Rebuilding an old computer for mother (need OS help)

So over the years I have acquired about 3 old computers one running 95 one running 98 and then my mother's running ME... So After my mothers HDD crashed I told her I could just throw in some of the other HDD's from the older computers and then run TinyXP on them so it doesn't take too much room. So far I threw in a 10GB and a 20 GB HDD (actually 12.2, 25.5 respectively) I have yet to turn it on because I'm unsure how to reformat the new drives and then install TinyXP (which is on my thumbdrive) will I have to put it on cd?

Please any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Maybe this will make my question more answerable...

How can I set up my usb drive so I can install TinyXP to a newly formatted computer?

 

Have you thought of installing a Linux flavour, the new Ubuntu is pretty good, (not a pitch, I use Fedora 64 myself).

It will make the most of the hardware and is easy to use, you can still run Win apps if needed.

It would be a pleasure after ME

I think your mother would like it, it just works

 

I'll second that - Ubuntu is a good, easy to install and use OS.

 

Cool thanks guys... I actually started looking at Linux last night and was thinking about it but I seem to have run into another problem with the computer every-time I turn it on it Beeps really loud over and over again and I can't figure out why it's doing it. Is it because I can't find a boot file? I mean nothing comes up on the screen it's just black.

 

i would agree, tho the newer versions of ubuntu might not run on a machine as old as yours

if you're running 98/me, you might be right at the minimum requirements, and it might prove to be frustrating.

I found this the other day, and it worked fine on an old HP with win ME on it
Puppy Linux

 

Check that the RAM etc are seated properly, it's worked for me before.

 

Sorry about not explaining it fully... Actually. I have not even formatted the HDD yet. I just threw them in the old tower and tried turning it on. I still havent even downloaded Linux onto my thumbdrive I've just been looking at things and asking around.. Would my beeping problem still be the RAM you think? Again when I turn it on the fans spin and it hums and can even feel the HDD's spin but the screen stays black and it just beeps over and over again.

 

Holy crap it booted up! sweet! So I found out that both of the drives run 98 unfortunately the 20Gb one doesn't fully load up windows correctly so that one is out of the question... but the 10 one still works! it loaded it just fine. Although I can't get into any of the boot menus... any ideas? also is there a way I can wipe and reformat the Drive via MDOS? I'm no good at command so can anyone help me out here?

 

Alright so I got windows XP to actually start up and return everything to it's factory settings and am trying to install ubuntu on it. Unfortunately everytime I boot up the PC it doesn't load from the CD Drive first or something cause it just shows a black screen with a flashing white marker as if code should pop up but it then just jumps ahead to the XP logo and doesn't even give an option for BIOS... Any ideas on what to do next?

 

To get into the bios you need to continually tap a key during the boot just after you hit the power button, it varies from machine to machine but normally it is "F1" or "F8" (mine is the Delete key but i have a different motherboard.)

 

Sweet! Thank you so much Bill! Turned out I needed to hold the F1 key and then I just changed around the booting order and it worked now running Ubuntu perfectly! Thanks again!

 

Your welcome, glad you got it sorted.