Newb Windows ?
 

I'm trying to help my parents out by putting winxp on their machine. They are currently running 98 and have been having a lot of problems with getting dsl to work on it.

I'm wondering if I should just install xp over 98, if thats even possible, or uninstall 98 first, clean the drive, and then install xp to a fresh drive. I would like to do the later but don't know how to go about doing this. Is there a program that can zap the hard drive so I can install winxp on it? Also, is xp going to give me shit about needing a serial number to register with, or is it ok if my machine and their machine have the same serial on it?

You don't have to do a full install, but it is usually recommended. When you pop in the CD and start the install process, it will ask you if you would like to do a full install or an upgrade. The upgrade will do just that, upgrade your system while saving all the current data. The full install will take you through the precess of formatting the hard drive (erasing EVERYTHING) and then installing a fresh copy of WinXP. Either way, I would, like projkt4 said, format the drive into NTFS. WinXP allows for either, but NTFS has been proven to be more efficient, stable, and allows for enhanced file management features.

definitely clean format and upgrade.

i upgraded directly from win98 and i'm paying for it

some of the wizards of xp doesnt like to work w/ the old settings and i've had some prob's w/ it.

Hey thanks for the info. It's a PII 400mhz with 320mb of ram. I think I'm going to go for the re-format option instead of the upgrade. I think it will run xp good enough for them, as they are more into the thing being stable than fast and I just had them throw some more ram into it so I think it will be ok.

Quick question, to format do I just go into the command prompt and type format C: ? How does it know to format it for NTFS?

Thanks guys, your help has been great.

Okay, I don't know how this got missed, but NO you can't have the same copy of XP on two computers. The license is for ONE box, MS isn't going to let you activate on two.

Pop the XP disc in, and follow instructions, make choices, there you go.

yeah, unless it is windows xp pro, you wont be able to do it.

but to format, just type in "format c"

then run the setup for xp from dos.

if pc doesnt have boot up to cdrom, you'll have to use a dos boot disk to run it from dos. the setup file is in "D:\i386\winnt.exe"

and make sure that you have a program called "drvspace.exe" on the floppy disk when you run windows xp. xp installer needs this file to go fast.

as for NTFS conversion, winxp install can do this for you after you start it. (it'll ask you whether to convert or not)

Just to add confirmation, WinXP will run on a P2 400 with 256mb ram with minimal problems, both of my parents have this set up and they are about as happy as larks w/ their computers.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Just to update, I reformated the drive (left it as fat32). I then went into setup right when you start the computer and changed the setting to have it boot from the cd-rom drive. I did convert the drive to ntfs after windows asked if I wanted to change it.

Its running as good as it can I guess. I just put in the activation code that came with my computer, on their computer also and it hasn't given me any problems. Hopefully it won't somehow figure out that both of our machines are using the same code.

Windows XP will work with FAT (Fat 16) Fat 32 and ntfs......