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There are many applications for bootable CD-ROMs (we'll call them BCDs) - the most common being when undertaking large roll-outs and when using test rigs, where it is often useful to combine operating systems with boot and diagnostic diskettes to automate the process of setting up machines.

 

If you need to repeatedly test from clean installations it can save lots of time if you image a disk drive and put the image, along with the imaging software, on a BCD.

 

It can also be a timesaver to have frequently used boot and diagnostic diskettes on CD, and it's an easy way to work with PCs that do not have a floppy disk drive.

 

To see if a PC supports booting from a CD, check your BIOS set-up screens. SCSI drives have their own BIOS on the adapter; IDE drives use code in the system BIOS. Most modern SCSI adapters have a BIOS that allows it, and most motherboards of the last two years support booting from IDE CD drives.

 

If you are able to change the boot options, and it lists "CD-ROM", your system supports booting from a CD. If you have a 1995 or 1996 motherboard or SCSI card that does not support it, it's probably worth contacting the manufacturer -many have BIOS upgrades available.

Technical Details

When a BCD is created, a "boot record" is put at the very beginning of the CD, just as it is with a bootable floppy or hard disk.

 

This record specifies whether the CD is to emulate a floppy or hard disk drive, and contains a pointer to the location of the actual boot image file.

 

The El Torito specification, created by IBM and Phoenix Technologies, was designed to be completely compatible with the ISO 9660 CD standard. It adds to the ISO 9660 specification by requiring a boot record at sector 11 of the last session on the CD.

 

The boot record contains an absolute sector number that points to the "boot catalog". There's no restriction on the location of the boot catalog. The catalog contains a list of entries describing all the "boot images" present on the CD. Again, there's no restriction on where the boot images can be on the CD. There can be any number of them, of three different types:

 

1. "Bootable emulation" causes the image to be mapped to drive A or C, as a conventional bootable storage device.

2. "Non-bootable emulation" maps the image as a conventional storage device, and allocates the last drive letter to it.

3. "No emulation" is a special mode which loads the image into memory and executes it -extremely useful when developing copy protection or "smart" CDs designed for a variety of disparate systems. For example, the "no emulation" mode is used in the Windows NT operating system CDs.

 

 

There is much scope for system vendors to create multi-image CDs where the boot image is selected dynamically by the system BIOS, but this requires a lot of manual assembling and editing, and is beyond the range of this article.

 

Although it is relatively easy to manually assemble the boot catalog, most BIOSes do not allow selection of the image and you will have to write a small amount of low level system code to do it. CDs can be set to boot as drive A or C. The fact that they are a late addition to the PC makes them subject to certain other restrictions.

 

To boot as drive A, the boot image must be made in the same format as a 1.2 MB, 1. 4 MB or 2. 88 MB floppy disk. The first floppy disk drive, if present, will become the B drive. If the system has a second floppy disk drive, it will not be accessible.

This guide will show you how to construct a brand spanking new PC and where relevant I’ll try to point out where things may differ slightly when dealing with older machines. First up you’ll need a few tools of the trade before you can start putting anything together, you can usually buy kits from your local computer store which will have all you need to get going, but if you wish to buy things individually here are the main tools you’ll need.

 

• Anti-static wristband

• Head screwdriver

• Flathead screwdriver

 

Remember to wear your Anti-Static wristband when dealing with fragile things susceptible to static such as the CPU and RAM, you don’t have to wear it all the time but just as a precaution you may want to keep it on during the course of putting your PC together, if you accidentally fry your CPU or RAM you’ll be kicking yourself for quite sometime - so remember that wristband.

The Case

 

If you’ve purchased a fairly decent case it’ll have it’s own 250-300 watt power supply. Anything lower and you may run into trouble with devices not having enough power to work. It will have come with a set of screws don’t worry if you find yourself coming up short of a specific screw just try to place them out evenly so the device you're screwing in is secure, I just presume case companys are evil and are trying to deprive us of screws, however if you have some spare don’t worry - you haven’t missed anything. They will be for other devices you may want to add in later on. The side panels of the case should be easily removable by just taking out a couple of screws; both sides should then be able to slide off.

 

Now you should have a clear view of the inside of the case ready for you to start fitting things in.

The Motherboard

 

Depending on your type of case it will either be in a fixed position or have a tray which can slide out to attach the motherboard. If it is a fixed plate you will have to lay the case on its side to install the motherboard. Now you can screw in the spacer mounts, these are the screws your mother board will sit on try to spread them out evenly as the tray may have several holes for spacer screws to fit in and you only have so many spacers, this is dependant on different mother boards so remember to screw in the spacers in a position which will align with the holes on the motherboard.

 

Once you’ve aligned the holes in the motherboard with the spacers you can now screw down the motherboard.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) and Cooler

 

To insert the CPU into the socket on the motherboard you will first have to raise the lever on the side of the socket.

 

The socket will have a pin slot missing and the processor will have a pin missing and will have the corner coloured or marked in some way to indicate that it is the corner you must align with the missing pin slot, once aligned properly the processor will fit in easily without any force needing to be applied, once the processor is in lower the lever on the side of the socket to lock the processor in place. If your processor has come with a thermal pad or thermal paste you will need to apply this to the top of the processor now this helps to transfer heat to the cooler, after you have done this you can place the cooler on top of the processor. On older motherboards the cooler will have clips that fix to the motherboard which will click into place, the newer coolers for P4 will simply have 2 levers on either side of the cooler. Raise these then place the cooler on top of the processor and lower the levers to lock the cooler in place. Make sure the cooler is firmly attached. If it comes loose it can cause serious damage and on older processors you can wave bye bye if this happens to your processor, though all modern processors will have some degree of thermal protection to prevent overheating.

 

Now connect the power.

 

The RAM (Random Access Memory)

 

The RAM is easy to install. Different types of RAM will have the notch in different positions. Make sure you have the right type of RAM for your motherboard - check your motherboard manual to ensure this. Presuming you're using the right kind of RAM, the notch at the bottom will line up with the key in the memory slot. Now line it up and carefully press the memory into the slot - a little force may need to be applied to get it to seat correctly in the slot then once the clips close your know its securely seated. When dealing with older RAM it may be necessary to insert it on an angle to get it to fit in correctly.

 

AGP (Advanced Graphics Port)

 

All good modern video cards will need to be seated in the AGP slot, if you're dealing with an older video card it may need to be seated in the PCI slot which we will cover later, the AGP slot will be brown in colour. You will need to remove the metal tab at the back of the case, if it’s a new case you can just break these off, afterwards though you will need to screw in or use a plastic clip to hold the metal tab in place. Only do this if you have broken off a tab and do not intend to place a PCI card there. Installing the graphics card is easy - simply insert it into the slot and make sure it is seated correctly then use a screw to hold it in place.

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

 

Installing PCI cards such as sound cards and network cards are the same as installing the graphics card. There will be several free slots for various PCI cards, try to space them out if possible to prevent heat build up in the system. Once you have installed a PCI card it is best not to remove it then place it in another slot as this can cause IRQ conflicts with some motherboards.

 

Floppy Disk

 

To install the disk drive simply slide it into the drive bay remembering to remove the plastic front panels first and removing any metal panels behind this by knocking them out. It will be the smaller of the drive bays and will be located nearer the bottom compared to the larger CD-ROM drive bays which will be located nearer the top. Once you have slid the Floppy disk drive in, secure it with screws.

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

 

The HDD goes in a similar way as floppy disk but will be hidden behind the casing and is fixed into position in the exact same way as the floppy disk drive, except will only require 2 screws instead of four. Just remember to set the drive as you want it either master single or slave. This is done by changing the jumper settings at the back of the drive.

 

CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory)

 

Putting in the CD-ROM drive or CD-Writer is the same as putting in the HDD - just remember to use the fine threaded screws, also remember to first set the jumper settings to either slave or master bearing in mind you cannot have 2 masters.

 

Ribbon Cables

 

Ok so now everything you want is installed and you’re getting close to finishing up but first you will need to connect all the cables. There are two main ribbon cables - the 40 pin IDE cable for the hard disk and CD-ROM drive and the 34 pin cable for the floppy drive. Cables are always colour coded to show pin 1. Most drives also provide some kind of identification for pin 1. If you find that this is not the case, just remember that pin 1 is the one next to the power plug.

Drive Power Connectors

 

The drive power connection is the large 4 pin connection they can only fit in one way so don’t worry about plugging them in the wrong way around, a bit of force to ensure there fitting snugly may be needed. Just remember the floppy drive will use a smaller plug. The last plug is the larger ATX plug that plugs into the power socket on the motherboard.

 

Other Connections

 

For this part you may want to refer to your motherboard manual which will clearly point out where each plug goes, it will also have abbreviations on the motherboard to point out where each connection should be plugged in for example.

 

• RS, RE, RST or RESET: connect the two-pin Reset cable here.

• HD, HDD LED: these two pins connect to the cable for the hard disk activity LED.

• SP, SPK, or SPEAK: the loudspeaker output. It has four pins.

• PWR, PW, PW SW, PS or Power SW: power switch, the PC's on/off switch. The plug is two-pin.

• PW LED, PWR LED or Power LED: the light located on the front panel of the case lights up when the computer is switched on. It is a two pin cable.

 

If you find a light not working try reversing the plug.

 

One last check

 

Now your PC is completely assembled but you may want to make a last minute check of the system before turning it on. Make sure all cables are properly connected and that all devices are properly seated or screwed in, you may want to leave the case cover off when turning the PC on for the first time just in case something isn’t connected correctly. If you hear any beeps this will indicate that something is not correctly connected or seated.

 

Congratulations you can now feel the satisfaction from having put your own PC together.

Having correct airflow through your PC case is critical to your system running properly. Heat buildup in a computer case can cause lockups, slowdowns and even shutdowns. You should carefully consider the direction of the air when building a PC or when modifying an existing computer.

Which way should the case fans blow?

The CPU fan attached to the heat sink should blow down onto the heat sink and processor. Fresh air can be pulled in this way, but you will want additional fans installed to help bring cooler air into the case. An 80mm case fan installed in the front of the computer pulling air in will help the processor run cooler. You may also want to add an additional fan at the rear of the PC that blows the air out of the back. This additional fan in the rear may not be necessary if the power supply has an intake fan inside the case that can pull that warm air out.

Improving airflow in the case

You can greatly increase the airflow through your PC by swapping out the standard, flat IDE cables with the rounded type. Because the rounded cables take up less space, air can easily move through the case without being trapped inside. Depending on your setup, you can also rearrange the power cables so that extra wires can be coiled and tucked away near the top.

Balancing PC airflow

Another thing to consider when adding fans is the effect it will have on the interior of the case. If you have a lot of fans pulling air in and not enough moving air out, the interior of the PC will become filled with hair, dust and other debris. You should also not hear one fan working harder that the others. This means the airflow is not balanced properly. For instance, if the rear case fan makes a whirring sound every few seconds, this could indicate there is too much air trying to escape and it cannot keep up.

Whatever you do to improve airflow, you should open the case after a week to make sure everything is clean. You can also download monitoring tools to test the case and CPU temperatures before and after to make sure air is circulating properly and keeping the CPU cool.

There are several ways to erase the contents of a hard drive. But the technique you use will depend on what you want to use the hard drive for afterwards. For instance, if you just plan on reinstalling Windows, it isn’t necessary to do a Department of Defense level shredding of your data

Erase your hard drive for reinstalling Windows

In newer versions of Windows, you can simply boot to the Windows CD and during the setup process, tell Windows to delete the current partition and install on the new partition. This will wipe out what you already had and replace it with a fresh, shiny Windows installation. Brand name computers--such as Dell, HP, Compaq and Sony—will ship with a recovery disk. You can use that recovery disk in place of a Windows CD to format and reinstall automatically.

Erase you hard drive and sell it on Ebay

If you plan on selling the computer or hard drive on Ebay or even at a yard sale, you must use a shredding utility that will thoroughly erase the data on the hard drive. Actually, these programs write 1s and 0s over every sector of the hard drive several times so the data that had been there is most certainly gone forever. You can then reinstall Windows, if you wish. The problem with the first method is that even though the drive has been formatted, there are tools available that can recover the data that had been erased. Using a program like Darik’s Boot and Nuke (or DBaN) will make that data unrecoverable.

Discarding a dead hard drive

If your computer has failed and the hard drive is no good, you must destroy the hard drive before tossing it in the trash. Sophisticated tools can be used to recover the data on hard drives that no longer work. If you plan on recycling the computer or putting it in the landfill (shame on you), you have to remove the drive and carefully destroy it by whatever means necessary. You can remove the platters by opening the hard drive shell. Whether you plan on drilling holes in it, smashing it with a hammer or driving over it with your car, be sure to wear protective goggles and gloves.

So there are different reasons for erasing your hard drive and different methods based on those reasons. You can find hard drive utilities on our Software Downloads section or contact us on our forums for more advice on how to handle data on your hard drive.

Hi, I am looking at overclcking my computer BUT don't know how to do it

System Specs:

-WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE SP1(32Bit)

-AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ (2.00 GHz)

-512MB OF DDR2 RAM

-ATI RADEON 9550SE

I would like to overclock with what i have (quite short budget). I am aware of the risks in it. any help with processor, RAM, GC overclocking would be VERY helpfull.

Hmm... I tried it, but when I try to open the proxy, it says that the page could not be found. Does anybody have the same problem? Should I try different browser?