building my own PC

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mapollo

New Member
OK so the components I ordered should be here today. I'm thinking I may have a go at assembling it myself but the snag is I have no experience other than fitting a CD-RW in my present set up.

Is there a decent general guide online that I could use just to help me get started? Is this something that you would recommend doing?

If I Google for an online guide I get lots of choices but is there one guide that you recommend.

David....
 
apj101

apj101

VIP Member
There are no one guides that are going to fit all your requirment, just read a lot of them and make sure you are comformatable with how to install each component. If your not usre how to install you cpu fan per say, then a) read instructions and b) look on line for some guidance in installing that particular component. It is a really simple process, jst make sure you are comfortabl with each step and dont force anything.

oh and number one on the list - EARTH yourself, touch something big and metal, eg a fridge. Better still keep in constant contact with something big and metal, maybe you case, or a different computer case. It is so easy to fry your new bits with the static you generate just moving around. On that note dont wear wool or shell suit ha ha :)

post back tell to us how you got on
 
M

mapollo

New Member
apj101 said:
post back tell to us how you got on
Click to expand...

A little update. All the bits arrived as expected and I spent about a couple of hours fitting the Moby,Processor,heat sink and fan ,Video card and Ram. All seems good so far.
I'm stuck a bit now as I have to back up Data onto CDR from the two IDE hard drives in my current system that I am going to use in the new installation.

But a question about FAT 32 and NTSC (?). What system should I use. The two IDE drives that I will use in my new system are currently FAT32 in my present system.

Thanks.
 
L

LittleHoov

New Member
i would say use NTFS, it has more security, and is just generally better, and im assuming only one of your two hard drives has an Operating System on it, and if thats the case then you dont necessarily need to burn all that data onto CDs...and if the hard drive that has Windows on it is an older version of Windows, you might be able to just plug the hard drive in and go..but if its XP more than likely not...what you could do, space allowing, is move all the stuff onto the hard drive without the OS on it, then add that drive as a slave to your new machine...and in case you have any trouble with NTFS..remember this..NTFS can read FAT32, but FAT32 cant read NTFS...took me forever to figure that out
 
M

mapollo

New Member
LittleHoov said:
i would say use NTFS, it has more security, and is just generally better, and im assuming only one of your two hard drives has an Operating System on it, and if thats the case then you dont necessarily need to burn all that data onto CDs...and if the hard drive that has Windows on it is an older version of Windows, you might be able to just plug the hard drive in and go..but if its XP more than likely not...what you could do, space allowing, is move all the stuff onto the hard drive without the OS on it, then add that drive as a slave to your new machine...and in case you have any trouble with NTFS..remember this..NTFS can read FAT32, but FAT32 cant read NTFS...took me forever to figure that out
Click to expand...

LittleHoov if I understand what youre saying you have saved me burning and then reloading 30+ cdr discs.

So what I will do is......... Copy the contents of My Docs (not forgetting my Favorites this time) to my current slave HD. My slave HD has only data (no programs or OS). It's FAT 32.

Then I will put the two HD's into my new setup keeping the current master/slave set up. It's Win Xp Pro so I will install my OS fresh on my Master using the NTFS system. NTFS can read FAT 32. Bingo I'm done...

Did I get that right???
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
what I will do is......... Copy the contents of My Docs (not forgetting my Favorites this time) to my current slave HD. My slave HD has only data (no programs or OS). It's FAT 32.

Then I will put the two HD's into my new setup keeping the current master/slave set up. It's Win Xp Pro so I will install my OS fresh on my Master using the NTFS system. NTFS can read FAT 32. Bingo I'm done...
Click to expand...
- Yes copy your important data off the drive or partition that you are about to install an OS to.
- You may want to change the master/slave settings so that the computer boots off the new drive (assuming you're installing the OS there)
 
M

mapollo

New Member
Ok so an another update.

I did it. 10 days ago I didn't even know about the basic components reqd to build a PC. Thanks to the people that helped me on this site (and others) I managed to order in the components and build the thing myself. Everything went as expected even the OS install.
A special mention must go to "LittleHoov" for the following sentence

"remember this..NTFS can read FAT32, but FAT32 cant read NTFS...took me forever to figure that out"

I didn't know that and it saved me burning 30 to 40 cdr's worth of data for backups and then reloading most of it onto my new build.

Once again thanks for all your help.......
 
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