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Upgrade to XP from Windows 2000 - how to not mess it up ?

951 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  hitech 
#1 · (Edited)
I am preparing to wipe clean a machine running Windows 2000 and install XP..... and I am in way over my head here
The machine is a DELL several years old with a Pentium 4 and 512 Mb of RAM. I doubt I could find any original disks of anything. I ran Belarc to see what's in it. Now I guess I am supposed to find drivers for everything somewhere = endless internet searching ? for how many drivers ?? -motherboard ?, NVIDIA dualview / NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X graphics card, Sony CD-RW CRX216E, Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R5112, 3.5" floppy... how deep does the list go ? Hard disk controllers ? mouse drivers ? USB drivers ? Ethernet ? does anything come with XP ?.

I haven't done anyhting yet, but I guess the process is to reformat the hard drive, install XP, boot from the disk and then somehow psyche out how to install drivers.

I was trying to give this computer to my dad for Christmas.... (he's running WIndows 98 w/ 256 Mb of RAM)

So...should I run in the other direction, send this machine to the landfill and buy another for $400 ? or is this soemthing a rookie with half a brain could take on ?
 
#2 ·
the only important drivers you will need to find are the sound, network, graphics, and chipset drivers

if the machine is a dell, then there should be a support page on the dell website with a list of all the drivers you will need for that pc -- all you need is the model name/number

also,

installing xp isnt too hard
you can reformat the hard disk (delete partition) early on in the xp setup so dont worry about doing it beforehand

hope ur dad likes his present!
 
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