Windows ME to XP questions

I have a PIII 800MHz computer with Windows ME on it. It is starting to
various strange things so I'm debating whether to re-install ME or upgrade
to XP. (I have scanned for viruses etc and that is not the problem.)

The computer has a 20 gig HD (C drive) and I have a 100 gig D drive.
The C drive is nearly full (about 1 gig left) but I should regain some
space when all the kid games disappear after windows (re-) install.

Is there any way to install XP onto the D drive and make it my boot
drive? I have lots of space on it.

Any other things to watch out for or consider? Or do you have links to
a web page FAQ for these sorts of questions?

Thanks - Greg

you can change the jumper on the D drive to make it the master.. that will allow it to boot and make it the C: drive. Make sure you make the other drive the slave..this will now become your D drive. When you go to install XP make sure you don't format your drive.

each IDE cable can hold two items... One is the master the other the slave. I'm assuming your drives are on one cable.
A CDROM is typically a slave unless it is the only item on the cable.

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/if/ide/confJumpering.html

If at all possible I would let XP format the drive.
XP installed as an upgrade and XP installed fresh are not the same beast.
The fresh install XP is much more hearty/reliable.

this would be a fresh install because his D:\ ( now c:\ after he changes the jumpers ) didn't have an OS on it... I didn't want him to format it because he prob has data on it

I have helped two family members do just what you are doing. I upgraded their OS's to XP from ME or 98 on older computers.

In both cases XP was a complete dog until I increased their RAM. I assume, given the other specs, that you have 64MB of RAM. I would recommend at a minimum going to 128 and that is still going to be slow. I think a reasonable minimum amount of RAM for XP is 192MB or 256MB to get decent performance.

Thanks for the info (so far). I have 320 meg of RAM in it and could upgrade to 512
maximum if I had to.

Greg

I like the idea of changing the jumpers so the 100G drive becomes C.

Will XP overwrite any data on this drive when it installs? Mostly I have ripped CDs
on it (the wav and mp3 files).

Will it boot after the jumper change or will it boot from the XP install CD somehow?

Thanks - Greg

The XP install won't overwrite anything on the disk. It will create three folders and put most things in there. Windows, Program Files, and Documents and Settings. It also puts a few hidden files on the root of the disk.

The computer should boot from the master hard drive after installation. You might have to remove the CD before booting.

The "upgrade" they tell you to avoid is when XP setup inspects your disks and sees the old ME install. It will probably ask if you want to upgrade it. Say no. This "upgrade" tries to port your setting and programs to XP and usually causes problems.

Most every install I do seems to go slightly differently. If XP doesn't give you any option except to upgrade, you can always unplug the 20GB drive before you install. You can plug it back in any time afterwards.

I guess the part I don't understand is how the computer boots up after you
change the C and D drive "positions" (but before the XP install on the new C drive).

Thanks - Greg

XP is perfectly happy to install on the D: drive. If you do this, it will still write the bootloader to C: and you'll get a menu asking you to pick which OS to boot to each time you startup the computer. Obviously this setup won't boot XP if either drive is removed in the future.

If you change the jumpering so D: becomes C:, you won't be able to boot ME again until you change it back.

I guess I misunderstood your question. It won't boot from the 100 GB drive until XP is installed.

To install, you boot from the XP install CD.

The reason I suggest making the 100GB the master disk is for future upgrades and reliability. Any hard drive will fail eventually and I figured the 100GB is newer than the 20GB. Also in the future it would be easier to remove the 20GB and replace it with something bigger and newer if it wasn't the "boot" drive.

I'm thinking that even if the 100 is made the boot drive, that XP setup might find the old OS on the other disk and include it in a "dual boot" setup. I really don't know. Maybe not.

In the future when you add a new drive, you might consider breaking it up into a few partitions. It gives you more flexibility if you want to add a new OS or reinstall the old one.

BTW, if you want to be able to see the 100GB disk from within ME later it has to be formatted FAT32 (as it currently is). Just tell XP to install on D: and don't delete the partition/create another one. You see, XP is unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB because Microsoft wants you to use NTFS. It is a good idea to keep ME around because it would be a backup system in case something went horribly wrong in XP.

You can probably install XP from right inside ME; that would be easiest.

greg_in_canada said:

I guess the part I don't understand is how the computer boots up after you
change the C and D drive "positions" (but before the XP install on the new C drive).

Thanks - Greg

Click to expand...

You're right.
It won't.

You will need to have the Windows XP installation CD (which is bootable) in your CD drive and you'll have to have your bios setup to boot from your CD-Rom (and your CD drive needs to be bootable).

It's starting to become clear. Thanks a lot gents.

Greg

Check your virtual memory settings.

Darnit, came in on an earlier post....bedtime i guess....

bfg9000 said:

It is a good idea to keep ME around because it would be a backup system in case something went horribly wrong in XP..

Click to expand...

Well there's lots of ways of getting a backup system. You could also install another XP on the same machine and activate it with the same key.

Personally I think using NTFS instead of FAT helps to keep things from going wrong.

One more question: is there anything in XP Pro to make it worth the extra $$ for
a home user?

Thanks - Greg