Need advice on reformatting computer and installing XP O/S from our resident geeks.

Frys electronics ^ | July 30, 2004 | wildbill

[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.

[Cacique]

bttfl

[chuckles]

256megs of ram is enough. The potential problems come from drivers. Write down what video card, sound chip, network chip, modem, etc, that you have and make sure you can get XP drivers for them before you format. Otherwise you will be trotting back to the store to buy said accesories that have drivers and waste the ones you have. Some of these cheaper deals are designed only to work with Linux or Lindows. I have a mother board with a special UDMA chip and can't get XP drivers to work on the motherbd. It recognises my hard drive but won't boot. So I'm stuck with '98 or ME, or Linux to run faster hard drives. I've been trying beta drivers but nada works.I hate to frisbee the MB, but I'm close.

Another option is duel boot. Its nice to have a backup if everything crashes. At least she could get her e-mail until you reinstall.

[Big Giant Head]

We started building computers from components, mostly purchased from tiger direct. We've had very good luck with all but a couple of little things. One CD-ROM died, but not for a couple of years. Very dependable machines.
For what some people spend on prebuilts, I could build, well, monsters.

I wish I had the money people spend on Dells.

[MediaMole]

You can get an OEM copy of XP Home for about $90. That's what I use when I build Windows systems. There are cheaper ways intended for high volume users, but they start getting a bit sketchy for home users.

[Old Professer]

I just got pinged this evening to update and it took 19 seconds to download and install using Comcast.

[DB]

I think Norton AV has something to do with it as well.

But yes, that long or longer.

Doubling the RAM made a huge difference for them. They were very happy with the $40 upgrade.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

256 MB is recommended for XP, but it will probably run okay.