Insufficient Computer

I am about to put XP on a 96ram Pent 2 HP at the owner's insistence. Oh, btw, the comp won't even boot now. Think it was a Win 98. The owner wanted me to recover whatever data possible from the hd (this comp has not been used for about a year) The first thing I did was open it up and blow out all the dust. I will let y'all know how this goes!

Johanna
I think this comp will stagger under the weight of XP- anybody agree?

 

Hey Johanna...

At work were playing with WinXP SP1 on a P166 with 64 MB RAM. Using it for Process machine so we can RDP into it. Slow as bloody molasses but it works.

Also running (testing) WinXP SP1 on a P333 Celeron with 64 MB RAM...slow but very usable...going to upgrade to 128 MB which should help.

I personally wouldn't run XP on anything less than a P500 with 256 MB RAM but that's just me.

RAM is cheap bump it up...

 

I got it to boot, and saved all her data (to floppies, no burner) installing XP now. It's only a 9.66 gig hd, so I partitioned it 5 gigs for C. I agree, 256 RAM should be the minimum for XP. I run a whole G. This relic even has a zip drive! Top of the line, for it's time. I suggested she add more memory and I have an extra burner I would sell her cheap- but she doesn't want to spend any cash.

Johanna

 

I'm sure your gonna get a call in the very near future to add RAM...hehehehe

 

Johanna wrote:

• "This relic even has a zip drive! "

Now, now, Johanna, don't let your personal prejudices show!

I, too, have a Zip drive in my 100GB RAID 1, Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, CD-RW, DVD±RW configured system and, yes, I have a floppy drive, as well.

The technology might be slightly outdated, but Zip disks are still very handy for transporting files to the two offsite computers I'm responsible for.

Anyone wanna buy a couple dozen Zip disks?

 

Well... I have XP Pro on it, with NIS and NU, Installing the SP and updates from the hard drive, now. Could probably get a bath while that is going on. sssssllllllooooowwww

I think the ethernet card is bad, so I set it up on my backup dial up, and it did fine online except it's, umm, not exactly point and click... It's more like click on a page and go for a coffee. Limited memory and dial up are a slow combo.

This comp will be used by kids, so I set up two accounts- one for her (administrative) and one for the kids (limited) I think it will be primarily used for net, email and homework, so I'm putting Open Office on it, and the Google Toolbar in IE. Might take a week...

This thing has a really fancy keyboard, with all kinds of buttons I've not seen before. I type on a split keyboard, so it's hard enough adjusting to a flat one, but the extra keys have me wondering. I'll have to play with it before it leaves, because I'll bet she can't tell me what those buttons all do!

Well, better go check on it. At least I remembered to go offline before I started installing! My dial up account has a limit! I burnt her a cd from my hard drive of freebie program files and copied them to her D drive. I'll install the "hard ones" LOL One positive thing- all the HP OEM stuff is gone! Freed up a lot of room. As long as the kids don't start downloading too many songs or movies, they ought to be okay. But I really think she needs a cd burner. Floppies, like (sorry Jim) zip drives, are just not as efficient for back ups.

Johanna
who should be sleeping

 

Not meaning to Hijack this thread, But . . .

As someone who has 3 Zip drives I will say that what has finally proven there doom is these new USB keychain memory devices.

 

Hi Johanna.

I carry a couple of extra hdds of various sizes just to back up the data on those procedures. I usually just pop the case and plug it into the other IDE port and boot. Saves a lot of time in backing up the data. I just copy the whole hdd. Saves all the stuff in case they want the pictures, etc out of windows. Saves a lot of time too.

Sometimes on those old HP computers you'll find a small partition tagged as the H: drive or some high letter. HP loves to do that. I usually fdisk and get rid of it before formatting and proceeding. Gains some room that way too. Also, sometimes it's necessary to do a low level to realign the heads with the tracks. Makes the disk work like new. The head will move slightly off track with wear and cause bad sectors. That gets them mostly all back.

That keyboard may have originally had a set of drivers to catch all those keys and generate key strings for windows. If so it's probably there somewhere.

It's amazing to me that XP will work on those old computers. MS must have built in chipset drivers for mobos way back.

I'm with Profgag101. I've been using the USB "cigars" for awhile now. Extremely convenient. I relagated to the closet my Syquest SyJet 1.5Gig with 4 cartridges long ago.

Giles