* Complete a Pre-Installation Checklist
After you made sure you can go on, start the installation process.
Step #2: Beginning the installation process
You can install Windows XP in several methods - all are valid and good, it all depends upon your needs and your limitations.
* Manual installations usually come in 3 flavors:
* Boot from CD - No existing partition is required.
* Boot from the 6 Setup Boot Disks, then insert the CD - No existing partition is required (see the Create Setup Boot Disks for Windows XP page).
* Boot from an MS-DOS startup floppy, go to the command prompt, create a 4GB FAT32 partition with FDISK, reboot, format the C partition you've created, then go to the CD drive, go into the I386 folder, and run the WINNT.EXE command.
* Run an already installed OS, such as Windows NT 4.0 Server. From within NT 4.0 go to the I386 folder in the W2K installation CD and run the WINNT32.EXE command.
* If you want to upgrade a desktop OS such as Windows 98 into Windows 2000 Professional you can follow the same procedure as above (You cannot upgrade Windows 98 into W2K Server).
There are other non-manual installation methods, such as using an unattended file along with a uniqueness database file, using Sysprep, using RIS or even running unattended installations from within the CD itself, but we won't go into that right now.
It doesn't matter how you run the setup process, but the moment it runs - all setup methods look alike.
Step #3: The text-based portion of the Setup program
The setup process begins loading a blue-looking text screen (not GUI). In that phase you will be asked to accept the EULA and choose a partition on which to install XP, and if that partition is new, you'll be asked to format it by using either FAT, FAT32 or NTFS.
1. Start the computer from the CD.
2. If you want, you can press F2 to run the ASR sequence. For that you need a good backup created by the Windows XP backup program, and the ASR floppy disk. If you plan to install a new copy of XP - don't do anything.
3. Setup will load all the needed files and drivers
4. Select To Setup Windows XP Professional Now. If you want, and if you have a previous installation of XP, you can try to fix it by pressing R. If not, just press ENTER.
5. Read and accept the licensing agreement and press F8 if you accept it.
6. Select or create the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional. Depending upon your existing disk configuration choose one of the following:
7. If the hard disk is unpartitioned, you can create and size the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional.
8. If the hard disk is already partitioned, but has enough unpartitioned disk space, you can create an additional partition in the unpartitioned space.
9. If the hard disk already has a partition that is large enough, you can install Windows XP Professional on that partition. If the partition has an existing operating system, you will overwrite that operating system if you accept the default installation path. However, files other than the operating system files, such as program files and data files, will not be overwritten.
10. If the hard disk has an existing partition, you can delete it to create more unpartitioned space for the new partition. Deleting an existing partition erases all data on that partition.
11. If you select a new partition during Setup, create and size only the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional. After installation, use Disk Management to partition the remaining space on the hard disk.