Upgrade 3 year old computer to XP Pro or get new one?

[Kerry Owen]

I have a Compaq, with Win ME, I have had an XP Pro oem disc that I bought
with the registration key. I have yet to upgrade my computer, but I'm
having a bit of trouble with WIN ME yet I've hesitated to finally upgrade or
get a new computer. One friend at work said he wouldn't upgrade a 3 year
old computer, but he is very much into working on them, building them, etc.

I've already uninstalled IE6 & re-installed WinME from the computer's
command after removing a virus. The computer is virus free, but I think I
may have something wrong in the boot sector, a corrupt file or so, as lately
it has just locked up when turning on the computer-the blue screen of death,
no desktop, or the monitor will not come on-the computer does but you can't
do anything, or the desktop comes on but the mouse arrow is locked up.

Otherwise, my computer does everything it should do, I run Photoshop LE,
have 640mgs ram, 900 Athlon, I ran the computer test thing that you can do
with XP to see if your computer is compatable, it only mentions that a few
drivers would need to be upgraded, but also my nVidia card is 8mb, a friend
at work said I'd need at least a 16mb card, and also it mentions my DVD
player decoder might be incompatable, I might need to upgrade the decoder.
I don't mind upgrading the video card.

I already opened the disc and tried to boot from it just to see if it could,
but have not made the switch, so the disc is really intact. Should I try to
sell it and get a new computer or go ahead with the upgrade? Another friend
at work said his brother upgraded to XP on a 5 year old computer. I get
tired of the instability of Win ME, but otherwise it works fine.

Any suggestions? Thanks,
Kerry

 

[Andrew E]

A 3 year old and with what you listed,will work fine in
xp,even the video-card,alot(most)new computers dont
even have them and use on board video.Theres nothing
wrong with upgrading,you could even boot to xp cd,
recovery,or use FDisk in ME,formatt the hd,then boot to
xp cd,perform a clean install w/o ME.You can boot to
xp cd and use recovery,or install w/o having xp install-
ed.Install xp(upgrade) youre unstable computer will
cease to be unstable in xp.

 

[Kerry Owen]

Andrew,

If I use FDisk in ME and format a small section for ME to use with MS dos
program, then reboot with xp cd, if I would forward my Outlook Express
emails that I want to keep to my laptop, then once XP is loaded on my
desktop, can't I just forward the emails to myself again and open them from
my desktop? I just have a few program & photography that I need to burn to
disk, plus my passwords, etc.
I am the only one who uses my computer, so I'm thinking of using Fat 32,
would that help with files or folders like my Favorites that I might
transfer?

Thanks again, I think it's time for me to upgrade...
Kerry

 

[D.Currie]

You can't use an OEM disk to upgrade, you'll have to do a clean install.

Make sure you can find drivers for all your proprietary Compaq hardware,
including whatever is on the motherboard.

 

[Kerry Owen]

Thanks for the answers, Andrew and D. Currie, and I really didn't mean
"upgrade" per se, I meant in general...Kerry

 

[Michael Stevens]

Andrew,

If I use FDisk in ME and format a small section for ME to use with MS
dos program, then reboot with xp cd, if I would forward my Outlook
Express emails that I want to keep to my laptop, then once XP is
loaded on my desktop, can't I just forward the emails to myself again
and open them from my desktop? I just have a few program &
photography that I need to burn to disk, plus my passwords, etc.
I am the only one who uses my computer, so I'm thinking of using Fat
32, would that help with files or folders like my Favorites that I
might transfer?

Thanks again, I think it's time for me to upgrade...
Kerry

Why are you creating the small partition for Me?
Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard located on the XP CD to transfer
your files and settings. You can migrate your email addresses email, data ,
custom program settings, etc to a file you can burn to CD.
File format doesn't matter when transferring files from CD or floppy. XP can
read Fat and NTFS anyway.
For more info on F.A.S.T.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address box.
Using F.A.S.T [Files And Settings Transfer] wizard.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/fast.html

For upgrading to XP Home or Pro, see the links below.
http://aumha.org/a/xpupgrad.htm
XP Upgrade
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_2kupgrade.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_9xupgrade.asp
See the link below for steps on performing a Clean Install.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
Known problems with XP upgrades.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpupgdissues.html
Known Problems with Clean installs.
http://www.labmice.net/WindowsXP/Install/installbugs.htm
Top 10 Reasons for Moving to Windows XP Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/top10.asp
Why Windows XP Professional?
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/default.asp
Windows XP Professional Features
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/features.asp

--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm