Introduction

BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System. The BIOS is a computer
program embedded on a chip on a computer's motherboard that recognizes and
controls various devices that make up the computer. The purpose of the BIOS is to
make sure all the things plugged into the computer can work properly. It brings life to
the computer, and the term is a pun on the Greek word βίος, bios meaning "life".

Booting Up
"Booting up" is the process that computer completes to get it ready to use when it is first
turned on. When the computer turns on, the BIOS starts up and performs a Power-On
Self Test (POST). During the POST, the BIOS will check various devices in the
computer like the computer processor, memory, the video card and others to make sure
they are present and functioning. Once the POST has completed successfully, the BIOS
looks for an operating system to load, which is usually located on the computer's hard
drive. When it finds one, it starts to load it. At this point, the operating system takes over
control of the system

Installing Operating Systems on Laptops & Netbooks

To those of you who have never installed an operating system, I will explain
the basic process
taken before going any further. Always remember that when reinstalling an
OS, you will also need to
re-setup your Wi-Fi… So if this repair is not for yourself, you must ensure
that the person you are
doing an Operating System Reinstall for knows their WEP or WAP key to be
able to reinstall their
Network SSID and KEY.
There are a couple ways to start this process.
First would be putting the OS install cd/DVD into
the optical drive. You must be powered on to eject the optical drive tray or to
insert cd into slot.
Next you can try using your corresponding ―Fǁ key, such as F12 or F11 to
tell the laptop to boot
from CD/DVD. Some laptop default BIOS splash startup screen settings will
show you for a brief
second the correct ―Fǁ key to press to boot from CD, if not, you can power
back off and on and try a
different F key until you find the one that takes you to the Boot menu choice
screen. Another way to
start the OS install is to go into your BIOS Setup screen (usually F2 key will
take you there, or ESC
key) where you can choose to set the CD/DVD as the laptops first boot
choice. Doing this will allow
the laptop (once rebooted) to launch the CD/DVD auto start script and start
the install of the operating
system.
If for some reason you can not get the laptop to boot to the CD, try using a
different CD if able to.
If you can not boot to cd, you will need to troubleshoot why… Typically a
cd/DVD rom drive will
not fail but on rare occasion they can and do. First, ensure the optical lens
that is located directly on
the slide out tray is clean and free of dust or debris. Next you will reinsert the
cd and watch for the
data light on the tray to see that it is blinking and that the actual cd/DVD is
spinning. Next you would
check to see that the hard drive is working and that it is recognized. It will be
present in the BIOS
setup screen list, usually in the advanced section. Also you will need to
determine if the operating
system you are installing is able to be installed on that specific laptop. Some
operating system NON
OEM cd’s will not come with the corresponding SATA drivers and therefor
will not be able to
correctly associate the SATA drive that is indeed installed to be recognized.
Let’s move on to installing the Operating System now.
Word Of Warning!!! Do Not Reinstall Any Operating System Unless
You Are Sure You
Have A Copy Of The Ethernet and or Wireless Corresponding Drivers…
The OS Install itself
might not load drivers for either which will leave you with no internet
capability until they are
installed.
The Cd Starts... XP install will be different than Windows 7 install. With XP,
it is a little less
graphical and will ask you more questions than will Windows 7. In a
Windows 7 install, you will
start by choosing Custom install. I never ever recommend doing an Upgrade
of any version of OS
install… simply not needed. Follow through the prompts and until you get to
the screen showing the
hard drive partitions. Here you will make a decision to wipe the entire hard
drive clean or to save
certain partitions or partial partitions.
If you need to save DATA from the previous Operating System install, then
you can leave all
partitions as they are, even if the Windows 7 operating system is an upgrade
to what was previously
on the drive (like XP or Vista). Simply keep the default choice partition
selected… which will be the
largest sized partition, the system partition… and in this window you will just
choose ―NEXTǁ and
not mess with any other setting.
A pop-up window will show up on your screen informing you that ―no data
will be lostǁ and that
―the process will save all previous data to a folder which it will label:
Windows.oldǁ. Note that
upon completion of the new operating system, that Windows.old file that was
saved will be located
directly on the C – Drives Main Folder... (Open My Computer, Click on The
Main Hard Drive Icon
(usually C) then scroll down that list, and right below Program Files and
Windows Folders will be
Windows.old.
Let’s back up here to the install, back to before reaching the Partition screen
of the install process.
Here you will also need to choose what operating system you are installing (if
using a multi install
cd), and you will choose what kernel the OS will run, whether you will use a
32 bit OS or a 64 bit
OS. A 64 bit OS is meant for todays Dual Core CPUs and for Laptops with
more than 3 gigs of RAM.
Ok, lets now move forward again to the Formatting/Install of the OS.
If you find that you are installing the operating system and it seems to stop at
about 80 to 90% and
then Errors out and quits the install, You will need to swap out that install OS
with a different one, as
either the CD itself (unsupported drivers) is the issue or the Fact that it does
not contain the needed
install drivers on it. Again, most pirated OS installs will eventually encounter
this issue. A hard drive
in its beginning stages of failure will sometimes cause this dilemma as well
where it almost gets
through the install, then errors out and doesn’t complete the install. Then
check the BIOS Setup to
ensure that SATA is enabled (if you have this ability in your BIOS version).
Assuming you have completed the windows CD install of the Operating
System, I will now
discuss what goes on after the completed install.
Most OEM Operating System install discs will include most of the correct
drivers needed for
your Laptop, and will load and install them upon the initial install of the
Windows OS. Though, most
of the time you will be left with numerous drivers that did not get installed
and it will be your job to
correctly install them.
The wonderful thing about the majority of the laptops is that it will not harm
the operating system
if the incorrect driver is attempted to install, rather, it will deny the install
with a caption showing the
error in incompatibility. Even if the incorrect driver is installed, it will
usually warn you upon
reboot, that there is a problem, or you will get a pop up error explaining that
the driver installed is
not compatible. You simply uninstall the bad driver or software to correct the
issue and continue on
trying other related drivers. Hopefully you have done as I stated earlier and
saved internet drivers to
allow yourself to easily reinstall them. Sometimes even your saved drivers
might not work say for
instance you had XP and now have Win 7, the drivers you saved from the XP
install might not be
compatible with your Win7 OS… You can try right-clicking on that XP
driver and choosing to ―run
in Compatibility Modeǁ which will allow WIN 7 to ―Mockǁ a different OS
version to allow the file
to correctly install and run.
To obtain the latest drivers released for your specific laptop model, you will
go to the
manufacturer’s website, for ex: Sony.com or Dell.com…
Once at their main page of the website, you will look for a ―Services &
Supportǁ or ―Drivers
& Downloadsǁ or similar to get to their Drivers Page for your model. Next,
you will be allowed to
choose your Laptops model number and series number. There will usually be
a list to choose from or
an Auto Detect feature on that Web Page. Once at your Drivers Web Page,
you can see the list of all
your drivers such as Ethernet, Chipset, Audio, Wi-Fi, BIOS, etc…
Download one or all of them, and if needed, you might have to flip through
the different operating
system versions to find all the drivers… there will be a place somewhere on
that page to change what
operating system version the drivers are for…
If installing from a USB device, make sure that you set the BIOS
setting to allow the laptop to boot to that USB device first.