Clean Install of Japanese WinXP

I want to do a clean install of the Japanese version of WinXP on an IBM R50p to give to my wife, who is Japanese and would find it easier to use than the English version. Does anyone know if this would be a really dangerous and/or difficult thing to do and can offer any tips on getting it done successfully?

I looked at the clean install guide in the sticky but that seems to be for Vista rather than XP. If there's another one for XP somewhere that I missed, sorry about that.

 

Installing an OS is not complicated. Beyond the install disc, your computer and your wits, you will need drivers. Make sure that you know the make and model of the CPU, wireless card, sound card, modem, touchpad, and graphics card before attempting an XP install b/c without drivers Windows is helpless. Drivers can be found in the laptop manufacturer's website. You must find the drivers for your computer's hardware components before moving on to actually install the OS, otherwise you will be have laptop with 800x600 resolution and little or no functionality.

 

Perfect, just what I needed to know. Thanks so much!

 

If you have the IBMTools folder, all the drivers will located in there. You could burn off a copy or throw it on an external drive. She's OK using a machine with the Japanese version of XP on a English keyboard?

 

My gosh, I *do* have the IBMTools folder. Bless your heart, I never would have known if you hadn't mentioned it. And bless IBM for putting it there, too.

Should I copy the whole folder or just the driver directory? And what's the procedure for using it once the install is complete? This would be my first time doing this and I don't want to screw it up, so a "Complete Idiot's Guide" approach would definitely be appropriate here.

And yes, she shouldn't have a problem with the keyboard. She's been using "Japanese enabled" Win2000 for years and I imagine the word processing works the same in the full JXP version, too.

 

I would burn the whole folder not just the drivers folder.

 

If you leave the recovery partition intact or have the recovery discs you can always go back if needed. I like to burn the IBMTools folder onto a disc, then in Device Manager you can have it search the disc for any drivers you can't find.