Me to XP Pro query

Hi,

I've been having dire problems with Win Me and its registry. Each day it fails to recognize a piece of hardware or software. Now I've bought XP Pro and am about to move over and away from Me. I realize the best to go is to reformat and reinstall and have already backked up my entire hard disk to an external drive.

But... I need someone to hold my hand in this. Here are my questions:

1. How do I reformat the C drive (or any drive, for that matter)?

2. I need to flash my BIOS (it's quite old, I think from 2000). How and WHEN do I do that?

3. Once all of the above is done, do I just pop in the new OS CD and sit and cross my fingers or what?

I'd apppreciate some help.

Caren

 

BIOS update - now would be a good time. Check the vendor's web site and if there is an update, there should be detailed instructions for doing the 'flash'.

If your PC's BIOS will allow a setting in the boot order to try a CD first, set for that. Then with the XP CD in the drive, reboot and follow the directions. An option for format and then create a new partition will be fairly early in the process.

After that, start the install and follow the bouncing ball.

And an excellent decision to start from the beginning. Updates to ME are often a problem even with the ME system working properly. ME /w problems and upgrading would have been a disaster.

 

Read through this install XP tutorial

and to find your system specs fast use Aida32

Before you go offline, locate your new XP drivers for your hardware and burn them onto a cd. Also, disconnect everything you don't need ( printers, scanners, cameras etc) before you install XP, so that later, you can let XP "find" things, one at a time. These two things aren't necessary, but it's more convenient and easier to troubleshoot if you do run into a problem.

Post back and let us know how you are doing.

Johanna

 

Hey guys and gals, thanks for the quick replies. I still need to read the article Pete and Johanna posted but here are the replies to Christer and Newt:

My BIOS is ASUS CUV4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1006.

The computer was assembled by a computer store. It is doesn't have a brand name. It is PIII 800 (6 x 133) and has 768M of RAM installed.

It''s already messed up enough for it not to recognize its video card (so I see everything oversized and ragged on the monitor) and not be able to connect to the Internet. HOWEVER, since I've just bought an IBM ThinkPad (Win XP Pro) and have spent the last week installing my software onto it and transferring all my files to it, I basically have a working XP copy of my system (customizations and settings included) on the notebook. The idea is to format and fresh install the old PC so that I can then transfer all my settings and files to it from the notebook using a software like PC Relocator.

I'm saying this so that you know I've got every new driver I need on the notebook already. Even though I can't get them out of there because it has neither a CD-RW nor a floppy.

OK. It's still not clear to me when exactly I should update the BIOS? Before or after I reformat/fresh install?

Also, I'd like to partition my drive. Can XP do that for me? (I have Partition Magic 6.0, but I've never used it).

Caren

 

Pete,

I have't downloaded the new hardware drivers for the old PC yet. But I'm glad to read this: "If you haven't I would not worry unduly - the XP disk has a raft of drivers on board which will more than likely get you going"

I have a small problem. The old PC no longer recognizes USB hhardware and my only way to transfer the flash utility and BIOS updates on a floppy is to download it onto the notebook, copy it to a USB external drive and read the drive with the PC, which has a floppy. I guess now I'll have to flash the BIOS after format/fresh install.

Christer, I think a choochoo train would be better than Win Me Hell. For the past two years I've been having to reboot my PC three or four times a day... no kidding!


Caren

 

Christer,

Thanks. I'll do that at an Internet café near my house tomorrow. I'll post back if there are any problems.

Thank you everyone for the great tips.

Caren

 

Here I am again OK, I've flashed the BIOS successfully and am now ready to install Win XP, but... my pc, which has been losing bits andd pieces of its capabilities over the past few days, now no longer starts from CD. It does list the two CDRom drives in its initial screen, but it doesn't boot from the Win XP CD nor does it list it under My Computer.

What should I do?

Caren

 

The most common cause of the sort of random problems you are having is heat. Burned out fan or clogged filters or both.

Try shutting down and removing the covering from the case. Use canned air or something else that doesn't require touching the insides and clean things out. Then run with the cover off and a small fan blowing on the PC. Your problems may vanish and in that case, it was either dust/lint (now gone) or else you have a bad fan.

Note that on newer systems the fans are often controlled by thermostat and if the PC is cool (as it will be now) a perfectly good fan may not run.

 

Hi Newt,

I cleaned out the pc last week when I installed a network card and extra memory. Problem is that the pc has been misbehaving for the past three weeks, deteriorating a little every day. The registry is the main problem. This is why I decided to reformat/move on to Win XP from the dreaded Win Me.

Do you have any numbers up your sleeve for getting the pc to boot with CD support only? I know it's there, but donìt remember how to get to it. All I manage to do is end up in the screen where I get the normal/safe mode/whatever options.

BTW I can get to the CD Rom in DOS, but of course XP won't run in DOS mode.

 

Hi Pete,

That was it

Now I'm installing Win XP!!!!

 

OK guys, I'm in the Setup phase and have some questions.

First: partitions

I want to reformat the drive and divide it into three partitions: one for the system, one for the doccuments, and one for the swap file (is that a good choice?). The options I have on the screen are: install on C; Create a partition in unpartitioned space; delete selected (C) partition. Which do I go for? And what sizes (my HD is 30 GB)?

 

Thanks Pete. I'll follow your suggestion and pester others with other questions as they come up. Good night

 

HEEEEEEEEEEELP!

Half way through Win XP Pro install I got this message:

"The file chdsk.exe was not copied correctly.

The file Setup placed on your hard drive is not a validd Windows XP system image. If you are installing from CD, there may be a problem with the Windows XP CD "

What is this???

P.S. -- I existed and tried installing again but got the same message again and again with the file name changing each time: "comptui.dll ", "dmconfig.dll" etc.