New install of Win XP Home over Win 98 first edition

[Tom H.]

I am contemplating the installation of a Win XP on an
existing system that has Win 98. I want to do the new
installation rather than the upgrade. The support
website and the book says "a new installation deletes all
programs or system files from a previous installation."
My questions are:

1. If I do the new install, will EVERYTHING on the hard
drive be wiped out, or just the systems files and
programs that are part of Win 98?
2. I have a 40 Gb hard drive; is it necessary to change
to the NTFS file system? If I do this, will I lose any
files?
3. Is it necessary to reformat the hard drive when oing
from 98 to XP?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Bastet]

I am contemplating the installation of a Win XP on an
existing system that has Win 98. I want to do the new
installation rather than the upgrade. The support
website and the book says "a new installation deletes all
programs or system files from a previous installation."
My questions are:

1. If I do the new install, will EVERYTHING on the hard
drive be wiped out, or just the systems files and
programs that are part of Win 98?

Yep - a clean install formats the hard drive.

2. I have a 40 Gb hard drive; is it necessary to change
to the NTFS file system? If I do this, will I lose any
files?

It is desirable to run XP on an NTFS formatted drive yes. Of course you will
lose files, see 1.

3. Is it necessary to reformat the hard drive when oing
from 98 to XP?

If you wish to perform a clean installation, you have no choice. An over the
top installation isn't clean.