Booting Up

Now for the moment we have all been waiting for! Your computer will load up (hopefully if everything was done properly and you don't have any bad components) but you need to do a few things before you can start using it to its full potential.

1. Turn on the monitor. Sometimes the most obvious can be easily overlooked so turn on the monitor.

2. Turn on your PC. If you have not already, flip the power switch in the back to the ON " I " position. Now simply press the power button on the front of the case to turn it on.

NOTE: you don't need to flip the switch in the back every time you turn it off. It is actually recommended you leave your computer on even when it is not in use to avoid wear on the components.

3. Boot into BIOS. Once it turns on, look for a heading saying "Press DELETE to enter setup" or something similar. Do what it says and you should boot into a screen similar to the one below. If you missed your chance to boot into BIOS, just hit the reset button and try again until you get it.

4. Setting up the BIOS. Here you will only need to do one thing for now. Once you load into BIOS you need to look for an auto-detect IDE/HDD or similar. For us we found it under Standard CMOS and the following:

1. Click -- Standard CMOS
2. -- IDE Primary Master
3. -- IDE HDD Auto-Detection

Yours will more than likely vary so read through the BIOS section of your motherboard users manual. Some of the newer boards automatically set it to auto for you to make your life a lot easier.

5. Install your hard drive as a boot drive. This step is basically the same for all hard drives but I recommend you read your hard drive manual for proper install instructions. It will tell you how to format and partition your drive, which is essential before installing an operating system. So read that manual!

Your manual should also provide you with the proper installation procedures for the operating system you chose so read it thoroughly.

NOTE: If your hard drive for some reason doesn't come with an install disk, you will need to create a boot disk. Click here for details on how to do that.

Once your hard drive is installed, formatted and partitioned, we are ready to install an operating system.