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Now you’re done with the easy
part. Once you are sure that the computer turns on when
you flip the power switch, you can close the case up and
push it away under your desk.
But before you start
installing the operating system, you want to make sure
that the computer's Basic Input/Output System ("BIOS")
is set right and has detected all your components
correctly.
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Turn the
computer on. You will see a screen something like
this. It will prompt you press the delete key to
enter setup. Press delete. |
| This is your
computer’s BIOS, the computer’s basic set of
information about itself. BIOS screens are all
different, depending on the motherboard. |
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One of the
BIOS screens (this one is called “SoftMenu III”)
shows the the speed of your
processor. |
| Another
screen (here called “Standard CMOS Features”) will
show your IDE devices (hard disk, CD drives).
Here, the IDE devices have not been detected yet.
We’ll have to change that. |
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There are
four selections: IDE Primary Master, IDE Primary
Slave, IDE Secondary Master, IDE Secondary Slave.
As in the picture, we will set all the values to
“Auto” to allow the system to automatically detect
these devices. |
| After doing
so, our IDE devices have been properly detected.
The hard drive is listed as the IDE Primary
Master, and the DVD drive as IDE Primary
Slave. |
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Yet another
screen (here “Advanced BIOS Features”) allows you
to change your computer’s “boot order.” This is
the order in which the computer which check the
different drives to try to find an operating
system. |
| For my first
boot device, I usually choose “Floppy,” “CD-ROM”
as the second device, and “HDD-0” (the first hard
drive) as the third. Choose to quit and save
settings to restart your computer. |
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