Install Windows Server 2008 R2 (part 1) - Perform a Windows Server 2008 R2 Full Installation

Insert the DVD media into the drive, and reboot the system. Upon reboot, you will see the screen shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Selecting your language

Select your chosen language, time/currency, and keyboard method, and then click Next. You will see the screen shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Starting the installation

This screen provides the option to install Windows Server 2008 R2 by clicking the Install Now button. There are also two other options to notice. The What To Know Before Installing Windows option provides some last-minute help documentation. The Repair Your Computer option takes you to the repair and diagnostics functions of Windows Server 2008 R2. To continue the installation, click the Install Now button.

The next window you see (Figure 3) provides you with the choice to install your edition of Windows Server 2008 R2. You can choose to install the full edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 or the Server Core version. Select your version, and click Next.

Figure 3. Selecting your Windows Server 2008 R2 version

Clicking the Next button will take you to the license agreement screen. This screen, shown in Figure 4, allows you to read, print, and agree to the license terms. Select the check box on the bottom left of the dialog box to agree to the license terms, and click Next to continue.

Figure 4. Licensing terms

The screen shown in Figure 5 provides you with the choice between performing an upgrade or custom installation of Windows Server 2008 R2. To perform a new installation, click Custom, and you will be taken to the next step.

Figure 5. Upgrading or customizing

The next screen, displayed in Figure 6, allows you to choose the location for your Windows Server 2008 R2 installation. This screen also allows you to load drivers for your SCSI hard drives.

If you are installing on a hard drive connected to a SCSI controller, select Load Driver, and insert the media with the drivers on it. You also have a full set of drive partitioning and formatting options. When you click the drive on which you want to install Windows Server 2008 R2, you are presented with the options to create new partitions or delete, format, or extend existing partitions, as shown in Figure 1.6. Choose the appropriate option, and click Next. If you do not select a partition and the only option you have is unallocated space, then the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation will create a partition on that drive by taking all the unallocated space and formatting it for you automatically with NTFS. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also automatically make a system partition of 200MB in size during this step. The 200MB partition is not assigned a drive and will not be visible in the OS. The partition holds the Windows boot files for the Windows recovery environment (winRE).

Figure 6. Selecting a drive and partition

When you select your partition, the installation will begin, and you will see a screen similar to Figure 7. The system may also reboot several times during this phase of installation.

Figure 7. Windows installation progress

After the final system reboot, you will be asked to configure the administrator's password, and you will see screen similar to Figure 8.

Figure 8. Initial change of password logon

After you click OK, you will see a screen similar to Figure 9. Now you will set your administrator password. The password needs to be complex. This means the initial password needs to meet the following requirements:

• Cannot contain the user's account name or parts of the user's full name that exceed two consecutive characters

• Be at least six characters in length

• Contain characters from three of the following four categories:

  • English uppercase characters (A through Z)

  • English lowercase characters (a through z)

  • Base 10 digits (0 through 9)

  • Nonalphabetic characters (for example !, $, #, or %)

There is also an option for you to create a password reset disk. By clicking this option, you can create a recovery disk, which allows you to create a new password for the user ID. You have to create this disk only once, no matter how many times the password for the account changes.