XP on an old machine...how well will it work?

how well will XP Home function on a computer w/ the following specs:

500Mhz AMD processor
274MB RAM
80GB HDD
Windows 98SE

i know that windows xp has very low system requirements, but i just want to know for sure that it will run smoothly before installing it

 

Your only problem is Windows 98SE, if your planning on a dual boot system with both 98SE and XP then you will have to add XP to the system formatted for fat32 or the 98SE partition will not see it (ntfs didn't exist when 98se was made). It will run ok, no slower than 98SE anyway, I would try and boost that ram a bit though.

 

i'm going to upgrade windows 98SE to xp home. all the visual effects will be turned off, and the theme will be windows classic.

 

I have upgraded Win98SE to home and let me tell you I only used it for a month and then formatted and reinstalled from scratch, what a difference! Avoid the update route if at all possible, the system you end up with will be slowed to a crawl. XP tries to change drivers and stuff like that but its ineffective, a fresh install is the only way to go.

A few thing to know:
1. Even an Update Version of XP will install as a new installation on a blank hard drive, all you have to do is put your 98se disk in the drive when asked, and enter its serial and XP will continue its NEW install after verifying the disk.

2. if you go the fresh install route you will have to be careful about saving files you need for the transfer. The first time I did this I forgot to save my email files and some of my documents stuff.

3. One way to do it if the space is available on the 80gig drive would be to create a new partition in fat32 and install XP by itself (dual boot) then take your time collecting files from the 98se side to the XP side and when your satisfied delete the 98se partition and change the XP partition to C and also convert it to ntfs. Its not as easy as it sounds, because the system would be a dual boot, removing 98se is not a snap, it requires some registry editing as well as some partition editing.

4. Your easiest and best bet is to buy a new hard drive for the system, they're really getting affordable right now. then remove your old drive and install XP on the new one (ntfs and master) afterword you can add back the old drive as a slave (middle ide ribbon connector) to canniblize what files you want over time, and when your sure you have everything format it out in ntfs for extra storage space. The XP side will see and be able to copy files from the fat32 side but not the other way around.

 

i think i'll go with the dual boot, and then delete win98 entirely. what kind of registry settings have to be changed in order to completely remove win98? is it really complicated? i already know how to remove the choice of OS at startup, and how to edit, delete, and create partitions...

 

Re: XP on an old machine

I tried to install window xp media on my pc and it loads for a few min,s and then restarts and dose the same thing over & over again i tried new hard drives and changed chips and it still dont work i cant figur it out. what eles can i do to make it work?

 

start your own thread, please

 

Win FLP would probably work better for older pcs, although i'm sure it'll work just fine on yours. I installed XP on an old celeron (400mhz) with only 192MB of ram and it worked ok for a while. Also, if you are planning on using fat32 you can copy smrtdrv.exe to your disk you are installing XP to and the install will go faster.

 

As said above the only problem I can see is windows 98SE, I'd do a new clean install of XP. I ran XP on a machine with 300 mhz,128 ram and onboard sound/graphics.
it ran like a pro even on a machine that slow and old.

 

Removing the choice of OS is the registry part. The rest gets tricky because your going to delete your C partition in favor of D and that can create some problems. You'll have to use something like Partition Magic to do it or one of the other partition managers. I don't have much experience with this because I prefer formating myself but I would guess you could run the XP partition and from within disk management make it primary, change win98 C to drive letter E and XP to C then format the win98 E partition. I would get some experienced advise though, I don't want to mess you up.

 

I still have an AMD 500 running XP. I hardly use it these days, but I connected it up last week to look for some old music files on there, and it works fine. It's a bit slower than the Intel P4 I'm using now, but not intolerable. I did install it on one with a much slower processor and I almost grew a beard waiting for it to do anything.