how do I reformat my hardrive and reinstall windows?

fredde

New Member
Hi!

I have a computer that is about 6 years old now and I'm using Windows 98. My problem is that the computer is really slow and I would like to update my system, so a friend told me that one thing that is possible to do is to reformat my hardrive and then buy a copy of Windows XP and install that. So I can get a good firewall and anti-virus programs...

If I reformat my hardrive, is it possible to install windows XP right afterwards?

Thanks,

/Fred
 
Last edited:

[tab]

[...]
Yep... in fact you can format you HDD as part of your WinXP installation. Make sure you backup any files you want first.
 

akagore

New Member
i agree with geranimo.......if it's that old i'd go with ME....my pc is 5 yrs. old(athlon XP 500..ax59 pro motherboard...no frills video card) XP may be a curse instead of a blessing. I run ME at home and XP at work...ME works fine for me for what I do at home. Good Luck!!
 

Underground_Evo

New Member
well, there are a few things that you need to make sure that you have in order to run XP, could you please list your PC's specs?
 

fredde

New Member
Okay, is it Windows ME I should take a look on then?

My computer is a Pentium 2 processor and 128 MB RAM.

I'm not a 'computer person', if you know what I mean, so I would really need some help with this...

Thanks

/Fred
 
Last edited:

blacktop89

New Member
haha, i'm not sure how much you know about computers, but if you know how to get into your BIOS, you can set the computer to boot from the cd-drive. once you do this you can put the win ME disc in and it will direct you in the steps to re-format the drive and install the OS. i've never installed win ME before, but that should work!
 

Alin.s

New Member
if u got windows me disk insert it and it will say format hit yes same for conferm it will do the rest sorry bout my spelling but i am typin fast and make typos when i type fast
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
i agree with geranimo.......if it's that old i'd go with ME....my pc is 5 yrs. old(athlon XP 500..ax59 pro motherboard...no frills video card)
Whoa! WindowsME was argueably the worst OS release by Microsoft. Even for an older system WindowsXP -- properly tuned and tweaked will run smoothly. I'd stay away from Windows2000 -- that OS takes a lot more juice to run effectively but a well tweaked XP system can work really well (hell I've redone a few computers spec'd at P2-400 w/32MB to use XP and after some intensive tweaking, they work respectably well considering their age).

:)
 

72montecarlo

New Member
i agree with praetor above. i have installed xp pro on a pentium 2 300mhz system that has 128mb of ram and a 3gb hard drive and it ran fine. it booted up quick and had no problems. i also suggest not using windows me.
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
If you absolutely have to, go with Windows2000 instead.... it may be slower but its much much more stable than WindowsMe :)
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
i think you can install Win 2k !
it is less glutton ( I don t know if say that is correct lol )
You are correct in saying that however, for W2K to work efficiently, it needs a more powerful hardware platform and for a 6 year old computer, that would be pushing it. WXP -- tweaked up -- would be a better choice for older platforms.
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Windows98 is a better OS than WindowsME (especially Windows98SE).... WindowsME was really that bad heehee
 

roy

New Member
Xp pro uses 96mb of ram just for it to run. This means that your swop file is going to see a lot of use.

What exactly are you going to be useing your comp for? The reason I ask this, is because running an older system you may be better off with windows 98.
 
Top