HOW TO INSTALL WINDOWS XP ON 2TB HARD DRIVE?

Question

JUST BUILT MY 1ST PC TOWER. PURCHASHED A 2TB HARD DRIVE BUT FOUND THAT WINDOWS XP WILL NOT INSTALL ON IT AS ITS A SIZE THING. WHAT IS THE EASYEST WAY TO INSTALL IT. I HAVE INSTALLED WINDOWS 7 BUT STILL NEED P FOR 3 SOFTWARE PROGRAMES AND 2 GAMES AS THEY DONT WORK ON WINDOWS 7 EVEN IN COMPATABILITY MODE. TRIED VIRTUAL XP BUT CANT BURN TO DISCS IN THAT MODE AND AFTER RESRTING MY PC THE XP MODE FOLDER IS EMPTY AND IF I TRY TO INSTALL IT AGAIN IT SAYS ITS ALREADY INSTALLED. THE MAIN REASON FOR A 2TB OVER A 1TB IS THAT I DONT PLAY XBOX GAMES VERY MUCH THE ONLY ONES I DO ARE THE GEARS OF WAR TRILOGY AND TOMB RAIDER UNDERWORLD AND SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION. SO THINKING OF JUST GETTING THEM FOR THE PC AND ANY FUTURE XBOX1 GAMES.

Answer 1

The XP Virtual system problems:



Somewhere down the bottom of the Windows start menu there should be menu options to configure and to run the XP system. It's not at all obvious how it works the first time you use it.



The new XP virtual system install is the same as a stand-alone clean XP install, there are no extra utilities or software included. You need to install everything you need within the virtual XP system.

That includes a disc burner - try imgburn, it's free and works well.





Re. the clean XP install:



The usual problem when trying to install XP on any recent machine is that XP does not include SATA chipset drivers, so can't tell there is a hard drive present.



Some other machines may have BIOS level IDE emulation, so it will get further - but still fail at some point.



You need to get the preinstall or boot or 'F6' SATA driver files to suit the SATA chipset on the motherboard.



You also need a USB floppy drive, as XP will only read the extra drivers from a floppy disc (or what it sees as Drive A:).



With most recent motherboards, as long as the USB drive is already connected at power on, it will be seen as Drive A: and XP can read from it later.



Fairly early in the XP CD setup boot, you get a message saying press F6 to install extra drivers.

Do it.



A while later, it will then prompt you to put the driver floppy in drive A:



You then select the driver(s) required for the SATA interface, and setup continues.



If you cannot get a floppy drive to work, you can make a new XP CD with the drivers included ('slipstreamed') using a free utility called 'nlite' - but be absolutely certain you have the correct drivers, it's tedious re-doing several discs with different ones..



The advantage is that the CD you make can be used again with zero hassle for future re-installs on the same motherboard.



See the links below for more info and alternate methods (US stick etc).





[I often work with old industrial machinery going back to the 80s & before. A lot of the setup & communications software for these only runs on early versions of Windows or just plain DOS.



I have SATA laptops with interchangeable hard drives, so far running Win 7 plus Win XP, Win 2000, Win 3.11 (with internet!) & DOS 6.22, also Centos linux & FreeDOS.



Older system are not easy to set up on recent hardware, but it can be done - just be patient & keep trying, it's taken me several days continuously trying alternate drivers & install methods in some cases to get an old operating system working perfectly (with all drivers) on current hardware.]

Answer 2

When installing Windows XP, you should be given an option to choose a drive or partition to install onto.

At this point in the installation, you should, from recent experience be able to create a whole new partition for Windows XP itself to be installed and run on, generally I'd usually go with around 500GB, either way it doesn't matter, you can give it 50Gb if you like, you'll still be able to retreive files and folders from other partitions and areas of the drive itself.



You can burn from disc in a Virtual you just need to allow you're drives to be used across both, or disable them for you're windows 7 Machine and allow for the Virtual, as well as mounting ISO's, you can download PowerISO on you're Windows 7 machine, put the game discs into you're drive, and then use PowerISO to create a disc image of the game, then use the virtual to mount the disc, install the game and use the CD key.



Although, you'll receive performance related issues when gaming onto a virtual, I'd rather partition my drive, and go into the boot manager to make it ask which OS to boot into when loading up the computer.



If this doesn't work, then try it in reverse, stick in the Windows 7 Disc, and create a partition with Windows 7 but don't create a installation, as you won't be able to roll back onto XP from 7.

Answer 3

Try VMware. Its free. You'll create a virtual machine. And you can add other operating system the that same program. I've used it in college a lot.

Answer 4

Ehm..

I found a free download of Poweriso here http://bit.ly/1no3s5o

I guess it's the sotware you need.

I hope it helps

Answer 5

just partition your hard drive to a size that xp is happy with and then install it to that partiton

Answer 6

this kind of issue is usually sorted by the disk drive maker downloads.