Posted on 07/30/2004 6:33:12 PM PDT by wildbill
My 82 year old mother is buying a new computer. I found a cheap system (179.00) from a reliable retailer (Fryes) It has 1.6gherz Athlon motherboard, 128mb of ram, cd, 56modem and 40gig harddrive, yada, yada, yada--but it comes with Lindows installed. see url.
Is there any problem with reformatting and putting XP on the system? That's the question. No discussion of the evils of Microsoft, the Mac, or Lindows, or why I need another whizbang, please.
sorry I can't help...except to bump for publicity...
There shouldn't be any trouble at all, apart from the fact that your RAM is pretty weak. I'd get at least another 128 MB if I were you. Install XP from the bootable CD if you can, and re-format the drive in NTFS.
And choose the option, 'Quick Format'
128 ram won't work from what I understand-- need minimum of 256- 512 better.
I run both Linux and Windows here, so have no axe to grind. If a person that age will be starting fresh, are you sure you want to remove Lindows? Yes, it might be a clunky neither fish-nor-fowl, but for email and word processing and maybe a database, why bother stripping it and installing one or the other...Unless she wants to be a Power Gamer, or intends to do heavy Photoshopping.
I'll second that sentiment - more RAM is Real Good Idea (TM) unless you have a fetish for page faults. ;-)
You'll need more than 128mram for XP. It takes 110mRam just to boot up. It needs around 512 or something near that.
You'll have no prob. I like to clean with gateways GWSCAN program and write zeroes to the drive first.
Oh, and if you get ram, go to www.crucial.com and put in the system type and it will bring up what you need.
Also go to PNY.com and then click configurator. Help you decide what chip PC100, 110 etc.
Personally, I have had problems with PNY memory sticks (bad ram), but never crucial.
I am on a 14.4 modem. Will that work?
Your first mistake was purchasing ANYTHING from Fry's...all hope is lost abandon ship
Kidding, let me tell you this, To run XP, Internet Explorer, Norton anti-virus, and Zone Alarm, assuming your mom will be surfing the net a little, take 242 MBs of RAM, with only 2 IE windows open. That's completely stripped of all other programs except her modem program, also necessary. Without an email program open.
Going to crucial.com for memory is the easiest way to go, and priced competitively to boot.
I completely reformatted my husband's gateway and reinstalled Windows XP. The only problem I had was getting the correct drivers. This may have been just a Gateway problem, but I would definitely back up your hardware drivers first on a floppy disk.
Good luck!
The Full Version of XP Home is $179 at Staples. You may be able to get it cheaper elsewhere, but let's say its $179. So now you are spending $179 for the PC and $179 for XP, totaling $358. You're nearing the price of a new Dell, without the hassles of reformatting or upgrading the RAM. Just a thought.
But as for reformatting, you shouldn't need to. Just let the PC boot from the XP CD and it will take care of it. The XP installer will not recognize the Linux partition and will let you format it from the installer (if I recall correctly).
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