After the close today, I will be upgrading my Dell with Windows Me to XP home. Is there any hints or tips anyone can give me? Thanks in advanced!
Back up all the data you want to hold on to. Have the program disks, cd's, etc. you'll need. Do a complete install (as mentioned above) including having the install program reformat your hd (this will remove MFT fragments which you won't be able to get rid of otherwise w/o using Partition Magic). You should be fine. You can try the upgrade route, but I think you are playing with the devil. So I DON'T advise it. There is also a lot of other junk (old program files, old registry entries, etc.) on your computer that a good clean install will clean out as well. So start with a clean slate.
Check to make sure you have the latest BIOS updates. On two computers that I updated, the XP upgrade would not work till the BIOS was updated. Dell site would have the latest.
Thanks for everyone's help. I'm not impressed with XP at all. Nothing but problems since the upgrade. I had every version of windows from Microsoft except for 2000 and this is the worst. I can't belive people complained about ME, I very rarely had problems with that OS. Here are some of the problems I ran into with XP: - Had to repurchase Norton system works and CD Creator because the version I had was incompatible with XP. - The PC will reboot out of the blue. I'll be sitting there watching the markets, and next thing I know the system is rebooting. - Can no longer run scheduled task automatically. With Win ME I had disk defrag/cleanup and virus update/scan run at 3:00 am. With XP it just starts the programs but does not run them. I'll wake up in the morning and have a bunch of open windows and nothing ran. - Problems printing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't work, my print file just sits in the print queue, no errors or messages. - Java problems. If I switch to a different user and then switch back while IB TWS is running, my TWS will get hung up and I have to force the program to close and restart. - MS Word crashes. This is an intermitting problem similar to printing. Sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't. I installed all the latest drivers. Update my BIOS to the version for XP. Installed all the OS updates for XP. It's just an unstable piece of crap software for me.
I found ME to be a real unstable piece of crap. Especially when using audio or video apps. To me XP is a big improvement. However as Bob mentioned, I too was dismayed at how much useless software I suddendly owned. I had bought a Norton disc several weeks before my OS upgrade, history. Same with my CD software, Corel Printhouse ect. So if you're dependent on a lot of out of date shit, don't rush into the upgrade. PS I had an older (like all of 3 years) yet functional Lexmark Fax/Scanner/Printer that I never was able to find a new driver for!
If you bought the lower priced upgrade version of XP, then you will have problems because you are still dealing with the DOS-evolved ME. I got stuck with that as well. I ate the bucks and bought the full version of XP, and everything is fine. It is the upgrade that is the problem, and as usual, once you use it, the retailers won't let you return it. So, write to Microsoft and see what help you get there. :eek:
Another option - keep WinME and buy another HDD for less than $100 and install a very clean copy of WinXP on it (i.e. only XP, a different browser and the bare essential trading programs - that's it). Trade from XP during the day and then boot over to ME after hours for all other computing stuff (like running scheduled tasks, word processing, printing docs, trying out new programs, etc). If you have a backup of your old WinMe system, you might want to think about doing this. EDIT: One other note, you will have to use FAT32 (not NTFS) if you do this, since I've heard that a FAT32 drive cannot "see" a NTFS drive and vv. Someone correct me if I am wrong as I have only heard this second hand.