Win ME to XP ...the Plan

Hi all, new member but old sandbagger of Major Geeks. I am planning to swap out my Win ME OS to Win XP and was hoping to run my plan past anyone who cares to have a look and offer some pointers or constructive criticism. I was desperately holding off on this upgrade waiting for Win Vista release and purchasing an entire new PC system but time has run out, thus the switch. First of all, I have read approx. 60 + pages of FAQ’s / Forum advice ( my eyeballs are bleeding…. ) and incorporated found advice into my plan.First of all my system, purchased new in 2001:

Touch Systems Athlon 1.1 GHz
384 MB 133 MHz Memory
56K V.90 Fax Modem
40.0 GB 7200 RPM HDD ……… 21.5 GB available before re-format
1.44 MB Floppy
GeForce2 MX TV Out
32MB AGP Video Card
ATX Mid Tower Case
8x4x32 Rewritable CD-ROM
16X DVD-ROM drive
Creative Labs Sound PCI
MS Windows ME

I have installed Western Digital 80 GB External Hard Drive and transferred all our data over to it. I also transferred some programs but have read where they may not work so will delete them and reload from my CD’s after the switch. I accessed my BIOS and reset my first boot drive to CD-ROM drive as per instructions. I have newly purchased copy of Win XP Upgrade version, which I am told is the full install IF I do a clean install over a reformatted “C” hard drive. The Upgrade version will ask for my old copy of Win ME to confirm I am a previous Microsoft customer during the install. I am still fuzzy as to what exactly happens when I click “OK” to reformat my “C” drive, is the XP disc already in the CD-ROM drive so the puter has an OS ? I believe I have the correct CD on hand, it has the following printed on the front :
Synergio Manufacturing Ltd.
Recovery CD-ROM
W.ME EDITION
Support for these products is provided by Synergio. Release 1.00 E
The software included on this recovery CD-ROM was pre-installed on your hard drive at the factory and may only be used for backup and recovery of your Synergio Computer System.
For Distribution Only With A New PC.Product Copyright Microsoft Corp. 1981 – 2000

After the “FLAWLESS” switch over to XP ( a guy can dream can’t he ?? ) I plan to run a backup program such as Karen’s Replicator to backup on a regular basis to my external hard drive ( “F” drive” ) as well as reload my AVG, Lavasoft and Spybot programs. I recently added high speed internet access ( after living with 26.4 dial up since Win 95 years…yeah, I’m a BIT excited ! ) which is just one of the reasons for the upgrade. Now that I am behind a D-Link Wireless router I am told I no longer require a Firewall, is this correct ? As an aside, we do not download music or pictures so do not need large hard drives.
Thanks for any and all advice, we appreciate it greatly as a trip to town to see the Tech.’s is a 110 mile round trip for us. We live so far back in the bush they have to pump sunshine out to us.

 

or not........

 

If it's a recovery disk then you will have problems I think. I would also advise sticking a bit more RAM in the machine if you are running XP.

 

If you've got the funds, get a new PC. Right now you've got a working unit, that has been well cared for. Why mess with it when it could act as an "old faithful" backup computer. Besides, you'll want to play around with networking/folder sharing etc. When your WinXP goes snaky, you'll be glad you've got "old faithful" to log onto MajorGeeks to get you going again.

 

Well quite frankly I think the plan is fine and should work very well. Besides, after spending the money to get a valid copy of XP, I don't think you would have enough money saved up for a new computer anyways.

I'm running XP on a Pentium 2 with 256 mb of ram and it works perfectly....

 

Thanks all for your input. The "Plan" went off without a hitch !! Am VERY pleased. Uhhmmm... $169 Candahoovian dollars for Win XP is hardly going to make a dent in purchasing my next puter system. I am hoping THIS will become my "old faithful" running XP when I purchase my new system...ME has just run it's course...hardly anything will run on it anymore. I tried to add more RAM but have trouble finding 133 MHz sticks here. DHL and Purolator don't even FLY over us....we're so far back in the bush. So far the install has worked flawlessly...knock on wood. Thanks again to all who helped. Major Geeks rocks !