Installing Windows operating system using bootable USB flash drive

If your computer does not have CD or DVD drive or if your operating system files are corrupt, it is always better to have Windows operating system installed on your USB flash drive.

To install Windows operating system from bootable USB flash drive your motherboard should support USB media as first boot option. When you switch on the computer press DEL or F2 or F10 to enter BIOS setup depending on the type of motherboard you use. Go to BOOT menu and change the option USB STORAGE DEVICE or USB STORAGE STICK as first boot option. In most of the recent motherboards you can select USB STORAGE MEDIA as first boot device.

Click here for procedure to install Windows XP using bootable USB flash drive.

Click here for procedure to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 using bootable USB flash drive.

How to create partition in existing hard disk or external hard disk drive in WindowsXP

There are many ways to create partition. You can use DOS command utility FDISK or during Windows setup or with third party tools or using windows built-in COMPUTER MANAGEMENT tool after installing Windows. Partitioning hard disk drive using COMPUTER MANAGEMENT tool is very easy when compared to partitioning using FDISK.

For example: If you have 120GB hard disk drive and you have created only one partition of 40GB during Windows operating system installation. Remaining 80GB free space can be converted to two more partitions using COMPUTER MANAGEMENT tool.

Procedure:

Go to START and click on RUN to open RUN command window.
Type " compmgmt.msc " to open COMPUTER MANAGEMENT tool.

On the left side click on DISK MANAGEMENT option to view the hard disk partitions on the right side. You will see the partition list along with the file system of the partition, capacity, free space available and the health of the particular partition. Usually the partition in which operating system is installed will be named as HEALTHY (SYSTEM) under the STATUS column.

If you have multiple hard disk drives attached, you can see all attached hard disk along with partitions.

In the above image you can see two hard disk drives. One in internal hard disk which is fixed inside CPU and the other is external hard drive. Here the two hard disk drives are labeled as DISK 0, DISK 1.

The un-partitioned space will be labeled as FREE SPACE. Right-click on FREE SPACE partition and click on NEW LOGICAL DRIVE to open NEW PARTITION WIZARD. 

Click NEXT to select PARTITION TYPE.

Click NEXT to specify partition size. Assign the partition size. The partition size is measured in MB (Megabytes). You can assign the maximum partition size if you are not creating any further partition.

Click NEXT to assign the partition drive letter and click NEXT to format the created partition.

You can format the partition using NTFS file system or FAT32 file system. If you are concerned about security, then format the partition using NTFS file system. Select QUICK FORMAT and click NEXT to go to final screen.

Click FINISH to complete the task.

How to reset or recover CMOS or BIOS settings to factory default settings

All motherboard manufacturers provide you option of clearing CMOS settings to factory default settings by changing the jumper settings. Motherboards have three pin jumper settings block.

Motherboard manufacturers have their CMOS jumper placed at different locations on their motherboard. Most of the motherboard manufacturers have their CMOS jumper settings block placed near to the battery.

Refer to the motherboard user manual in case if you are not sure where the CMOS jumper is placed.

Reasons to reset the CMOS settings:

• If you want to make changes in BIOS settings and you do not remember the BIOS supervisor password.
• If you are not able to boot windows after making wrong changes in BIOS setting.
• Playing high resolution games without AGP card which changes your screen resolution or colors or monitor goes blank.

Procedure:

The image above shows the jumper with three pins in which the jumper is already placed on two pins looking from the left. Jumper is used to short the two pins. Look for the name CMOS or CLR_CMOS or JP<number> or JUMPER PASSWORD (in old motherboards) near to CMOS battery in the motherboard

Changing jumper in CMOS setting block varies depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard. For example: For Example in Intel motherboard to clear the BIOS setting, place the jumper on 2^nd and 3^rd pin and hold the CPU power button for few seconds. Turn off the computer and again put the jumper back to 1^st and 2^nd pin which is considered as normal and switch on the computer to reset the BIOS setting back to factory default.

Intel motherboard CMOS jumper settings:

• Jumper placed on pins 1^st and 2^nd  (as shown in above jumper image) is considered as normal which is default settings.
• Jumper placed on pins 2^nd and 3^rd is considered as clearing the BIOS settings.  This happens after POST (Power on Self Test).
• If the jumper is removed meaning all three pins are free, then BIOS data is recovered if something goes wrong when updating the BIOS.

 Gigabyte motherboard CMOS jumper settings:

• Jumper placed on pins 1^st and 2^nd (as shown in above jumper image) is considered as clearing BIOS settings.
• Jumper placed on pins 2^nd and 3^rd is considered as normal which is default settings.
• If the jumper is removed meaning all three pins are free, then BIOS data is recovered if something goes wrong when updating the BIOS.

Some motherboards manufacturers will just name CMOS settings block as JP with number. Look in the motherboard for block diagram of the particular jumper along with the number. This block diagram represents the CMOS settings block. All the motherboard will have block diagram of the CMOS jumper settings block.

For Example: If CMOS settings block is named as JP3, then look in the motherboard for block diagram of JP3 or just search for name CMOS in the motherboard which shows the block diagram of the CMOS settings block.

Installing windows and other application in less than 30 minutes

Installing windows and other applications will take more than less or more than an hour depending on the speed of your computer. But with Norton Ghost you can install windows operating system along with other applications in less than half an hour. Norton Ghost creates an image of your entire computer (operating system, hardware drivers, installed applications, files and folders created and stored by user). In case your operating system is having serious problem or crashed, you can install windows and applications from the image created by Norton Ghost without any user intervention. You can create Norton Ghost image file for your computer either using GUI (Graphical User Interface) or DOS window.

TO CREATE IMAGE FILE:

Click on BACKUP to open Backup Wizard

Click NEXT to select the drive or partition which you want to create backup image and the destination where you want to place the image file.

Click NEXT to give the path and file name to the image file

After giving the file name and path where to store the file, click NEXT to go to ADVANCED SETTINGS screen.

Do not make any changes in the settings. Click NEXT to go to next screen

Click NEXT to go to final screen

Click on RUN NOW to start creating image file of your entire drive or only the partition.

TO RESTORE FROM IMAGE FILE:

 Click on RESTORE to go to Restore Wizard

Click on NEXT to select the image file

Click NEXT to restore from the image file

How to troubleshoot when you have problem accessing internet

• Check for installed ethernet card driver. Hold " WINDOWS " key and press " R " to open RUN window. Type " devmgmt.msc " without double quotes and press ENTER key to open DEVICE MANAGER window.  

• Go to NETWORK ADAPTERS in the list and click on " + " symbol on the left of the heading. Now you should be able to see a list under NETWORK ADAPTERS heading. If you do not see any list in NETWORK ADAPTERS list then the ethernet card driver is not installed. If the ethernet card driver is corrupt or not properly installed, you see a yellow color question mark symbol or exclamatory symbol in the list then reinstalling the driver will fix the problem. Still if you have the problem, replace the ethernet card. Most of the recent motherboard comes with integrated LAN port. If you on-board LAN port has problem then install new PCI ETHERNET CARD which can be fixed on the PCI slot of your motherboard. 

• Check for proper connectivity of CAT5 network cable between your computer's ethernet card and router or modem.

• Check if your LOCAL AREA CONNECTION is disabled. Hold " WINDOWS " key and press " R " to open RUN window. Type " ncpa.cpl " without double quotes and press ENTER key to open NETWORK CONNECTIONS window. If disabled, right-click on LOCAL AREA CONNECTION and click on " ENABLE " to enable network connection.

• Check for the connectivity between your computer and router or modem using PING command. Hold " WINDOWS " key and press " R " to open RUN window. Type " cmd " without double quotes and press ENTER key to open DOS window. In the command prompt type " ping <IP address> " without double quotes and press ENTER key. Replace <IP address> with the IP address of router or modem. You should get reply from router or modem. If not, there should be either problem with CAT5 cable or ethernet card/driver or with your router/modem or with your internet service provider.

• If you are able to ping router or modem and not able to access internet then there should be problem with either your network connection setting such as IP address, Default Gateway or DNS servers or with your internet service provider. Contact your service provider for IP address, Default Gateway and DNS Servers. If your IP address is assigned automatically (DHCP) there is no need to manually assign IP address.