Installing Windows ME from scratch...for audio

Installing Windows in an optimal way can really help out both the performance and stability of your PC. Windows ME, as has been the trend from Microsoft, now has more junk than ever thoughtfully included with it which really is better of being removed. The best tool for this really is 98Lite from 98Lite.net. However, not all of us wish to use that so here is a guide to installing Windows ME from scratch in a way which is as optimal as possible for audio:

 

Section A: Prepare the hard-drive

1. Use FDISK to partition up the destination hard-drive if necessary (you may want to unplug any other hard-drives in your system first to simplify things and ensure that you only FDISK/Format the correct hard-drive). You will need to re-boot for the changes to take effect.

2. Format the drive as required (using the methods described here)

 

Section B: Install Windows

3. Boot from a the Windows ME installation CD or a compatible boot-disk/CD e.g. Windows 98/ME (You may need to change your boot-order in your BIOS to boot from the desired drive). If booting from the Windows ME CD, choose start installation from CD.

4. If booting into DOS mode, insert your Windows ME installation CD into a CDROM capable drive and when in DOS mode, switch to that drive by typing for example g: if your CD drive was drive g. Now type setup and the installation process will begin.

5. The setup program will run Scandisk to check all the currently connected hard-drives in your system - partitions will be checked independantly of each other i.e. treated as seperate drives. Let Scandisk run and then choose Exit afterwards.

6. Now follow the instructions through until your are asked which type of install to perform. Choose Custom.

7. You will now be presented with several options of components which you can choose to either install or not install. I reccomend that you install nothing at all unless you require multi-language support. None of the options you can install are required for an Audio-only system.

8. Now you will be required to enter your locale information such as time zone and currency etc etc. Follow these instructions through and enter the relevant data.

9. Now you will have to perform several re-starts in the time-honoured Microsoft fashion - you may want to adjust your BIOS boot settings upon the first restart so that the system boots straight from the hard-drive you are installing Windows on.

 

Section C: Installation of drivers and software

10. The first thing you should do after Windows has finished installing is to defragment the partition it is installed to. This is very important as it organises the Windows file into a sensible order - the disk will actually be quite fragmented.

11. The first driver(s) you should install are your Motherboard/Mainboard driver(s) - e.g. the PCI bridge driver etc. Windows will probably want to re-boot afterwards, make sure you let it do so. It will then re-organise the devices.

12. Now you should install the rest of your drivers - Graphics card/Videocard first (so you can see what you're doing) then Souncard then the rest.

13. Defragment again and then resolve any IRQ conflicts you may have.

14. Now you can install your software at last. Make sure you defrag again afterwards...