How to format your gaming pc properly

BEAST PC RECOVERY PROCEDURE
ASUS SOCKET 939 NFORCE4 SLI MOTHERBOARDS
15/06/2006

This procedure has been prepared as a set of guidelines to enable BEAST PC users to restore their computer back to factory or ‘out of the box’ settings.  It is to be used in conjunction with the Beast Recovery CD which came with your computer. 

Important: Please take care to check the following manufacturers' websites for updates to the drivers already included on your CD before proceeding.  We must stress that keeping drivers up to date is critical!

NVIDIA Drivers – www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
AMD CPU Drivers - www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182,00.html
Soundblaster Drivers - http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/
Asus BIOS Updates - http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

If you have any trouble updating drivers, feel free to call us for support.

Important Note: - The following procedure will wipe all saved files/games/documents from your PC. Any important material should be backed up before proceeding.

Section 1 – Required Software

You will need to make sure you have the following CD’s/Floppy’s before proceeding:-

1. nVidia SATA RAID Driver (32 bit) Floppy Disk (If you do not have one of these, you must create one using the Asus driver disk which came with your PC.  In the autorun menu, click on the ‘Make Disk’ tab to create one of these).
2. Your original Windows XP CD
3. Beast Recovery CD (This normally has a Beast head graphic printed on it)
4. Asus Motherboard Driver CD

Section 2 – Formatting the Hard Drives/Re-Installing Windows

1. First of all, reboot your computer and enter the BIOS setup screen, this is accessed by pressing the ‘del’ key when prompted on restart.
2. The BIOS screens of the different model boards we use are very similar.  You will need to locate the Boot Device Priority Menu and change the first bootable device to the CD ROM drive.  Save and Exit the BIOS, making sure you have your Windows CD in the drive.
3. Once the computer restarts, be ready to press any key when it asks you if you want to Boot from a CD.  The Windows CD will then take over and start to load up.  A blue screen will appear and at the bottom it will prompt you to press F6 to install SATA drivers.  You must press F6 when prompted. If this is missed then you will need to go back and try again.  Nothing will happen until the setup has finished installing the files it needs to run.
4. The next screen you will encounter should say the following:-
   "Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices installed in your system, or you have chosen to manually specify an adapter. Currently, Setup will load support for the following mass storage device(s): <none>
5. You should then insert your RAID Driver floppy disk and press S, then Enter.  This should give you a list of 2 drivers.  You need to install both of these, so select the first one and press enter to install it.  Then repeat the process for the other driver.  Continue through the setup process by pressing enter until you come to the license screen on which you need to press F8.
6. You will eventually reach a screen which will identify your original Windows installation, press ESC.  The next screen will show you the partition with your existing windows installation.  Delete this partition by pressing D.
7. Next, press enter on the unpartitioned space to install a fresh copy of windows.  Select the quick NTFS format when asked.  That’s the hard part over!  Continue to run through the setup process until Windows is fully installed.

Section 3 – Driver Installation

1. Once you get into windows for the first time, you will need to install the drivers for your components.  First up is the AMD Processor drivers which can be found on the Beast CD. (Remember to check for updates as mentioned in the Introduction). Install this and reboot.  Also install the hotfix if you have a dual core processor, again rebooting once complete.
2. Next, go into the nVidia folder and install the nForce chipset drivers.  If you do download updates from the nVidia site, please make sure you have the correct driver for your Motherboard.  The setup program will ask which components you wish to install.  Select all of these if your computer does not have a Soundblaster card, if it does have a one of these, then you should not install the audio drivers, these are for onboard audio only.  Lastly, when prompted, do not install the network forceware manager. Reboot system again.
3. Now go back into the nVidia folder and install the nVidia Graphics driver.  Your screen may go blank for a couple of seconds so don’t worry, this is normal.  If you have two graphics cards, you must enable SLi.  A popup balloon in the bottom right should say your system is correctly configured to take advantage of SLi.  Click this and enable SLi by ticking the top box.  Reboot system again.  By right-clicking on the desktop and selecting nVidia display, you can bring up the graphics control panel which will allow you to switch to your desired resolution.  We recommend using 32bit colour also.
4. If your system has a SoundBlaster sound card, you can now insert this to install the sound drivers.  We recommend you do not install Media Source, which is an extra usually included on the disc.  Please check the Creative Labs site for driver updates, this could be critical to your system performance.
5. Lastly, insert the Asus CD to install the Marvell Gigabit LAN controller.
6. You may now install any drivers for additional peripheral devices such as printers, webcams, joysticks etc.

Section 4 – Additional Beast Recommended Performance Tweaks

1. Firstly, to get rid of those annoying pop ups from Windows, select Start/Control Panel/Security Centre. Under resources, click the bottom option and uncheck all of the boxes.  This will stop that annoying balloon popping up every five minutes!  Scroll to bottom and select Automatic Updates, select notify me but do not automatically download updates.  Go back to security centre and select Windows Firewall, turn this off.
2. Click Start/My Computer, now right click on the C:\ drive and select properties.  Uncheck the ‘allow indexing’ box, making sure you ignore all exceptions which come up.
3. Right-click the desktop, turn off your screen saver (unless you really want one!).  Click the ‘Power’ button.  Turn off monitor should be 1 hour, Hard Disks should never be turned off (This could damage your RAID array if turned on), and if you have an option for system standby, switch this to never also.
4. Go back into your Control Panel and select System.  Click the System Restore tab and check the box which says ‘Turn off System Restore’.  Next, click the Advanced tab.  Click the Performance Settings button.  Now select the ‘Adjust for best performance’ option.  Scroll down and tick the bottom six boxes.
5. Again, go back to the Control Panel and select the Sounds and Audio Devices icon.  It’s optional but we recommend turning all windows sounds off.
6. Lastly, should you wish to restore the original wallpaper, then the Beast Art pack can be downloaded from www.beastcomputers.co.uk/beastart.zip.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE NOW RESTORED YOUR BEAST TO IT’S ORIGINAL SETTINGS!