Unable to upgrade Win-XP to Service Pack 3

[StarHalo]

a LAPTOP . . . .

Over the years, in the various houses I've lived in, there would always be a Computer Room (or at least a Computer Area), a place where you'd go to use the computer and where everything for it was stored. But once I got a laptop, all that wasn't necessary anymore - now instead of going to the computer, the computer comes to me. I can relax on the couch in the living room with the computer and the television on in the background; if I need someplace more quiet (like a study room, or a forest) I just move elsewhere. And no more worrying about camera capacity or how photos will come out - the device that I both store and view/edit photos on is with me as I'm taking the pictures (or at least back at the hotel.) It's a lifestyle change I highly recommend :thumbsup:

 

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond]

I haven't seen this question asked yet, but do you have enough disk space on the drives for the Windows to download the installer and extract it and do the install. Can you confirm you have at least 1-2GB free on the C: drive?

Also - if you were to consider an upgrade to a newer version of Windows I would go to Windows 8. We have done some testing at work and found Windows 8 to run faster and smoother on older systems with limited amounts of CPU and RAM.

As mentioned before - CPU speed has nothing to do with performance. Multi-core CPUs, more L3 cache and faster system buses make the newer chipsets light years faster than machines that are 5-7 years old. Also, newer chipsets can run 64-bit versions of the OS which really gives a performance boost across the board and access to more RAM.

 

[will]

I use both a laptop and a desk PC. I keep both with the same applications and data. Keep in mind the limitations of a laptop, single internal disk, smaller screen, smaller speakers and so on. I use the laptop about 90% of the time. You can work around a lot of limitations with USB devices. I don't do any gaming, I can not comment on those restrictions.

 

[Burgess]

to ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond --


Yes, i have PLENTY of room on both of my Hard Drives.

 

[blasterman]

We have done some testing at work and found Windows 8 to run faster and smoother on older systems with limited amounts of CPU and RAM.

Fewer 'do nothing' loops in the code I guess . Is this perception of speed based on actual application benchmarks, or just because there was better driver support in Win 8 -vs- Win 7? Backwards compatibility with Vista and Win 7, especially on older 32-bit hardware was never the greatest to begin with. Given it's orientation as a portable OS platform Win 8 is likely to seem quicker with slower hardware, but most of those difference are perceptual based on GUI tweaks. Not sure why anybody would want to load Vista / Win 7 / Win-8 on a 3.2ghz P4 anyways. The OS comes practically free with a new computer.

I spent the day building a Win 7 image for a company to deploy, and I swear Win 7 dumped on new HP laptops ran about the same speed as Win 95 on then current gen hardware over 10 years ago. Nothing really changes except how fast you can play multimedia. My Core i7 desktop on the other hand gets work done in about 1/4 the time as the best laptops I work with, and unlike the laptops the mainboard won't self destruct 3 months after the warranty expires.

 

[Obsessed]

I swear Win 7 dumped on new HP laptops ran about the same speed as Win 95 on then current gen hardware over 10 years ago.

That's because HP feels the need to include about ~40GB of bloatware and so many background processes and apps that in my mind do nothing but slow the PC down. I buy Sony, as Sony gives the opportunity to do clean installs with their recovery media, less the bloatware and "handy extras" companies feel the need to "give" you. :shakehead

And I'd put my Vaio Laptop up against nearly any desktop sitting a few aisles over. I have an i7, I have SSD, I have 8GB RAM, I have a mobile GTX chipset that has over 100 CUDA cores. Oh, and I triple boot OSes just because it's easier to do some things with certain OSes. But that's just me.

 

[ganymede]

+1 on the fresh install.

Reinstalling all the programs is the easy part, the hard part is to make sure you have backup all the files (documents, downloaded files, photos, music, videos, game saves, browser bookmarks, etc) and restore them back to the correct directories after the fresh install.

When I upgrade to XP SP3, I downloaded the ISO file from MS, burn it onto a DVD and install from there.

 

[Burgess]

+1 on the fresh install.

Reinstalling all the programs is the easy part . . . .

Agreed.

The HARD part is FINDING all my Installation Disks ! ! !

:sigh:

(read upthread for details)



That is why I'm considering simply Buying a New PC.


If i hafta' re-install all my programs anyway, might as well make the Big Jump !



_

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

tl;dr (well, only read the first page)

did you try running installer as administrator by right-clicking the exe?

I *would* do what everyone else says and just reinstall, but it's hard to go back in time and make a mental note to keep track of all your installs lol

Check out Belarc Advisor. At the very least, you might be able to get some of your license keys back using that.

We generally just tell people that if it's 4 or 5 years old, it needs a reinstall. If you do end up just reinstalling XP, you will be amazed at how fast it is! Until you bog it down with stuff to do again ;-)

If you are looking for more clues, take note of what time it was right when you got the error and see if there is more info in the system log.

 

[Burgess]

* * * Update to this Thread * * *


Received my Brand New PC a few days ago.

It's * wonderful * ! ! !


Dell XPS 8500 desktop

-- Intel i7 (model 3770) processor

-- 24 GB RAM

-- 128 GB Crucial mSATA SSD (which i'm using as HDD cache)

-- Nvidia GeForce 640 graphics card

-- Windows 7 Professional



Here's just an idea of the improvement over my 7.5 year-old previous Dell PC . . . .
( Running a full-system benchmark test -- PassMark rating )


OLD -- 150


NEW -- 3,250




Thank you to everyone who helped me in my Quest.

:wave:




Still trying to find my installation CD of Lotus SmartSuite for Windows 9.5.

:candle:
_

 

[Burgess]

Couple of questions, if i may . . . .


Seems like now I can "do something else"
while my computer copies a huge bunch of files from one drive to another.

In the past, i had to just SIT and WAIT, until the Copy process was finished.

Can i now safely do OTHER stuff ? ? ?


Perhaps a silly question, but i don't wanna' screw-up the Copy procedure.

 

[StarHalo]

Intel i7 (model 3770) processor

-- 24 GB RAM

-- 128 GB Crucial mSATA SSD (which i'm using as HDD cache)

-- Nvidia GeForce 640 graphics card

Gawd dayum, you realize that's enough hardware horsepower for hi-def movie editing, more than one movie at a time - if all you're using this for is bills and photos, that's a bit like using a semi to haul a push mower..

Can i now safely do OTHER stuff ? ? ?

"Other stuff" is putting it mildly, if all you're doing at the moment is moving files, then you currently have EIGHT processors in that PC case, and only one is mildly flexing to move those files..

 

[Burgess]

* EXCELLENT * ! ! !

:twothumbs




BTW . . . .

Do *BOTH* of my SATA hard drives get Cached here ? ? ?

Or, does it only cache my Boot Drive ?


( they are both 2TB in size )

 

[StarHalo]

No idea, don't have experience with using one drive to cache another. Given that they all use a better interface than your previous computer and are all essentially empty, you'll have no complaints about read/write speed for a looong time to come..

 

[Marmaduke]

Congratulations!! No worries about Service Pack 3 now!!

 

[PhotonWrangler]

24 GB of RAM! Nice, Burgess!

 

[PapaLumen]

24GB ram? 2x8gb+2x4gb?

Yep you can do "other stuff". Personally i would use the SSD to install windows and just have the other drives as storage.

 

[Burgess]

Yep!

24 is 8 + 8 + 4 + 4

 

[will]

Just as a matter of procedure - When I restore the system, that is the only thing I do. Too many problems over the years with data being corrupted and not knowing why. Anyhow, most restores can be done fairly quickly and the need to do something else can wait. - But - that is just me....

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

To set your paging file location and size, right-click Computer (formerly My Computer), select Properties, and in the window that opens, choose Advanced System Settings on the left pane. Under the Advanced tab of the settings window that just opened, click the performance "Settings..." button. Under the advanced tab in this new window that opens, you can click the Change... button to see and change where your paging file is.

If you are talking about the Previous Versions function that uses the built in shadow copy service, it is included in all W7 flavors IIRC. I don't know if it is enabled by default. You can try right-clicking a random, unimportant, at least one day old file on a drive and see if you can restore to a previous version.

Congrats on your new computer, it should serve you well for more years to come!

Installing an old version of Lotus might be kinda complicated, but you might want to look into running a virtual XP machine on your new computer, if running that particular version of Lotus is crucial to what you do. You can use your old XP product key, or you can look up info about using "XP Mode." Basically like a slimmed down XP virtual machine that you get with w7.