Change all to XP?

[imported_joetech]

My wifes computer , a Dell 333Mz with a 3 gig HD and 64 Meg and W98 is getting a little old. But she bought it for only $25 with the monitor so it hasn't been a bad investment. She teaches pre-school and uses thing s like Photoshop Elements and Printmaster a lot so the small 3 gig Hd gets full. We have a wireless network to share the DSL and printer.
I got a 80 gig HD on sale for $40.00 at OfficeMax and took 128 meg from my old computer and upgraded her to 192meg.
Would it be better to install the 80gig as a C: drive with XP pro and slave off the old 3gig?
I'm pretty sure I can leave the 3gig intact with programs and files etc and just make it D: or a file? I could copy out the files, reinstall all of the software on the new drive etc and just forget the 3 gig but thats a lot of work and time I don't really have.
Any options or experience out there?

 

[Sunbird]

Well, first make sure the motherboard can see the 80gig HD.

Then go find a OEM copy of ghost (if you don't have it already). Ghost the 3gig (with win98) to the 80 gig.

Then run Win XP upgrade option on that. This is all assuming you're using Win XP Professional.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Sunbird
Well, first make sure the motherboard can see the 80gig HD.

Then go find a OEM copy of ghost (if you don't have it already). Ghost the 3gig (with win98) to the 80 gig.

Then run Win XP upgrade option on that. This is all assuming you're using Win XP Professional.

A lot of that seems unnecessary.

I would remove the 3 GB HD and install the 80 GB drive. Run a clean install of XP on the 80 GB drive, then install the 3 GB drive as a slave.

XP Home will work perfectly for this. There is no need to invest the extra money in professional, unless you need some of its extra features (which most home users do not).

 

[MrChad]

Also, you may want to bump up that RAM to at least 256 MB, as XP can be pretty unbearable with anything less. Disable some of the visualizations and see what you think before you invest in the upgrade though.

 

[Sunbird]

MR Chad, it was just a suggestion. He doesn't need to use it, and we don't know what version of XP he has/is gonna get.

And it saves him time, since the PC would be setup how his wife is used to it.

Anyway, I don't have to defend myself futher, he asked for advice, I gave it, as quick as I could, and he reads it and either doesn't use it or does. I don't go dishing your advice, so leave mine alone.

And another anyway, no one else gave advice for hours, who is in the bad here?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: Sunbird
Well, first make sure the motherboard can see the 80gig HD.

Then go find a OEM copy of ghost (if you don't have it already). Ghost the 3gig (with win98) to the 80 gig.

Then run Win XP upgrade option on that. This is all assuming you're using Win XP Professional.

A lot of that seems unnecessary.

I would remove the 3 GB HD and install the 80 GB drive. Run a clean install of XP on the 80 GB drive, then install the 3 GB drive as a slave.

XP Home will work perfectly for this. There is no need to invest the extra money in professional, unless you need some of its extra features (which most home users do not).

Then, the 3G drive will become the D drive and many of the programs on it will not run anymore since the dlls are expected to be on C, which now contains the new XP.
This will work only if he wants to re-install all the programs that are now installed on the 3G drive.

 

[LTC8K6]

You could also install the 80gig as a slave, use the drive utility's drive copy function to copy the 3 gig over to the 80gig, set the 3 gig aside somewhere, set the 80 gig as the primary master, and upgrade the 80gig to XP Home.

 

[OffTopic1]

333mhz is going to be dog slow for XP. Could install some light weight Linux distro or NT4/Win2k and turn it into a print server, and spend $200~300 on a better computer.

This message is writen on a computer that is less than $300 (Semperon 2400+, 512 meg ram, 80 GB hdd, Asrock K7S41GX mobo, elcheapo case/ps, 12X DVD burner).

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Sunbird
MR Chad, it was just a suggestion. He doesn't need to use it, and we don't know what version of XP he has/is gonna get.

And it saves him time, since the PC would be setup how his wife is used to it.

Anyway, I don't have to defend myself futher, he asked for advice, I gave it, as quick as I could, and he reads it and either doesn't use it or does. I don't go dishing your advice, so leave mine alone.

And another anyway, no one else gave advice for hours, who is in the bad here?

My apologies. Upon re-reading the post, it looks like he wanted to preserve his existing programs and settings. Your advice is correct, although it doesn't require XP Professional.