XP pro install?

hi, looking for some advice please. I have a wireless home network that is working fine. laptop has xp home and pc has ME. I am considering Xp pro for the pc.
should i install to the d drive which is empty and keep Me on C drive? Do i need partition software? if i keep ME (came preinstalled so i do not have a cd) would xp pro automatically read my linksys software that is on the C drive? Am I foolish for considering this in your opinions? Thanks in advance

 

Hi.


No problems at all with ME/XP Pro dual boot system. You will get an option during XP Pro setup to install a partition to an existing drive, so you do not require extra software.

NOTE - During the setup screen, select "New Installation", then "Advanced Option" and "Select installation drive/folder" otherwise it will install over the top of ME.

Anything you have on ME will still run happily. Anything you install on XP will be accesible to ME (If you install XP as FAT32 not NTFS - software will allow this, but long story and not worth the hassle). BUT software you have previously installed on ME will only be accesible as a file from XP, and is unlikely to run correctly. This is because ME will have registry entries for the DLL's and other files, whereas XP will not. You may need to re-install your software you wish to use onto the D: from within XP Pro. You will also find that XP Pro has a better network system than ME, and will be better set up itself to talk to the XP Home puter. To do this, simply put the XP CD into the drive, and select "Perform Additional Tasks" and then "Set up a home network" and it does the rest for you. You can also use the XP Pro CD to set-up the home networking in ME too!

I used to have 98SE/XP Pro dual system, then a ME/XP Pro dual boot, and they both worked fine.

Now I have to admit I only use XP Pro on both my PC's simply because I seem to have had somewhere between 0 and none problems with XP Pro (That have not been caused by my tweaking anyway )

Some others in here may have other opinions, but I say Go for it.

 

Oh, forgot to say.

1/ Welcome to MajorGeeks

2/ Any more questions, please ask.

Also, to run XP Pro properly, you need at least 256Mb RAM (512 is better) as XP can be a memory hog (ME runs fine on 128Mb). You may already know this from your laptop, but better to say now than apologise for not saying it later

Plus, just re-read your original post. If using another Hard Drive as D: then XP will also offer the format of the drive if it is required. XP is sooooooooo user friendly.

 

thanks for the great input; i appreciate it.
Would i better off allowing xp pro to install and partition c drive(i have the space)
would that allow for better installed program compatability or I assume those programs like office 2k (that i care about)are still are linked to ME? if so is that a primary reason that people keep 2 OS. the pc has 384ram enough to be efficient?

 

Honest answer.

If you want to use Windows XP Pro with all your present software that you have installed, then simply allow XP Pro to upgrade your Windows ME to XP Pro.

Pretty much all software that you have installed on C: and running under Windows ME will be unavailable to you in XP Pro (That includes M$ Office) If and when you install Windows XP Pro on to a NEW partition or hard drive, you will start with the equivalent of a blank page. You would need to install M$ Office and all other software again from within XP, but all your files you have saved on C: will be accesible from D: (Windows XP will simply list the files in Explorer and you can easily browse to their location and open them from XP)

God, I am confusing myself here!

The easy way to think about it is like two networked PC's. You have two seperate systems that run independantly of each other, but whilst you cannot run a program contained on the other system, you are able to access the information on the other system. Dual booting is the same.

Hope this makes sense to you! I am going to take some painkillers Headache.

LOL

 

Oh yeah, and it makes no difference where you install the XP Pro directory. I would suggest (For ease) that you install XP Pro to your second Hard Drive.

 

thanks sarge i understand what you're saying