How to install a new operating system on your computer. How to install an operating system yourself How to install an operating system

Each user sooner or later faces the need to install an operating system. There is a myth that it is difficult to do it yourself, although in reality it is not. All that is needed is to have basic PC user skills and follow the simple instructions that will be discussed below.

Before installation

There are a number of things to take care of before starting the installation.

To do this correctly, first of all, pay attention to the following:

select the desired version of the operating system;
decide on its capacity;
prepare the hard drive for installation;
take care of the drivers.

If you are reading this article, there will be no problem choosing the OS version - it will be Windows 7. But what about its bitness? How do you know which one is right for your PC?

You may encounter two kinds of systems:

x86 (32bit);
x64 (64bit).

What are their differences? 32-bit support up to 4 GB of RAM, and 64 - from 4 GB or more. The performance of a 64-bit system is higher, so if the technical characteristics of your PC allow it, you should choose it. Determining the amount of computer RAM is very simple - just right-click on the "Computer" icon on the desktop and the necessary technical data will be displayed in the window that appears.

Important! It should be noted that after choosing one or another bit depth, in the future, installed programs should be optimized specifically for it.

Now you need to think about where exactly the new operating system will be installed. Most often, drive C is selected for this. At the same time, you need to remember that all data on the drive (including the desktop!) Will be permanently deleted. All important files should be transferred to another drive or copied to a flash drive.

Another important item is drivers. Most often, they come bundled with equipment on special disks, but if not, download them from the Internet in advance. You can find the necessary drivers on the official websites of manufacturers of video, network cards and other PC components. Why should this be taken care of in advance? Because after installation, without a driver for a network card, it will not be possible to do this.

Video: Installing Windows 7

Disc creation

To start the installation process, you need a disk with Windows 7. If you have it, you can safely proceed to the next step. If it doesn't exist, you'll have to create it first. You will need an image of the operating system, as well as a program for recording. It is best to give preference to "pure" MSDN builds that have not been heavily modified. Recording from an image is no different from working with a regular disc. This can be done, for example, with the UltraISO program.

For this you need:

Installing Windows 7 from disk via BIOS

Let's move on to the main process. It begins with working with the BIOS - the basic input / output system. It is the installation through the BIOS that scares novice users so much, but there is nothing difficult to handle with it. For our task, you need to perform only a few basic manipulations.

BIOS setup

First you need to get into the BIOS:

The process itself

After restarting, the system will launch the inserted disc and the actual installation process will begin:

Note! If you want to install windows 7 from a formatting disk, then take care of the safety of data that may be lost during this procedure.

The installation will begin, usually taking between 15 minutes and half an hour. Upon completion, the system will prompt you to enter a username and password (optional), as well as set a hint phrase to restore them. Next, you will be prompted to enter the serial number, which is usually found in the box with a copy of the OS. If it is missing or the build does it automatically, skip this step.

There are a few more small steps ahead:

specify the "recommended" security settings;
your time zone;
network type.

This completes the installation and the system is almost ready for use, it remains only to configure it.

Video: Installation and setup

System Setup

The first step is to activate the operating system (if this did not happen automatically during the installation process). Do not forget about this, because after 30 days, annoying reminders will begin to appear, announcing the expiration of the registration period.

How to check if Windows is activated:

Drivers and programs

The next critical step is to install the drivers. Their absence may result in incorrect display of graphics, incorrect operation of the computer and inability to connect to the Internet. How to determine which drivers the system needs?

Often Windows 7 installs a driver for the video adapter so it won't be listed as unrecognized. Despite this, a driver for the video card is still needed, because without it it will not work at full capacity (which can be seen from the not entirely correct display of icons on the desktop). We install it from the manufacturer's disk or downloaded in advance from the official site.

Important! Do not forget to install the driver for the network adapter, because without it access to the network will be impossible.

It is worth noting that all such programs are quite effective and able to secure your system. For maximum efficiency, it is worth changing the antivirus used from time to time. After installing it, don't forget to activate and update to get the latest database versions that can protect against newly discovered threats.

Now you can start installing the browser. Its choice also depends entirely on the personal preferences of the user. When the new search engine is installed, the first step is to update Flash Player, because without it it will be impossible to watch videos or listen to music on many resources. You can do it in seconds on the official website.

Using a freshly installed browser, start filling the system with new programs that no system can do without:

office applications (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice);
archivers (WinRAR, 7-Zip);
programs for listening to music and watching videos;
useful utilities (CCleaner);
communication applications (Skype, Mumble);
other software you need.

Installing any operating system is a matter that requires a thorough and careful approach. Despite this, you should not be afraid of him. Just follow the simple instructions, and very soon your PC will be boasting a new OS.

User interaction with applications and hardware components is provided through Previously, to run programs, you only needed a special interpreter - a small file that converts commands from programming languages into computer codes. Now the decision of this task is entrusted to the OS. Therefore, installing an operating system is vital for the operation of the entire computer. In today's article, we will look at some of the main points related to this process.

In some cases, to select a boot device, you need to go into the BIOS and make changes to the configuration. That is, if there are no above tips, then immediately after turning on, we often press the Del (Delete) button - the BIOS settings appear. Here you need to find the item that indicates the order of boot devices, and specify the CD (do not forget to save the changes when you exit).

The first dialog box is the language selection. Everything is intuitive. Next, you can choose the recovery or installation mode. Recovery is needed if there is already an OS on the hard drive, but for some reason it stopped loading or some of its files are damaged. The running wizard will evaluate the status and attempt to bring the system back to a healthy state. Select full installation.

The next dialog requires the user to select a partition (disk) where the OS will be installed. By clicking "Settings", you can reformat all partitions, delete them and create them again - the most basic partitioning functions are provided. Please note that formatting will destroy all data. It is optional.

Next, the process of copying the system files to the hard drive begins. This process can take up to half an hour depending on the hardware configuration. After the first reboot, you need to go into the BIOS and specify the hard drive as the first boot device (this is necessary if the drive was set in this way).

The operating system will boot up and continue with the installation. The user needs to enter a name, come up with a password (you can leave it blank), enter a key block of numbers, if any. With updates, everyone decides individually: for a licensed system with fast unlimited Internet, updates should be enabled. For slow connections, you need to “postpone the decision”, because the amount of information downloaded from the Web can be quite impressive.

It remains to select the time zone and proceed to configure the operating system. OS installation is only a small part of the time spent.

In this article, you will learn how to reinstall Windows 7 yourself. The material is designed for users who will install Windows on a computer or laptop for the first time. No matter how scary it may sound, reinstalling Windows is very simple. In the days of Windows 95 and 98, to an inexperienced person, the procedure for reinstalling the operating system could seem like a mystical rite. The person who was invited to do this was necessarily called a programmer, and was considered a guru in the computer field.

For their part, such gurus, inflating their own worth, in every possible way intimidated their clients with terrible computer terms and stories about viruses and burned-out computers. In this guide, you will see that this is not at all the case and that installing or reinstalling Windows on your laptop or computer is very simple and accessible to almost anyone who knows how to use a computer mouse.

I'll make a small disclaimer. This article will show you how to install Windows 7 yourself using a DVD. If your computer or laptop does not have a DVD drive, then you will need to install Windows from a USB flash drive or memory card, I will talk about this in another lesson.

Before you start reinstalling Windows, read the entire article to the end, and if you have a printer, then print it.

Reinstalling Windows 7 consists of several steps:

Preparing a computer for installing Windows 7;
Preparing an installation disk with Windows 7;
Setting up the BIOS of the computer to boot from a DVD;
Installing Windows 7;

Now let's go through all the steps in detail.

1. Preparing to install Windows 7

Before reinstalling Windows, you need to do a little preparation.

First you need to copy all the valuable information from the C drive. Of course, you know better, but still I’ll tell you where to look. There are not so many places where your useful information can be located on the "C:" drive, usually it's the desktop and "My Documents". It is also worth looking into the root of the "C:" drive, sometimes people in a hurry or simply out of ignorance save files there. Copy all the files you need to another drive (for example, “D:”), a DVD disc, or a flash drive.

For the future, keep in mind that it is best to store information not on the same disk partition on which the system is installed, and, of course, create backups.

If you just purchased a computer or are sure that there is no valuable information in it, then naturally you can not bother

Another point that should be considered before installing Windows is the drivers for the network card. If after installation it turns out that your Windows distribution did not have drivers for your network card, or for some reason they were not installed correctly, then you will find yourself without drivers and without the Internet. Therefore, download the latest drivers in advance, at least for the network card.

2. Preparing the installation disk with Windows 7

Those who already have a Windows 7 installation disc can skip this step. If you do not have such a disc, then you need to burn it or purchase it. Those who want to download Windows on the Internet, look for clean MSDN builds.

This way you protect yourself from possible errors in the operation of the installed system.

Windows 7 installation discs on the Internet are usually distributed as ".iso" disc images. Where to download I will not say. to promote their distribution is not entirely legal. I can advise, before downloading the image, read the comments to the release, problem discs are usually quickly identified in the form of a bunch of angry reviews.

At this stage, it is worth deciding which version of Windows 7 to install on your computer, 32-bit or 64-bit. I will not go into details, since a separate article can be written on this topic. Let me just say that a 64-bit system can work with the entire amount of RAM, while a 32-bit maximum uses only about 3.25 GB. At the same time, a 64-bit system, thanks to 64-bit address pointers, requires more memory during operation. This increases the amount of memory used by applications.

Also, in favor of a 64-bit system, it is worth considering that when using 64-bit applications, there will be a fairly good increase in their performance.

Conclusion: a 64-bit system should be used if the amount of RAM in your computer is 4 or more gigabytes, which, in principle, is already becoming the norm for a modern computer.

After the image is downloaded, you need to burn it to a DVD, and you can proceed with the installation.

3. Setting up the BIOS of the computer to boot from DVD

To install Windows, it’s not enough just to insert a DVD disc into the drive, you also need to make sure that the computer starts booting from this disc when you turn it on. This is done in the BIOS. There is a BIOS in almost any computer or laptop, it stores all sorts of important settings, one of these settings is the boot order of devices. This setting is of interest to us at the moment.

In order to get into the BIOS, you need to immediately press a certain key on the keyboard when you turn on the computer. Usually, at boot, the screen says what exactly you need to press to get into the BIOS menu. Most often, this is the Delete, Esc, or F2 key. You will find out that you have entered by seeing the BIOS menu in front of you.

The most common options are:

If the attempt was unsuccessful, then reboot the computer and try again. Below are tables with possible options for entering the BIOS.

Table with key combinations for entering the BIOS from various BIOS manufacturers.

BIOS manufacturer	Keys
ALR Advanced Logic Research, Inc.	F2, Ctrl+Alt+Esc
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.) BIOS	F1
AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) BIOS	Del
Award BIOS	Ctrl+Alt+Esc
DTK (Datatech Enterprises Co.) BIOS	Esc
Phoenix BIOS	Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+S, Ctrl+Alt+Ins

Table with key combinations for entering the BIOS from various manufacturers of computers and laptops.

PC manufacturer	Keys
Acer	F1, F2, Ctrl+Alt+Esc
AST	Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+Del
Compaq	F10
CompUSA	Del
cybermax	Esc
Dell 400	F3, F1
Dell Dimension	F2, Del
Dell Inspiron	F2
Dell Latitude	Fn+F1
Dell Latitude	F2
Dell Optiplex	Del, F2
Dell Precision	F2
eMachine	Del
Gateway	F1, F2
HP	F1, F2
IBM	F1
IBM E-pro Laptop	F2
IBM PS/2	Ctrl+Alt+Ins then Ctrl+Alt+Del
IBM Thinkpad	from Windows: Programs > Thinkpad CFG
Intel Tangent	Del
Micron	F1, F2, or Del
Packard Bell	F1, F2, Del
Sony VAIO	F2, F3
Tiger	Del
Toshiba	Esc, F1

After you have entered the BIOS, you need to find the option responsible for the boot order of devices. As a rule, these settings need to be looked for in the menu, in the name of which there is the word BOOT, of course there are other options, but as they say - "Who seeks, he will always find."

To facilitate the search, I will give a few examples of how it looks live:

The choice of the device to boot first is usually done using the arrow keys on the keyboard, but there are other ways to navigate the BIOS menu, so if you can’t figure it out, you can look at the help, which, as a rule, is visible in the BIOS.

Select your CD / DVD drive as the first boot device and exit the BIOS with all changes saved. To do this, use the Save and Exit Setup item. The computer will restart, and thus we have reached the next stage, for which, in fact, everything was started.

4 Install Windows 7

If the disc is recorded correctly and the BIOS settings are set correctly, we will see such an inscription in front of us: Press any key to boot from CD or DVD, which means Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.

It looks like this:

Press any key

If you don’t have such an inscription, then you may have done something of the above written wrong. In this case, check the BIOS again to see if the boot from DVD setting is preserved, if everything is set correctly in the BIOS, then most likely your disk is not bootable and you will have to look for another installation disk or download another Windows 7 image.

At this point I will make a small disclaimer. You may come across a Windows 7 installation disk, on which, in addition to Windows itself, additional utilities are recorded, in which case you will need to select the desired item in the menu of your disk to start the installation. It is also worth noting that in some discs, most of the operations described below will take place automatically, without your participation. Do not worry about this, all these settings can be changed, if desired, after the installation of Windows is completed.

To start the installation, click "Install"

You will be given the choice of which version of Windows to install. You need to choose the one for which you have the key. If you have a laptop, then often a sticker with a key and an indication of the version of Windows is glued to the bottom. We will need the key itself at the end of the installation. In principle, it will be possible to introduce it not immediately, but within 30 days.

Agree to the license terms and click "Next"

Select full installation.

Select the partition where Windows 7 will be installed and click "Disk Setup"

At this point, an inexperienced person may have questions, so we will consider it in more detail.

Hard Disk Setup

Often, in addition to the partitions that you know about (such as C: D: E:, etc.), there may be one or more hidden partitions on your computer's hard drive. This is especially true for laptops that were sold with an operating system already installed. The manufacturer makes such sections in order to be able to restore the system and bring the laptop to its factory settings.

Also often found is a hidden partition of 100MB in size, it is created by Windows 7 itself. This partition is used to implement the BitLocker function, this function is designed to encrypt the system partition. So, in this section there is a program that, when loaded, will decode the encrypted system partition. If you wish, you can get rid of this partition by preparing your computer's hard drive for installing Windows 7 in advance. For this, it is best to use special programs, such as Acronis Disc Director.

Let's get back to the installation.

Click "Disk Setup" and "Format"

The installer will warn you that all data from this section will be deleted, but we are not afraid, because we prepared for this and made a backup copy of all the information we needed in advance, so feel free to agree by clicking the "OK" button.

After finishing formatting, click "Next"

Waiting for installation to complete

After installation, you will be prompted to enter your username and computer name.

We enter the key, it can be glued to the laptop from below, or in the form of a sticker on the system unit.

Set the security mode

Set the date, time and time zone

If the computer has a network connection and the system has found a driver for your network card, Windows will prompt you to select the type of connection

This completes the installation of Windows 7, and you can proceed to install the drivers and programs you need.

Finally, do not forget to return the BIOS settings that we changed in paragraph 3 our leadership. You must set your hard drive as the first boot device in the BIOS, otherwise the computer will try to start booting from DVD every time it starts.

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Before installation

There are a number of things to take care of before starting the installation.

To do this correctly, first of all, pay attention to the following:

select the desired version of the operating system;
decide on its capacity;
prepare the hard drive for installation;
take care of the drivers.

If you are reading this article, there will be no problem choosing the OS version - it will be Windows 7. But what about its bitness? How do you know which one is right for your PC?

You may encounter two kinds of systems:

x86 (32bit);
x64 (64bit).

Important! It should be noted that after choosing one or another bit depth, in the future, installed programs should be optimized specifically for it.

Video: Installing Windows 7

Disc creation

For this you need:

Installing Windows 7 from disk via BIOS

BIOS setup

First you need to get into the BIOS:

The process itself

After restarting, the system will launch the inserted disc and the actual installation process will begin:

Note! If you want to install windows 7 from a formatting disk, then take care of the safety of data that may be lost during this procedure.

There are a few more small steps ahead:

specify the "recommended" security settings;
your time zone;
network type.

This completes the installation and the system is almost ready for use, it remains only to configure it.

Video: Installation and setup

System Setup

How to check if Windows is activated:

Drivers and programs

Important! Do not forget to install the driver for the network adapter, because without it access to the network will be impossible.

Using a freshly installed browser, start filling the system with new programs that no system can do without:

office applications (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice);
archivers (WinRAR, 7-Zip);
programs for listening to music and watching videos;
useful utilities (CCleaner);
communication applications (Skype, Mumble);
other software you need.

In this article, I will talk about how to independently install the Windows 7 operating system from a disk to your computer or laptop.

I offer detailed and step-by-step instructions with a visual demonstration of screenshots of installing the Windows operating system.

If you think that installing an operating system is something complicated and incomprehensible that only a specialist can handle, then I will disappoint you: this is not true. Now you will see for yourself.

All you need to install Windows 7 (or Windows 8) is a computer or laptop, a disk with an operating system (since in this article we will install Windows from a disk), detailed instructions that I will now provide you with, and, perhaps, attentiveness! I hope that after installation you will not look like . 🙂

After installation, I recommend installing immediately. You understand that in our time of electronic payments, this is very important. Also now (yet) nowhere without Adobe Flash Player. Like him Right install read . You may also be interested in the very not bad. If stored on a computer private information, create a .

Important: Most of all possible problems that arise when installing Windows 7 are associated with an incorrectly prepared installation disk and (or) the quality of the “OS assembly” written to it. How to burn the image of the operating system to disk, you can read in the article.

Remember: if this is a disc not out of the box, that is, bought in a store, then you need to use only original images from Microsoft MSDN. It is the original image, which is also available on the Web, as well as various assemblies, that is the key to the successful installation of Windows and its normal functioning.

Do not use assemblies of unknown origin. You put all third-party fixes, fixes, homemade builds at your own peril and risk. The consequences may be irreversible.

Before installing Windows 7:

Remember two main things to do before installing Windows.

First- this is to decide in advance on which partition of the hard disk the system will be installed. Typically, in most cases, this is the C:\ drive. Remember (or create) the volume label and size.

Remember, your desktop is located entirely on the C:\ drive, or rather, here: C:\Documents and Settings\ Username \Desktop. Think in advance about the integrity and safety of files that are archived for you, copy them from the desktop, that is, from drive C, to another drive or flash drive.

All programs installed on the C:\ drive will also be removed, but this is not a reason to drag the entire folder with programs to other drives. It is much easier to re-install these programs on a clean system. Don't be lazy, it's not every day you reinstall Windows.

Second the moment is the drivers for your computer or laptop. They need to be taken care of in advance. They are included with most laptops, but if they are not available (or need to be updated), we look for them on the official website of the manufacturer and download them in advance.

Everything you need to know about installing drivers, I recommend reading the article "Installing Drivers or Five Iron Rules", which is located.

If you skip this important point, then after installing Windows, you may be left without the Internet, because it is not a fact that the windows distribution kit will initially contain your network card drivers.

Installing Windows 7 from disk:

We insert the disk with the Windows operating system into the drive and restart the computer. By the way, if you do not have a drive, then you can install the Windows operating system using the usual.

Let's continue. Our task is to configure the computer to boot from a DVD. This can be done in 2 ways:

1. select a device (DVD) in a special boot menu;
2. change the boot priority in BIOS (from HDD to DVD).

The first method, choosing a device in the boot menu, is easier and more convenient. After installing Windows, there is no need to return the boot from the HDD (hard disk). However, this feature is not available on older computers, in which case you will have to go into the BIOS and change the boot priority.

Start - reboot, wait for the screen to go out and at the first sign of the system waking up (the appearance of the logo), press and hold the Delete key on the keyboard. Why the Delete key? These keys can be F1, F2, F3 + F2, F10, Ctrl + Alt + Esc, Ctrl + Alt + S, Esc.

There is no universal button to enter the boot menu or enter the BIOS, and it all depends on the manufacturer of the computer (motherboard). The surest way is to read the instructions from the computer or from the motherboard. The table below shows an illustrative example of such keys.

The boot menu looks something like this:

Press F10, agree and confirm the exit with saving (Save and Exit) by selecting "Ok".

Phoenix Award

Consider the second version of the interface. To boot from a disc, you need to change the priorities so that the first device is the DVD drive. We find the item “Advanced BIOS Features” and use the arrows to switch to the first device (First Boot Device), change to CDROM.

Press F10 and confirm the exit with saving (Save and Exit).

If you have problems at this stage, I recommend watching this video.

Let's continue. If everything is done correctly, we will see the following window with the inscription: "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD".

Here you need to press any key, for example, the spacebar. This is done only 1 time and only at this stage of the installation. We see the following window with the inscription "Windows is loading files".

Files are being extracted, after which we will see the inscription Starting Windows and the Windows 7 installation window itself. Windows installation has begun !!

Select the desired language and click "Install".

Next, we need to select the edition of Windows 7. Choose the one for which you have a key or which you are going to activate. On laptops, it is usually indicated on a piece of paper with a key located on the bottom of the laptop. Entering the serial number itself will be a little later, it has been moved to the end of the installation.

A few words about the ability to install a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit version of Windows. If you have more than 4 GB of RAM (aka RAM, RAM, Memory), then set it to 64-bit, if not, then 32-bit (x86).

Read and agree to the terms of the license. Next, we need to select the type of installation - select "Full installation".

Now you need to select the partition on which Windows will be installed.

If you have this partition reserved by the system (note that it is still in megabytes (MB), not gigabytes), for example, as in the following screenshot, then select Disk 0 Partition 2.

In order not to be so excruciatingly painful when choosing a partition, before installing Windows, look at how many gigabytes your C drive occupies.

If you have one partition on your hard disk and it is more than 250 GB, then it would be more correct to create two local disks. One section is specifically for Windows (usually about 50-100 GB are allocated), and the other is for storing your personal information (as much as XXX GB remains).

Note: The partitions you create should be named Disk 0 Partition 1, 2, 3..., not "Unallocated Disk Space". Otherwise, the operating system simply will not see partitions with such names.

If necessary, create a section or sections and click "Apply":

Attention: problems may arise at this stage - when Windows 7 asks for a driver for further installation or when the system does not see your hard drive in order to continue the installation.

Or install (if prepared) hard disk controller drivers. If you already have two or more partitions on your hard drive, then you can skip the above paragraph. So, we have selected the "System" section, and now we need to start formatting.

The installer warns that all our data will be deleted. We need this, because we are interested in a clean installation of Windows. We agree and wait. The whole process usually takes a matter of seconds. After formatting, we see that there is more free space, calmly click "Next".

And here is the beginning of the installation, the process is started. You can take a breath.)

We are waiting, sir ... Usually it takes 15-25 minutes. When our system installs, it will prompt you to enter a username and computer name. Enter.

If you wish, you can enter a password and a hint. Next, Windows will prompt you to enter a serial number. Enter (if any). If not, then skip this step and uncheck "Automatically activate when connected to the Internet."