HOW TO BUILD A COMPUTER 101
Date: 10/8/00
By: Rice
2. The floppy drive
This is less complicated than the HD. Don't have to worry about jumpers or nuthin'. All you gotta do is grab the floppy FDD cable, which is the thinnest one and it looks like it's ripped at one end. Plug the un-ripped end into the mobo FDD adapter (use the manual if you can't find it), and the very end connector (the one past the ripped section) into the floppy. The pin 1 rule applies here too.
Here you can't just grab any ol' power cord. You gotta filter 'em out and look for a thin, odd looking one. Once you find it, plug it into the floppy. If you find you're using a bit too much force getting that power cord in, stop. Flip it around and try again. Don't risk it, because if you get it in wrong, you'll end up with a fried floppy.
3. The CD-ROM drive
Installing the CD-ROM is a lot like doing the HD. Take a regular, white IDE cable and plug one end into the secondary IDE (or IDE 2) of the motherboard. Plug the other end into the CD-ROM IDE connector. As usual, the pin 1 rule applies. For this particular setup, we'll set the CD-ROM jumpers as master as well. That's because the CD-ROM and the HD are on separate IDE channels, secondary and primary, respectively. You can play around with the combinations later if you want to install a burner or a second HD or whatnot. Just remember to set the jumpers correctly.
Then it's business as usual. Grab a power cord and plug it into the CD-ROM power connector next to its IDE connector. Now you're set.
Partitioning and formatting the hard drive:
Now you're ready for the hard part: setting up a Microsoft product. Hardware is a walk in the park compared to this. You see, hardware is straightforward in terms of just plugging things in the right way. Troubleshooting is elementary in nature as well. Software is where you run into problems, and things don't work for weird reasons. Ughh... it's dirty and nasty, I tell ya.
All digression aside, lug your tower back to your workstation where your monitor is, and plug in the keyboard, mouse, and appropriate power supplies once again. Assuming everything went smoothly so far, hit DEL and go back into the BIOS. Go into the standard setup area and find the "Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary Master, Secondary Slave" section. Choose "Auto" for all of 'em. Refer to the manual if you're at a loss.
Next, dig around the BIOS until you find an option that says "Boot Sequence". Depending on how you're going to install your Windows, the setting for this will vary. If you have an official copy of Windows 98 / ME, it'll support boot from CD. In that case, choose to boot from your CD-ROM first. It'll look something like "CD-ROM, C, A" or "CD-ROM, C, SCSI" etc... You get the picture. As usual, flip to the appropriate place in the manual for details.
Once you reset, make sure you have the CD in, it should automatically boot and present you with a menu. Choose "Boot with CD-ROM support". After a few minutes of activity, you'll find yourself at the DOS prompt. Don't be intimidated. I will show you exactly what to do.
If you have an unofficial copy, a.k.a. pirated copy (Shame! Shame! =P), you'll need a boot disk to get started. You have a few options here. You can go to someone else's computer (loaded with Windows 98 or ME) with a blank floppy, click on Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Add / Remove Programs --> Startup Disk and create one on the spot.
If you're a power user, you can setup your own CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to include the appropriate CD-ROM drivers and configure MSCDEX for yourself. Be sure to include FORMAT.COM and FDISK.EXE on it. I find it funny those "power users" deem themselves to be more superior when they use their own boot disk and form a sentimental attachment to it. I personally couldn't care less, as long as it works.
Remember to go back into the BIOS, hunt out the "Boot Sequence" option, and make sure that the sequence leads with the A: drive, which should be the floppy. It'll look something like "A, C, CD-ROM" or something like that.
Regardless of how you did it, take that boot disk back to your computer and plop it in. Remember, this is only if you don't have an official copy! Choose "Boot with CD-ROM support" if you're using an official boot disk, and after a while, you'll be at the DOS prompt.
These following instructions pertain to everyone. At the prompt, type FDISK and it'll whisk you away to partition your hard drive. The first thing you'll see is it asking if you'd like to enable "Large Disk Support". Say yes here unless you know what you're doing. Now you'll see a menu listing some options. Pick "Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive" and then pick to create a Primary DOS Partition.
Here's where you make a crucial decision that will affect you until you next do a partition. Do you want to have more than one drive, i.e. a C: and a D: drive, or just one big chunk as the C: drive? I, for example, split my HD into two partitions. My C: holds Windows and various applications like ICQ and MS Office. My D: holds all my games, music, and movies. Some people split their HD up into a gazillion partitions... those are the organization freaks or power users that dual/triple boot.
If you want just one big chunk (many people do... the advantage to that is you won't waste any space. The disadvantage is the clutter that'll build up), just say "Yes" when FDISK asks if you want to use the maximum amount of available space. If no, just select "No", and it'll query you how much space you want to allocate for the Primary Partition. After all that, you'll see the program verify your drive integrity, yadda yadda, and warn that you must restart, then format.
If you selected to use the entire space, don't worry about the following steps. This is for those that want multiple partitions on one drive. Go back to the menu, and select Create Partition again. Then, select Extended DOS Partition, and regardless if you want even more partitions, choose "Yes" when prompted to use all available space. After that, you'll see a menu where you can create Logical Dos Partitions. You get the picture. Here you can cut your HD up however you want.
Once you're done with all that, exit FDISK and hit the three finger salute (CTRL-ALT-DEL) to reboot your computer. Make sure your bootable CD or floppy is still in the drive, and once again, choose "Boot with CD-ROM Support". Back at the DOS prompt, type "FORMAT C:", and you'll have to go through a few self-explanatory queries. Yadda yadda... If you have a big partition, this will take a while, so go watch TV or something while it formats slowly. If you created more than one partition, you gotta do "FORMAT D:", "FORMAT E:", etc... until every one of your partitions are formatted.
P.S. When your hard drive is working (e.g. you can hear it make noises and stuff), but you can't see the HD activity LED blink on the tower in sync, you got the LED for it plugged in wrong. As far as I know, this is the only jumper in which you can plug in backwards, and it won't work. Simple fix: reach into the tower and flip the HD LED jumper you set a while back ago. Or if you'd rather not, it's up to you. No big deal.