Re: Will Windows XP Upgrade Help Me?

Topazprincess77 wrote:

See comments inline.

Why would the machine be unsuitable? ME ---DOES--- Upgrade to XP, also
98 will even upgrade to XP so why would this ME be unsuitable?

I didn't say it would be unsuitable; I said it *might* be unsuitable because
you didn't give us the computer specs. XP requires a lot more hardware
power than Win9x/ME did. It will also be important to have XP drivers for
your hardware. With very old hardware, this can be difficult, especially
since so much OEM hardware is proprietary. Or it may not be difficult to
find XP drivers, but it is foolish not to check first. See the end of this
post for how to find out what hardware is in your computer.

Also no I do not have the recovery discs...they were stolen along with
a bag of music CD's during moving. I could probably get the specs,
where would I find them? I know it has a good size hard-drive for a ME
it's 40 gigs, twice the space of the PC I'm using right now which is
an old 98...I also have a very old 95 that I got when I was 11...10
years ago and it still works beautifully, yet another reason for me to
ask why ME would be SO old and unsuitable?

A 40GB hard drive will work for XP. You need at least 256MB of RAM, with
512MB being much better. I forget offhand the lower limit for the
processor, but a PIII 400 or 500 will do. XP will be slow but quite usable
for email, web-surfing, and 2D programs like an older Office suite.

I wouldn't even consider upgrading a beautiful OS to XP if I wasn't
forced to, I don't care for the XP OS at all, but I'm thinking it's my
only option.

It isn't an option if XP won't run on that machine. You need to be sure that
it will before you go buy XP. You might also want to purchase recovery
disks from the computer mftr. instead. If the computer mftr. no longer
carries restore disks for such an old machine, you can look on this
website:

http://restoredisks.com/

I haven't purchased anything from them, but other people have posted here in
the newsgroup that they did and were satisfied.

And I dont have to get into the BIOS the pc is already set up to boot
from disk first, so that shouldn't be a problem and also I believe the
CD drive DOES work but that maybe a virus is preventing the computer
from running a standard disk, a bootable disk is more forceful then
trying to pop in a video game or music disk...

Well, you didn't say that. You just said the optical and floppy drives
didn't work.

I just don't wanna waste the money on an upgrade if it's not going to
work, but in theory it sounds like it should.....

Never try and upgrade a faulty operating system. It will fail and you
certainly won't get rid of spyware, viruses, and other damage done to the
operating system by installing XP. If you want to salvage this computer, do
a clean install, preferably with the operating system for which the
computer was designed. Since you are one of the few people on the planet
who actually liked WinME, that would be the best OS for you to stick with.
Just make sure you install a firewall and antivirus and understand that ME,
like the Win9x OSs, is not a secure operating system and you need to be
extra careful with it on the Internet.

Here is general information about how to find out what hardware is in your
computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows


Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Updating from 98 to XP
    ... If I update my operating system from 98 to XP ... Microsoft WinXP Upgrade Advisor to see if you have any incompatible ... hardware components or applications. ... HOW TO Prepare to Upgrade Win98 or WinMe ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Windows XP Pro 4Gb
    ... On top of having hardware that allows memory to be mapped above the 4GB area you will also need to upgrade the Operating System to a 64-bit platform or upgrade to one that is PAE Aware and that can use 36-bit addressing. ... Without these it is doubtful that the operating system will be able to use all the installed RAM, the RAM will most likely be cut off somewhere above the 3GB area so that some of that space can be made available and mapped and used by certain hardware devices. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Two Windows XP Operating Systems
    ... > installed operating system works perfectly, but when select the other one, ... > Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration ... > Could not read from the selected boot disk. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Upgrading VMS on a system where hardware is newer than the system disk OS supports
    ... a test run due to lack of hardware. ... Image backup the DS10 disks to tape, then restore on the DS15 disks ... V7.2-1 system disk. ... version not supported on the hardware being used for the upgrade, ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: w2k server crashing
    ... you know the hardware is good? ... The upgrade will keep any settings if everything is compatible. ... > keeps crashing after only a few minutes. ... the operating system without effecting ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.setup)
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