Converting from 98SE

I am considering converting from 98SE to XP. I have run some searches but haven't yet found some good "how to" info.

I know almost nothing about XP and I have grown really weary of the 98SE issues and I would very much appreciate any suggestions, help and/or links to point me in the right direction to make this transition.

I assume (never a good thing to do) that I would be better off backing up everything I want to save then reformatting my hard drive and installing XP from scratch then copying my saved folders and files into a fresh install of XP.

I have a really slow dial up connection (24K usually or if I am lucky 26.4K) so if I can obtain the "updates to date" on a CD somewhere (MS?) that would really be helpful.

I have a 933MHz Pentium III and 512MB of 133 ram and a 30 GB hard drive (currently at 20% used), 2 CD drives (one is a burner), a 1.44 diskette and 2 USB ports (plus the usual parallel and serial ports) so I "think" I have enough hardware to upgrade.

One other very key question (among many) is which version of XP should I go to? This is a one user home PC but I prefer not to go the cheapest route. Cheap is still cheap in my POV. I am a retired "big IBM system" IT pro so computers are not a mystery to me. I want something "as reliable as possible" knowing full well there really isn't such a thing.

Any help will be very much appreciated!!

Doug

 

It does sound like your hardware will do the job. You will be happier with double that amount of memory if the mboard will support it. I run an older system (only a smidge faster processor than yours) and with a Gb of memory, the performance is fine and better than a faster processor at work with 512Mb.

Generally, clean 98 systems have done well with an upgrade but if you have any problems at all, scrub and load to a clean drive is the way to go.

If you like to get under the hood, you will probably be happier with XP-pro. They tried to make that difficult or impossible in the home version to keep users from shooting themselves in the foot but in my opinion they want a little too far.

With either OS version, I'd also suggest you run NTFS as your file storage system rather than FAT32. If you do a clean install you can select that when you format. Otherwise, open a cmd prompt and there is a 'convert' command that does a nice job of changing over from FAT to NTFS.

 

XP Pro.

Boot to the XP CD and upgrade existing. Does a nice job.

As long as you are not upgrading to fix problems.

What are the issuses with 98SE ? The only issuses that I have are nothing to do with SE. It is the fact that newer software and hardware is being designed for XP. I have two SE machines and they do everything this XP pro does. A bit slower but that is hardware related not the OS.

BillyBob

 

Thanks, Guys!!

I was on a friend's XP Pro system this last weekend and it seemed to function very well.

98SE is never going to get any better as support has been discontinued. I seem to have disk problems of late that aren't really the drive. I have run a complete ScanDisk twice in the last 7 days (it takes about 8 hours) and it has come up with no problems.

I have used IE 6 for about 4+ years but every so often it gets scrambled. I have Norton Systemworks 2005, ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware and Spybot and keep them all up to date but something is still corrupting it.

This web site really did me in last night: www.genius-kye.com/ and this is not really a new problem.

I am really tired of reloading SE and then spending hours and hours and hours downloading the updates on my snail paced dial up connection. My power company is slowing going to Broadband Over Powerlines (BOP) but is it likely to be years before they get to my remote part of VA. Nothing else is available in my area.

I would like to get a new OS with the most recent updates on a CD and hope that the BOP gets to my area in a year or three.

Doug

 

You can at least get SP2 on CD. Unless you buy an XP install CD with SP2 on it already, I think you will do yourself a favor to slipstream a CD with XP & SP2 for doing the upgrade.

Not sure what to suggest about getting the post-SP2 updates you will need. There may be a roll-up CD available somewhere and if so, I'm betting that one of the other posters on here will know where you can get it.

 

In reading more about your system I now retract my suggestion of an overtop upgrade.

The loss of support is another factor that drove me to XP.

The Disk problems I have no idea about. But it sure reads like something other than 98SE.

I really do not understand that either. I have reloaded ( overtop repair ) only once on one machine since SE came out.

The Dial-up connection and updates part I do understand.

This HD that I am on right now started out on a 40gig HD with Win95. Then to 98FE then 98SE. Then copied to this 80gig HD and then upgraded to XP Pro. I have not formated a HD since the days of 95B ( OSR2).

BillyBob

 

I said before that I had only reloaded SE once. That is not correct.

I also reloaded it again when I put the 80gig HD into this new machine. I did not boot to the 80gig the first time.

BillyBob

 

Did you have the same problems before Norton 2005 ?

Do you have ANY PART of it set on auto ? I hear that it may fight with Windows. And I also hear and read the 2005 is designed much more for XP.

I have not used any Symantec products for a long time. And When I did they behaved nicely on one machine but trouble for the other.

I could be wrong but, I really and honestly believe you are blaming 98SE for what it is not to blame for.

BillyBob

 

Yes, I did have problems before but I had the 2004 version of SystemsWorks at that time. I think some of the problem was with GoBack and I removed it. No other part was on auto. Things have been better since but then that web site I posted above caused the software to lock up and caused more disk write errors once I rebooted. I ran another full ScanDisk in protected mode and still no errors show up. It just takes so long (8 hours) to run even though I have it running through DMA.

 

#1-Did you make sure Norton 2004 was COMPLETELY gone ? If you were indeed having problems the unistall may not do so good a job of uninstalling. and may well leave trouble causing stuff behind.

2-Goback. Never used it. But is there a possibility that it left some bad stuff behind. Any leftover backups that it made would more than likely contain problems.

3-The site you refer to seems to be written in a other than English. And by it causing probems says that there may be something other than the OS causing problems.

So I still think strongly that your problem is indeed with some SOFTWARE other than 98SE itself.

Again. Upgrading to XP will not fix that. A clean install would be best.

But I think that it would be best ( if possible ) to find what is causing the problem so that you do re-create it in XP.

And not knowing any better and/or may even be traveling the wrong track at this time I am leaning HEAViLY on the BAD behavior of NSW 2004.

As to Norton. I had it installed at one time. Nuttin but TROUBLE. So I ( supposedly ) uninstalled it. I than ran RegSeeker and it found HUNDREDS of leftovers in the Registry.

Also if you did have NSW 2004 installed and had problems, installing 2005 is not going to fix a thing. Unless you do a time consumming MANUAL cleanup of the 2004 first.

And that My Friend applys to XP PRO also. ( experience speaking ) Again Symantec Products do a VERY POOR job on uninstalling.

BillyBob

 

Again, I appreciate you folks taking the time to help assess this issue.

I suspect you are correct about uninstalling Norton stuff. I have done 3-4 clean installs of 98SE already in the last couple of years and it take days to get all the updates to SE and IE 6 appiled along with some of the other software too.

I am tired of SE and want something that is still supported. That is why I am considering XP. I'll take your advice and do an absolute clean install of it when I do convert. And I am considering a different browser too. Possibly Firefox.

Thanks again!!

Doug