What would you do??? (1 Viewer)

[Diallo B]

hello folks,

here is the computer at hand:

Windows 98
AMD-K6
5gb hard drive
184 mb of ram

this is what i want to do:

upgrade to windows me
install a usb 2.0 card
install an 80 gb hard drive

here are my questions:

1. can i simply upgrade 98 to ME or do i need to run a clean install. the reason i want to do an upgrade is because the person that owns this computer no longer has some of the programs that are installed on the hard drive. and to tell you the truth i don't want to blow a whole day reinstalling the programs she does have.

2. this computer only has 2 IDE channels. the person that initially built the computer put the cd-rom and the 5gb hd on the same channel with the cd-rom as the master and the hd as the slave. the other channel is used for the floppy.

i would like to put both hd's on the same channel with the 5 gb as the master and the 80 gb as the slave. then put the cd-rom and the floppy on the same channel with the cd-rom as the master and the floppy as the slave. is this possible?

3. i can't find any usb 1.1 cards anywhere. will this usb 2.0 card function properly with 98. i am not looking for specs here, i would prefer real world application.

thanks in advance for the help folks.

 

[RyanDinan]

Hi Diallo,

Well, since this is in the HTPC forum, I'm assuming you want to use this computer for HTPC use .

If that is the case, I'd stay far, far away from Windows ME. Instead, go to Windows XP or 2000. They are much more stable, and better suited for this purpose.
To answer your question about upgrading - This should be possible, and her programs *should* work without needing to reinstall them. The appropriate registry keys will be migrated over during the upgrade.

About the HD issue...
Most motherboards come standard with 2 IDE channels and one floppy drive port. The FDD port is not the same as the IDE ports...
Ideally, you should have the hard drive with the operating system on IDE 1 as the master. I'd put the second HD on the same IDE channel as a slave.
On the other IDE channel, Id
put the (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM?) as a master. The floppy should be on its own FDD controller...

If you upgrade to win XP or 2000, the USB 2.0 controller should work fine, as long as you have the latest service packs installed. I do not believe Win 98 supports USB 2.0...

FYI, you can do a search on www.pricewatch.com for USB 1.1 controller cards. Also, check your local stores.. My local Walmart had a 1.1 card when I was there a few days ago...

-Ryan

 

[Rob Gillespie]

First question - why change to Windows Me? It will give you very little advantage and may make things worse. Me has a pretty bad reputation. 98 Second Edition is the most stable of the 9x operating systems.


Floppy usually has it's own separate connector which is slightly smaller than IDE. You should normally have two IDEs (allowing four IDE devices) and the floppy port on the motherboard. A floppy drive on a normal IDE channel is not something I've come across before.

As for the USB card - check the manufacturer site for Windows 98 drivers. That'll give you your answer whether it's 98 compatible.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

XP or 2000 will run like a fat old dog on a K6 processor. You might get 2K running nicely if you add some more RAM, but forget XP.

 

[ZoranM]

I would have to agree with Rob, I run various systems, using various MS operating systems in my house. And XP is pretty much useless with A K6 with the amount of Ram you are using. If you do a clean install of win 2k and make sure you have at least 256 mb ram it should work alright.

As for going from 98 to ME, some people say 98 is better others swear by ME, personally after about a dozen rollout of both OS's all I can say is it's pretty even. If your stable now it's not worth the upgrade to ME. (the old if it's not broke don't fix it does apply to OS's as well)

The big thing with either of these OS's is maintanence, make sure your drivers are always up to date, scandisk and defrag every weekend (there are ways to automate this to happen while you sleep). Do not install/unistall software constantly, you will just mess up your system directory and registry and then things will start to lag.

If you can, ghost your system when your happy with it, do it. It will save you lots of headaches when things need to be reinstalled.

Also RAM is your friend I said at least 256mb for win 2k above, but that holds true for any operating system (some more than others)

As for USB it does support 1.0, now I know MS officially does not support USB 2.0 on win 98, but there are third party drivers that will enableUSB 2.0 cards on win 98 machines. I'm sure after some googling you will be able to find more information then I could provide.

Also for USB stuff I find this site:

http://www.usbman.com/ to be pretty helpful

I won't address the ide cable/ floppy problem as it was answered here already. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Also this is only based on my personal experences, computers are like babies, they may look the same, they may act the same, they may progress the same, and they may have the same parts, but not one of them is the same as another.

cheers,

Zed

 

[Diallo B]

i double checked what you said and whoever hooked this computer up before did not do it any justice. the floppy is definitely connected to an ide channel. i fixed this problem.

thanks for all of your input. i am fooling with it now and having all sorts of trouble. for instance, the ps2 keyboard port does not work and i attempted to hook up a usb keyboard into the on board usb 1.1 ports and it does not seem to want to work. and yes i attempted to install the drivers.

i installed the usb 2.0 card (with the correct drivers) and it does not seem to want to work either.

it is going to be a long night.........:frowning: