Anybody ever installed XP overs Windows ME? HELP ME COMPUTER FUGGERS!

Speeds8erM-1

Founding Member
Sep 6, 2000
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Pensacola Florida
I wanna install XP because Millenium Edition blows and I want windows movie maker 2. I know you can install it over your old Windows without having to save everything and thats what I wanna do because I dont wanna have to get 20 CDR's and burn everything with my slow 4x burner lol. I dont wanna have to redo all of my settings and bs either. Has anybody ever had problems doing it this way?

My computer is old but it still gets it done and yes I have more than enough for the basics to run XP.

Help me you computer bastages! :hail2:
 
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Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional
• PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended

• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

• 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*

• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor

• CD-ROM or DVD drive

• Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device



And here you go

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_9xupgrade.asp

Although I would usually do a clean install when coming from such an old operating system, I can understand the pain of redoing everything and losing old files, but in the end it would be a lot faster, cleaner, and simple to do a fresh install. up to you!
 
The rolling install process is supposed to pick up all your old settings, and installed software. Most of the time it does just that. Occasionally, it does go astray and mess up some installed application.

Some things to do before you start the conversion:
In addition to the excellent advice you have already received from Blakthorn, here are some other recommendations:
1.) Run Chkdsk or the disk checking application from under the properties menu for your C drive.
2.) Update the antivirus software and run it.
3.) Uninstall any old software you don’t want to keep. Use the Uninstall function on the Control panel , or the uninstall program in the same directory as the unwanted application.
4.) Delete any files you know are junk. Stay out of the Windows and Program Files directories.
5.) Download and run a registry cleaner (http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/?ref=mg_rm )
6.) Run Chkdsk again to be sure your activities haven’t stirred up a disk problem that has been hiding.

Getting good performance out of a PC with a slow (less than 1GHZ) processor means you need lots of memory. The last PC I converted to XP was a 450 MHZ AMD K6-2, and it needed 786 MB of memory to get the speed up to reasonable levels.
 
The upgrade (not the clean install) from ME to XP will lead to problems down the road. Been there, done that, for several customers who said the same thing you have. I ended up rebuilding their machines anyway later on.

Seriously--back up your data and build your PC the right way. :)
 
I have a 1.33 Athlon and 640mb DDR Ram, so hopefully Im okay there, should be, I dont do anything too wild on the computer, no gaming or anything complicated.

timeless2, can you explain how this causes problems? Im not THAT computer savy and am curious about how the hows and whys. I have had ME crash on it's own before but it took 3 years and I still recovered everything but I got VERY lucky on that deal. I DO NOT want this setup to crash soon or lose any of my stuff.

I was thinking about doing the XP upgrade for now and when I am more motivated and have a faster way to save all of my stuff, slicking it and starting all over? How long before you saw problems out of your customers setups?
 
well me was built on an old platform, nt and windows xp are on a new platform

microsoft spent years figuring out how to merge the two, and even though they made it possible it still is not 100% correct

so as of now, it is possible to overwrite the platform but there might be bugs and problems down the line

what if you borrowed an external hard drive from someone and moved everything you need on to it overnight while you sleep 1 night and then do a fresh install of xp and drag the stuff you saved back onto your computer?
 
Windows XP runs more app then windows ME, 64mb DDR, will be very slow for windows XP.
if you want to do a fresh install and avoid future problems like registry interupts and memory dump, windows ME has a shorter set of refistry keys, so when you upgrade to XP the programe will add new registry to your old set, however if your old set of keys are modified or updated they will cause system interupts , wich will need much more memory to solve, and if memory is low, your PC will crash, and needs to dump memory.

it is better to format your main drive and install a fresh copy, however, if you want to save data, without using extarnal media, this is a way to do it:

if your system has been partitioned before, backup your files in the partitioned area, if not use a software called (partition magic), to partition your hard drive into two drives, back up your data in the new partitioned part and format your main drive C: that has the windows files, and install a new copy of WinXP in the same drive c: then you'll have a new fresh copy of windows XP on your C:, and your old files in the partitioned area lets say drive Dl..

for better preformance from WinXP upgrade your RAM to 512, your CPU is an K7 AMD, they are very powerfull and can give reasnoble preformance for your everyday use as explained, but the main memory 64mb, is very slow for XP, a 128 is the lowest system requirments..

hope that was helpfull.....:nice:
 
Speeds8erM-1 said:
I was thinking about doing the XP upgrade for now and when I am more motivated and have a faster way to save all of my stuff, slicking it and starting all over? How long before you saw problems out of your customers setups?
The upgrade path from the house of cards (ME) is rather smoothe when passed through via the wizard. Most problems don't seem to crop up until drivers, software, or other registry entries are altered. Some resonance from ME still lingers and often crops up to cause issues and consistency errors when XP makes basic calls to device drivers, software, and memory blocks.

My advice, yet again, do a clean install.
 
Dream Weaver said:
if your system has been partitioned before, backup your files in the partitioned area, if not use a software called (partition magic), to partition your hard drive into two drives, back up your data in the new partitioned part and format your main drive C: that has the windows files, and install a new copy of WinXP in the same drive c: then you'll have a new fresh copy of windows XP on your C:, and your old files in the partitioned area lets say drive D.

Excellent advise, this is what I would recommend too.
 
Speeds8erM-1 said:
640mb, not 64mb lol. It hasnt been partitioned before, at least I dont think? I remember this coming up when it was being redone before. Hmmm. I dunno what to do.

sorry bout that dude, 640 is very good for your system, 1.33 GB AMD K7, with two cache levels will work well with 640 mb and a 32 bit OS, all you have to do is partition the drive..
i'v done it many times on man computers and worked just fine.... :nice:
 
ME is a garbage OS.. Its sort of like Microsoft building a staircase.. They had 98se, 2k(great OS), ME, XP, and now Vista.. Think of ME as being a missing board in that staircase.. Since ME Microsoft has been trying to climb back out of the whole they fell through when they created it.. It was a waste of an OS, they should have just jumped from 2k to XP since they were both used an NTFS FS.. I would personally just partition the drive, format the partition where your OS currently resides, and do a clean install of XP over that.. Just my .02 though..
 
red89stanggt said:
ME is a garbage OS.. Its sort of like Microsoft building a staircase.. They had 98se, 2k(great OS), ME, XP, and now Vista.. Think of ME as being a missing board in that staircase.. Since ME Microsoft has been trying to climb back out of the whole they fell through when they created it.. It was a waste of an OS, they should have just jumped from 2k to XP since they were both used an NTFS FS.. I would personally just partition the drive, format the partition where your OS currently resides, and do a clean install of XP over that.. Just my .02 though..

I know it sucks, I have had it for 5.5 years LOL Still waiting on my friend to bring me an XP disc and to figure out what Im gonna do.