Upgrading to XP, how should I go about this? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin H]

Hello, right now I'm running a 1.2 ghz Athlon computer with 128 MB RAM and Windows ME. I have a copy of Windows XP and a copy of Partition Magic 7 and I'm wondering what is the best thing you think I should do.

The computer has a 60 GB hard drive, of which there are ~12 GBs left, but I can make more room. I don't know if I should create a partition with just the XP in it(and if so, what settings and what type of drive should I use, since i know nothing about partition magic) and keep the ME and all my data on the other one (of if that's even possible..) or just do a plain install of XP over ME, or what.

What do you think is the best thing for me to do?

Thanks

 

[Andre F]

I would use Partition Magic to create a partition for just data etc. Back up all your files that you need to back up and then do a fresh install of XP. Boot to the cd and start from there. Your PC will be very happy with a fresh install.

 

[Mike LS]

Yeah, do what is stated above, or if possible, just back up your important data and completely format your drive and start fresh with XP. Just don't do an upgrade. It eats WAY too much HD space and can give you all kinds of problems.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Fresh install is good. I went the other route and installed over ME and it took me a week to sort through the various problems including having to download updated drivers, upgrading software that was not 100% compatible to XP etc. Whatever you do, I would suggest you always have a complete and current backup of your entire system at all times. Despite the fact that XP has the very nice feature of taking a snapshot of your system that you can restore to.

 

[DougRogers]

I wouldn't install XP with only 128mb of ram. It will run SO slowly. Atleast mine did when I tried it. I would get another stick of atleast 128mb of ram, then backup all data, format c:, reinstall everything. That is always my approach when dealing with MS. However, I heard XP supposedly did a fairly good job of writing over old installations of windows. I would get rid of ME completely and go full XP with NTFS file partition.

Doug

 

[Thom B]

Your initial instinct is pretty good. Use partition magic to create a 10 gig or so drive in your free space, then install XP to that drive. You'll end up with a dual boot scenario with your old ME install still functioning and a clean install of XP on the new drive. When your computer is booting, it will give you the option of booting into either OS, and when you're in XP you'll have access to everything on the box.
During the install you'll be asked whether you want to format the install drive to NTFS or FAT. If you format to NTFS, you won't be able to see data on that drive when you're booted into ME. This shouldn't be a problem, as there's really nothing on the XP system drive that you'll need to access from ME, but it's something to remember if you download or copy files while in XP that you want to access from ME.
With this dual boot you can boot to XP and make sure everything works properly. If for some reason you end up having driver problems, etc. which prevent you from getting online in XP, you can boot to the ME install and access the web for any updates needed to get you running. You can also use the file and settings transfer wizard to move your favorites settings and such to the XP install. This allows you to maintain these things without the mess of an upgrade install.
Once you have XP fully functional, play around with it for awhile. Run all of your apps and try all of your HW features. Especially any older games or dos based apps that might have compatability problems. Scanners and usb connected HW warrant an extra check as well. Once you've determined that everything runs as expected under XP, you can simply delete the ME install directory or, if there are apps/tasks you can only get to work under ME, you can keep the ME install for when you want to run those tasks which don't work under XP.
Before all of the above, go to the website for every piece of HW you have on or attatched to your box and download the latest drivers. Save them to a folder on your ME install drive and get 'em installed when you first boot to XP. Once that's done go to the Windows Update website, and download all of the critical and driver updates. Also check through the "reccomended" updates for any that look applicable to your use. Service pack one is due out very soon. Grab that as soon as it becomes available. If you've got a slow dialup connection, it can be ordered on CD from the MS website.
Good luck, and post any further questions you have here. Lots of smart folks around to help out.
T