Collect Your Drivers

Gather all the driver discs for the peripherals connected to your PC. If you can’t find a particular disc, chances are you can get the driver off the manufacturer’s website. There’s no reason to rely on the driver CD that came with your motherboard since it’s likely out of date. Go to your motherboard vendor’s site and download the latest drivers and applications for your board. The NIC driver is most critical. It’s unlikely Windows XP will have native NIC support, so you’ll need the driver. Microsoft Vista could have support for it, but many newer chipset NICs are not supported, so download the version you need. You should also download the most recent drivers for your videocard and any other add-in cards you have in your PC.

While you’re online, download the latest Service Pack for the OS you’re installing. If you have a Windows Vista disc with SP1 already integrated, don’t worry about it. If not, download it here. For Windows XP, you’ll want to download the network installation package of the Service Pack. It’s designed to be installed on multiple computers, but it will also let you install the Service Pack without having to connect to the Internet. You can put all the drivers and the Service Pack in a folder on the hard drive you’ll be replacing or save them to a USB key.

Say Your Goodbyes

Complain about Vista all you want, but the installation process is exceedingly easy. After launching Setup from the DVD, you can be on the desktop in as few as seven steps.

OK, you’ve got your keys and apps, your drivers and Service Pack. It’s time to leave behind your previous install. Completely power down your machine by unplugging it or switching it off at the PSU. Open your PC and install your new hard drive in an empty bay and plug it into an open SATA port. Remember, some motherboards use multiple hard drive controllers. You should plug your drive into the ports numbered 0 to 3 (for a total of four) as they are usually the SATA ports native to the chipset. If you use a third-party controller chip, you’ll need to have the drivers for it on floppy disc for XP. Vista supports USB and optical devices for drivers, so you can use the CD that came with the mobo or just drop the drivers on a USB key.

Since we’re going to copy the files directly over from the old hard drive to the new one, we recommend that you unplug your old drive’s SATA and power cable for now so you don’t accidentally reinstall Windows over your critical data. Once you’ve done this, boot the machine and put the OS disc in the optical drive. The optical drive is usually first in the boot order, but if it isn’t, go into the BIOS and set it as the first boot device. Some boards let you temporarily alter the boot order by hitting F10, F11, or F12 during boot. If your board doesn’t, you’ll have to go into the BIOS by hitting DEL or F2 during boot and change the boot order so that your optical drive is first. Finally, disconnect your computer from the Internet.

Ready, Steady, Go! 

Let’s start with Vista: Hit the space bar during boot and begin installing Windows. Installing Windows Vista is very straightforward. Just enter Windows Setup, enter your product key, select the version of Windows you bought, and hit Next. Accept the terms of the license and continue until Vista asks you what kind of install you want.

Since the new drive is empty, you’ll be offered the Custom option to install a clean copy of Windows (Upgrade appears only on a drive with an OS on it). After you click Custom (Advanced) you’ll be asked what drive you want to install Windows to. If you’re presented with drive letters you can’t account for (your single, new drive should be a single Disk 0), the OS is likely recognizing a multiformat memory-card reader as multiple hard drives. Vista does not have issues with this, but Windows XP will sometimes install the OS as the F: drive because of a multiformat card reader. Having Windows XP default as anything but C: causes all kinds of problems and we generally don’t recommend it. There is a way to fix it, but it’s not pleasant. If this happens, power down, disconnect your card reader, and restart.

Most people will be suited by using one single contiguous partition for the OS, so just click next and Vista will format the drive that way.

After selecting your hard drive, click Next to continue with a standard single-partition install. For most people, a single partition on the drive is fine. If you like to separate partitions for data and apps, select your main drive and click New. Enter the size of the partition you want, click Apply, and continue on with Next.

If you’re running a RAID configuration in Vista or need to install special drivers for your controller card, hitting Load Driver will allow you to install the drivers from a floppy, CD, or USB key. After you’ve pointed the installer at the correct drive, Vista will scan it and present a list of available driver options. Select the driver you need and click Next. Vista will now install the OS to your drive in 30 to 60 minutes. When you come back to the desktop, you’ll be asked to enter a user name and password. The only decisions you’ll make from this point on are the name of the PC, the desktop background, the Windows update settings (Recommended Settings is right for most people), and the location setting for the Network: for home, select Home, if you’re at work, select Work.

Loading third-party drivers for RAID, SCSI, or other controllers is a snap in Vista and you can finally do it from a USB key!    

A RAID config on XP is a different story. If you want to install RAID, AHCI, SCSI, or any third-party controller drivers, they can be installed only from a floppy drive, and many XP discs will not support newer USB floppy drives. Even more inane, to install the drivers, you’ll need to punch the F6 key within a three-second window just after the installer has started. It’s like Dragon’s Lair but without the fun; miss the F6-key window and you’ll have to reboot and try it again until you hit it just right.

If you have timed it right, you’ll see a screen that tells you that the OS cannot determine the type of mass storage controller. Put your floppy with the drivers in, hit the S key, and select the device driver you need. XP will continue to ask you if you need to install additional drivers, but if you’re done, just hit the Enter key.

The installer will present you with what drive you want to install the OS on. Unless you need to create multiple partitions, just hit Enter. Windows XP will now give you a choice of a quick format or a full format. The rule of thumb is to do a full format on new drives since the OS will map out any bad sectors on the disc. Quick formats should be done only on drives known to be good. However, a full format on a 1.5TB drive will take hours to run.

If you don’t like to be told the odds, do a quick format and then perform a chkdsk /r as soon as you have some spare time. Once the format is complete, XP will begin the install. At some inconvenient point, XP will ask you to customize your region settings, enter a user name and password, enter your product key, name the PC, and set the time. You’d think that would be all it needs, but after 20 minutes or so, XP will halt the install and ask you for network settings (select Typical Settings and click Next) and any work group or domain settings (enter these later or just accept the default and move on; you can change these later). Now XP will make you wait another 10 or 15 minutes while it finishes. This stop and go can mostly be avoided by building an automated slipstream disc using nLite, but honestly, unless you install the OS a lot, it’s faster to just deal with the prompts.