System Assembly

[Camel]

Any suggestion for a guy doing this for the first time?      

New parts should arrive tomorrow or the following day. Parts include:

Casedge mid twr
Asus CUSL2
C766 (temporary, till I absorb cost of new stuff, then PIII w/ pc133, pc150???)
IBM 15g HHD
Floppy drive
couple 6's of good beer

Old parts to be included:
Win98se
128 PC100
DVD
Geforce MX2
MX300
Supra express

I picked up a Teac CD-R/RW today to copy files from the old box.

Ive also read and printed guides from "Tom's Hardware", "AnandTech", and "PCmech" as I wont have access online after ripping the old one apart. (this might not be true,(?) as I understand the Asus has basic onboard video which will allow me to keep the old system intact, till the new is up and running stable, then add the cards.???)

I would be grateful for any tips on copying important files(like what is a must) and assembly.

Now Im of to get this CDRW thingie working.

Thanks in advance
Camel

[This message has been edited by Camel (edited 11-14-2000).]

[Spatula]

Um, as for files. You dont really need to copy anything as far as system stuff goes. If you got a new hard-drive i would just start building the new system and plug the old hard-drive into the secondary IDE chain then copy what you like directly over when you got the new system working. Stuff, like ICQ settings, address books, mail folders, aces high settings and films folders etc.

PC assembly itself is pretty easy. there must be hundred of sites devoted to this sort of thing. Print out a hard copy of a few good ones, make sure you know what you are going to do before you dismantle your old system. Might pay to record a few of your old hardware settings first (for non-plug n play hardware).

You'll need to fdisk your new hard-drive to set up a primary partition - be very carefull here. Then restart and format it.

A neat trick is to put your new drive (once its been fdisk'd and then formatted) into your existing system and copy the \win98\ directory off your CD onto the new hard-drive before you assemble the new system. that way you dont have to worry about getting your CD rom working or having a bootable CD-Rom (which most are now). Then all you do is cd \win98 and run setup.exe

then be prepared to download all ya favourite apps and games and drivers and get them all set up - what a pain in the ass...

[Camel]

Thanks Spatula!

Huh, coulda passed on the CDRW! Well it'll look good under the DVD I guess  

Your "neat trick", was just the kinda stuff I was looking for. A headache over the CDrom happend the first time I formatted a hard-drive, this time will be the second.

Ive been downloading drivers I use now, and other crap all night, then putting them on a cd.

My plan is to get this thing running by Sunday for the Afrika event, that would be nice!


   

[Snoopi]

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[This message has been edited by Snoopi (edited 11-15-2000).]

[Snoopi]

Camel....

In addition to what Spatula's good info:

-After you get the OS installed an the hardware/drivers working correctly I suggest you defragment the drive. You will be amazed how fragmented the drive is !
I also recommend you make a backup copy of the registry at that same time.

-I suggest you use the CDR-W for making an image of the boot drive AFTER you set things up.

I have 2 images on CD.
1)an image of the drive with just the OS and drivers installed (no 3rd party software)
2) and Image with the system as use use it every day.

You can just copy/backup the whole file structure on the boot drive or use a program like Norton Ghost.
Do it on a re-writable disk and that way you can update it when you make system changes.

This way, when the drive dies or the system gets screwed up (it will eventually) you just insert the re-writable CD and copy the "image" to your drive while having a coffee.
It is MUCH faster than installing the all software from scratch again.

-Don't forget that the drivers supplied with the hardware may be old, and need updating.
I have a CDR-W with just patches and updated drivers for my hardware and software.

Good luck !

[bloom25]

A couple more tips:

If you want to update the bios, do it before you install the OS.  You are less likely to have problems doing it this way.

For a much faster install of Windows, and the nice feature of never having to insert the Windows CD ever again, do this:  After you get the hard drive formated, restart the computer.  Put your windows cd (say windows 98) in your cd drive.  Create a directory on your new harddrive called anything you want (win98 for example).  Change to that directory and type the following.  Copy D:/win98 C:/win98  Basically just copy everything in the WIN98 or WIN98SE or WIN95 depending on what version you are using, from the cd to the hard drive.  Now all you have to do is remove the cd and change to the directory on the harddrive where you copied all the files to and run setup.  Install time will be cut in half, and you can always point Windows to that directory if it ever needs a file of the CD.  (The only down side to this method is you won't have the channel bar, but who uses that anyway.   )

If it was me, I'd wouldn't install the old hard drive until after windows was loaded on the first one.  I'd also download all the newest drivers, dx7a, etc onto either your old harddrive or have someone burn them onto a cd-r (or cd-rw) for you, that way you have them available to install right after you install windows.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Camel]

Thanks Guys!!

I just "made available offline", printed and saved on CD  

Off to get the latest BIOS for the board, and all instructions on flashing to save on CD! I like this CD-RW.

Thanks again, this kinda info can help me from banging my head through the wall.

[Camel]

Help!

Ive assembled and configured the board. All that I have connected to the board are the HHD, floppy, CD, panel lights and switches. I then connected the mouse, keyboard, and monitor(on board video) and hit the power botton. The fans, lights on the drives, light on board, all fire up, but NO Video. I tried a second monitor and installing an AGP vid-card to hook the monitor to, but no joy.

any suggestions?

camel

[Mattibaby80]

To be totally honest, the only thing I think I could help you with is drinking the beer   j/k

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Meine Schwester hat keine kartoffel salat?  Du bist eine lustige Buba!!!

[Eagler]

disconnect everything else, having just the video hooked up. It'll error out but you should see something before it does. Is your ram compatible with your motherboard? Is it snapped in all the way?

Eagler

[Camel]

Just when I was giving up for the night, I tought Id try putting the board back to "Jumper Mode". All is fine now! I think their is a misprint in the Asus manual with regards to the "Jumper Free Mode". Anyway I stayed up way to late, but finally got Windose Loaded  

[eagl]

For "jumperless mode"...

You might have to run it with the jumpers set first to get into the bios, set the bios to what you want, then go back to jumperless mode...?  This could happen especially since sometimes after a bios update, a machine might not work right until you boot, go into bios, then use the "restore bios settings to default" option.

Oh yea, that's a good tip    After a bios flash, reset the bios options to default, THEN apply any bios tweaks you might want to use.



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eagl <squealing Pigs> BYA
Oink Oink To War!!!

[Camel]

Yup!

Thanks Eagl!

1st post on the new rig  

Im still messing with settings for everything, and making progress.