Install Vista on a New System

June 23, 2008

Install Vista on a New System

Figure 1-1. From this page, click “Install now” to begin setup

Use this method to set up Vista on a brand-new, empty hard disk, or if you don’t want to upgrade an earlier version of Windows (discussed in the next section). See the upcoming sidebar, “Reduce Vista’s Footprint,” before you proceed if you want to customize the installation. The Windows Vista installation disc is bootable, which means that you can pop it in your drive, turn on the computer, and the installation process will start automatically. If your PC doesn’t boot off your Vista disc, you’ll need to do one of the following:
BIOS setup
Enter your BIOS setup utility (discussed in Appendix A), navigate to the Boot section, and change the boot device priority or boot sequence so that your DVD drive appears before your hard disk. Save your changes and exit BIOS setup when you’re finished.
Boot menu
Alternatively, some PCs provide a “boot menu” that lets you choose the boot drive on the fly. Look for a message above or below the boot screen right after you power on your PC; usually, all you do is press the F12 key (before the beep; don’t dawdle), select your CD/DVD drive from a list, and hit Enter. When your PC detects a bootable disc, you’ll usually see this message for
three to four seconds:
Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…

Press a key on the keyboard, and in a few moments, setup should load normally and display its Welcome screen. On the first screen, click Next to display the Install Windows screen shown Figure 1-1. From here, click Install now to proceed. On the next page, setup asks for your product key, which you can read off the DVD sleeve or the sticker on your PC case. Mercifully, Microsoft now allows you to skip this step—leave the field blank, click Next, and then answer No—so you don’t have to waste time fishing around for the sticker and typing the excruciating 25-digit key. This is a particularly nice time-saver in the event that setup fails and you have to start over, or if you’re only setting up a temporary Vista installation for software testing or data recovery.

If you complete setup without typing your key, make sure you choose the edition of Vista you actually own. If you choose the wrong edition, you won’t be able to change it later without reinstalling from scratch. When Vista boots, it’ll operate in a fully functional “evaluation mode” you can use normally for 30 days. If you don’t enter a valid product key for the edition you chose during setup in time—through the System page in Control Panel—Vista goes into a lockdown mode. (See the next section, “Install clean with only an upgrade disc,” for a way to extend this evaluation period.) So, if this installation ends up being a keeper, don’t put this step off, lest you risk making the data on your hard disk more-or-less inaccessible.

A few pages later, you’ll be asked “Which type of installation do you want?,” at which point you can select Upgrade or Custom (advanced). The Upgrade option is only available if you install Vista from within a previous version of Windows, as described later in this chapter. So, click Custom (advanced) to advance to the “Where do you want to install Windows?” page, and then click the Drive options link to reveal the partition editor shown in Figure 1-2. See Chapter 5 for more information on partitions and the tools included with Vista to manage them.

If the hard disk is clean, and you want to use the entire hard disk for your Vista installation, just click Next to proceed. Otherwise, use Delete to wipe out any existing partitions—as well as the data on them (warning: there’s no undo here)—and New to create new partitions on the drive. Follow the screens to complete setup. If setup crashes along the way, or Vista won’t boot after you’re done, see “Potential Problems During Setup,” later in this chapter.

Written by Admin · Filed Under software 

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