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This Windows XP Installation Guide is designed to take you from blank hard drive to Ghost image: from soup to nuts.

Along the way, you will be served a tasty appetizer at Doc's FDISK tutorial, where you'll be offered a generous helping of homemade Partitioning Strategies. The goal here is NOT to leave you with an aching belly, but rather a system that is deliciously stable.

I tried to focus on the philosophy behind the sequence, so that the guide will apply to as many people as possible. I tried to avoid getting bogged down in trivial details, such as "Click on the Next button".

Realize though, that everyone's system will be different, and it's difficult to craft a guide where one-size-fits-all. For example, my PC does not use RAID. Therefore you will need to do your own homework if your system contains a striped array.

This step-by-step guide is tailored to install Microsoft Windows XP Professional, which I use and recommend. If you have a different version or operating system, such as Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition or Windows 2000, simply adjust as necessary. For your hypertext convenience, this guide can be found at any of these fine Radified URLs:

[http://windows.radified.com/]
[http://windows.radified.com/windows.htm]
[http://radified.com/windows/windows.htm]

I encourage you to compare notes with other Windows Install guides, such as Black Viper's (everything he does is good, also an ad-free site) and Paul Thurrott's supersite. Rob sent this link. Or you might like Winstall (pop-up). ZolkNetwork posted a shorty here. Microsoft's own guides are posted here.

Actually, I prefer the down-home, backyard style of the one at MindHive the best. Here is a Google search pre-configured for the terms: windows+xp+installation+guide+tutorial. None of these other guides however, will "Radify" your system.

During the install, keep a pen and pad of paper handy. Write down any questions you might encounter, and also any errors. If you don't write them down, you will forget. It's easier to find a solution if you know (exactly) what the problem is. But you should not be getting errors. And if you have a question, it's likely someone else will have the same one. This means the guide may need to be clarified in certain parts.

There is a method to my madness. There are exceptions, but, in general, you want to install newer files after older ones. A stable PC is a beautiful thing. There's nothing so digitally frustrating as a computer that locks or crashes at the wrong time.

Before we begin, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who wrote in to share their insights on the best way to install Windows (especially Joshua, who sent several pages of insightful comments). My experience is limited. Comments from readers the world over are what make these guides so helpful. So, if I missed something, let me know.

Instead of carrying on with a lengthy intro, about how the author of this guide, and its contributors, have installed Windows a combined total of 312 times, making every mistake known to man in the process, and thereby learning what *not* to do, which would only further bog us down in trivial details, let's jump right in and get started.

On the next page, we'll download and burn all the files we need to install Windows XP. We'll also discuss initial hardware configuration, and how to configure our motherboard BIOS. We'll also take a look how to partition our hard drive. Ready? Let's do it.