[rhibax]

I've recently built a computer it has all the basic stuff in it, the hard drive etc. I'm not sure how to set it up though. I don't have a system disk obviously because i've built it myself so I'm just wondering how I go about setting it up.

Keeping in mind that this is a brand new boot, first time so there's no BIOS etc, and no partitions.

Thanks for any help!

[neil21stirling]

OK considering the information you have gave there is probably an extremely long winded explanation to your question, first thing though is that your Bios is normally part of your motherboard. so your system will have a bios.

your system drive WILL be your hard drive.

Technically all you need to do is get yourself an OS, you can pickup most versions of Linux for free or buy yourself a copy of windows.
Boot from the CD/DVD
and setup your OS

then install all the drivers needed for your hardware, and done.

I know i have been very vague but essentially thats all there is to it. For a more long winded explanation look up "building your first pc" on google and im sure you will get even more help if you need it.

[rhibax]

I do have an OS it's Windows XP Pro. On the first screen when it starts up though, the options I have are DEL - BIOS Setup/ Q-Flash, F9 - Xpress Recovery2, and F12 - Boot Menu. Then it goes onto a black screen with white-lettered sentences then it goes to a black screen with a blue strip across the top saying "www.dell.com" and underneath that it says "0 active partitions".

If, on the first screen i click on boot menu, it gives me a list of the possible devices to boot from (ie. hard disk, cdrom, usb etc) and I click on CDROM and it just takes me to the same screen with the dell.com at the top and the "0 active partitions". I'm not sure what I need to do.

[neil21stirling]

try downloading a free program called "Killdisk" you will have to download and burn this to a cd as a bootable disk. boot from cd when this is inserted and format your hard drive but make sure you tell killdisk to format it as a primary partition and activate it.
You will then have 1 active partition in order to install your OS too.

[rhibax]

"boot from cd when this is inserted and format your hard drive but make sure you tell killdisk to format it as a primary partition and activate it"

How do I do that?.. Sorry I'm just not very clued-in when it comes to this sort of thing.

[neil21stirling]

Most buring software out there nowadays gives you the option of burning your files as a bootable/image disk
so that computers recognise this as a bootable disk and not just a data disk, hence when you goto boot menu next time you boot your computer and have the killdisk software in the disk and tell your computer to boot from CD, it will run the killdisk software and give you options of formatting your hard disk.
for more instructions on actually using killdisk, goto www.killdisk.com and all user guides are there

[rhibax]

I tell the computer in the boot menu to boot from CDROM and the black screen comes up with the blue strip at the top with the 0 active partitions thing on it again. What do I do? Is it supposed to go to that screen?

[neil21stirling]

even when trying to boot from killdisk disk?

[rhibax]

Yeah, unless i'm doing it wrong.

[neil21stirling]

if this is the case then goto http://www.bootdisk.com/popfiles.htm
read the readme files for creating a custom xp bootdisk on cd and download the files associated, then following instructions from readme files.

[rhibax]

So I need to buy the files?

[rhibax]

Nothing's happening again. I downloaded the files, burnt them to a CD, put it in the computer, told it to boot from CD and the black screen with no active partitions came up again.

[rhibax]

SOLVED!

Turns out the CDROM I was using was a copy! I've recently bought a legitimate one and it's working fine.

Thanks for all your help!