Windows XP Upgrade and Serial ATA

[High Desert Ranger]

My computer currently has Windows 98SE. I have a home built computer with a 20gb IDE internal drive, AMD XP 2000+ processor and 786mb internal memory. For my christmas 2 years ago I received a DVD burner, a new serial ATA card, and a used 100gb serial ATA drive. The 100gb serial ATA drive seems flaky because it doesn't seem to work all the time whem I was trying to install Windows ME. I need to upgrade from W98SE to something newer for the DVD burner software to work and the fact that W98SE is not being supported by any software anymore.

Additional system components:
IDE CDROM, Geforce Display adapter (don't remember which 1 but nothing spectacular), and a 10mb network adapter card.

1.) I'm considering buying Windows XP and don't know the difference between Home Edition and Professional Edition and Upgrade Edition and Regular Edition?

2.) How reliable are serial ATA drives and do you think that the drive I have is good, or that it was just WinME that was giving me issues?

3.) After I get my system working with my DVD burner, I plan on getting one of those media readers so I can read my micro SD card in my phone, and my memorystick Pro Duo card. Any one deal with these and how well do they work?

 

[MrE_Powers]

1, if it were me get a home addition. straight install for less hassle. if you know some one that has the straight install you can just buy the sticker code for it and borrow the cd but there is a chance you will get the wrong code for the install cd so just get the install cd with code.

2. nothing seemed to work right with winme never dealt with ata drives

3. the hardest part with the sd micro card reader is not losing it. very good with xp.

 

[cereal83]

- I would go with Home edition as it is cheaper

- new SATA drivers are just as good as IDE, no better or no worse but the new ones are a litte faster

- The card readers work fine, I have an external one that I plug into USB and it works fine, the one on my moms computer is internal and just plugged into a USB connector and it worked.

 

[LearjetMinako]

I would go with MS Media Center 2005 edition. Almost all the XP os is about $100 now. The SATA is just as good as the old HD drives.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

The problem with the SATA drive could very well be that you're trying to install Windows 98 on it. 98 is like the plague. SATA drives are actually a good deal faster than PATA, and just as reliable. Be sure that your SATA adapter is seated firmly in the slot and download the diagnostic tool from the drive manufacturer website to run a check on the drive if you're worried.
Pro has added networking, administrative, security and media tools, and has a wider range of hardware compatibility. Home should be fine for the basic user though. You can upgrade from 98 to XP, however, if you do that I would highly recommend wiping the drive, reformatting it with the NTFS file system and performing a clean install of XP, NOT installing over the top of your 98 install. You will need your 98se disk handy for windows to verify during the XP install.
Card readers work fine, you can pick up an internal one that reads every media type for probably $7 from Newegg.com. It might be worth it to spend another $10 and upgrade your networking card to a 10/100 or 10/100/1000 too.
Good luck.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The problem with the SATA drive could very well be that you're trying to install Windows 98 on it. 98 is like the plague. SATA drives are actually a good deal faster than PATA, and just as reliable. Be sure that your SATA adapter is seated firmly in the slot and download the diagnostic tool from the drive manufacturer website to run a check on the drive if you're worried.
Pro has added networking, administrative, security and media tools, and has a wider range of hardware compatibility. Home should be fine for the basic user though. You can upgrade from 98 to XP, however, if you do that I would highly recommend wiping the drive, reformatting it with the NTFS file system and performing a clean install of XP, NOT installing over the top of your 98 install. You will need your 98se disk handy for windows to verify during the XP install.
Card readers work fine, you can pick up an internal one that reads every media type for probably $7 from Newegg.com. It might be worth it to spend another $10 and upgrade your networking card to a 10/100 or 10/100/1000 too.
Good luck.

^^^^ Listen to this man, he's quite helpful! He's really been helping with getting my computer straightened out and hasn't complained about all of the questions I've asked.

Newegg has both home and pro editions... IIRC the home is only like $85, the Pro is over $100.

 

[High Desert Ranger]

The problem with the SATA drive could very well be that you're trying to install Windows 98 on it. 98 is like the plague. SATA drives are actually a good deal faster than PATA, and just as reliable. Be sure that your SATA adapter is seated firmly in the slot and download the diagnostic tool from the drive manufacturer website to run a check on the drive if you're worried.
Pro has added networking, administrative, security and media tools, and has a wider range of hardware compatibility. Home should be fine for the basic user though. You can upgrade from 98 to XP, however, if you do that I would highly recommend wiping the drive, reformatting it with the NTFS file system and performing a clean install of XP, NOT installing over the top of your 98 install. You will need your 98se disk handy for windows to verify during the XP install.
Card readers work fine, you can pick up an internal one that reads every media type for probably $7 from Newegg.com. It might be worth it to spend another $10 and upgrade your networking card to a 10/100 or 10/100/1000 too.
Good luck.

I was thinking of installing the XP on the serial ATA drive, that's what I was trying to with the ME. What is was doing was completely disconnecting the original drive, installed the SATA and was doing a clean install. I'd get it installed but it seemed to crash and completely stop working after a day or so. That's why I was thinking I needed the new drive. Then I was thinking of putting the old IDE drive in as a slave on the secondary channel and either using it as a data drive, or just transfering my data over.

When I originally built this computer was back in 01 or so and the only reason that I went with 98 is that I was building this computer to play games on. I have another computer (now buried in my garage) that is a 486 with WFW3.11 and that was the computer that I was using to access the internet. I stopped using that one around 03.

Yeah I probably should upgrade my NIC to at leat 100mb or more, but I have yet to even connect my computer to the internet since I moved into my apartment since I don't have a hub/router. I'm currently using my wive's computer for all my internet access, but with the coming term I realize that she is pulling 25 units and that I have 8 and that we probably should have 2 computers accessing the net. I'm not a fan or wireless networks and prefer hardwire, and my computer is only 15' from my wives computer.

I currently am amazed at some of the computer technology, since I had previously been in the computer industry installing/repairing computers and LANs/WANs from 87-97. I remember buying a 300mb SCSI1 HDD around 92/93 for $800. Now I found a 500gb SATA drive for $129 thru best buy. One of these days I'll get around to a true network with a dedicated server.

 

[CJREX]

Just a thought...

Before spending $$$ on Windows, give Ubuntu a try. It's totally free, does all the things you mentioned exceptionally well, and has a visual interface comparable to Vista (some say superior) without the Vista BS.

It will play all your audio, video, DVDs, and fully support your SATA and DVD burner.

Go HERE to download the free ISO. Burn the image to a CD and then boot from the CD. It will run in "Live mode" with an Install button on the desktop. If you want to install it, click the installer and answer 6 questions. Step back and let it do its thing.

Go HERE for a step by step on setting it up with most everything you'll need.

Try it, you might like it. And it's FREE.

If you don't like it, you can always then go buy Windows and the only thing you've lost is a little time. And honestly, Linux installs MUCH faster than Windows (I have had Linux install in 20 minutes from the insert of CD to fully installed and operational)

Good Luck!

 

[Twitch57]

ubuntus great unless you plan on running any programs on your machine

its really only good for internet browsing and word processing

unless you have the time and the know how you wont be able to run any windows apps

 

[cereal83]

ubuntus great unless you plan on running any programs on your machine

its really only good for internet browsing and word processing

unless you have the time and the know how you wont be able to run any windows apps

Well sort of, if he takes his time to learn Wine, then he will be able to run Windows Appz on the Ubuntu box.

I use linux at work and I would use it at home but Windows just works for me. I know Ubuntu might be nice but to get some stuff to work, you really have to play around with it.

I would rather use Ubuntu or Slackware which is what I use at work rather then Windows Vista with all that DRM crap and memory hogging processes.

 

[HareRazor]

I would definitely try the Linux alternative first. Remember that if you plan on setting up a dedicated server and run a domain controller on your home network that Windows XP Home won't join the domain. XP Home only supports workgroups. You also lose remote desktop with XP Home.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

SCSI is still a tad faster than a SATA RAID array, and they're still expensive as hell, about 4X more than a SATA drive. For the money I'd buy a couple of WD Raptors.
You don't need an OS to boot to a diagnostic disk... I would definitely test the drive if you have concerns. Chances are it's a 98se problem though. I had so many hardware problems with my sons computer running 98se, I finally wiped the thing out and put 2k pro on it. Is the drive making any odd noises?

Pro is definitely a better choice for networking than home. Ubuntu is great too. You could always get the best of both worlds and dual boot...

 

[High Desert Ranger]

You don't need an OS to boot to a diagnostic disk... I would definitely test the drive if you have concerns. Chances are it's a 98se problem though. I had so many hardware problems with my sons computer running 98se, I finally wiped the thing out and put 2k pro on it. Is the drive making any odd noises?

Again, just in case there is some confusion. My new setup, whatever it will be (100gb SATA drive or a new SATA drive) is not going to have Windows 98se on it, because I am installing the DVD burner and the software requires at least Win2000/WinME.

Granted it would be nice not to have to have a Windows product, but I am curently in college, just took a computer class for Microsoft Access, previously took classes for Microsoft Word, and Excel. I might eventually get the resources together and build a seprate machine and install a open source code program but not anytime soon.

Last i knew the drive wasn't making any noises but it just seemed to stop loading the OS, and I don't remember the error and probably won't try to recreate it down the road. I'll see if I can find a manufacturer diagnostic utility but I'll have to open the case and find out what drive I have in there.

 

[Psychopete]

WinME is sort of a variant of 98, or uses the same core that 98 ran on. Are you sure that it's not 2000/XP?

WinME was by far the biggest heaping pile of crap ever produced by Microsoft.

I use 2K pro. I would use XP, but I switch it to "2000" mode, so what's the point? XP has nothing more than I need that 2K doesn't do.

Pete

Edit:

PCWorld's top worst tech products of all time:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,2/article.html

WinME is #4, following AOL, SoftRAM and Realplayer, which were all undisputably garbage.

Edit Again:

+1 to DeanMoriarty. You do not want Windows XP running on a FAT32 filesystem. =/

 

[michowski]

Get xp pro edition instead of home. Home edition is horrible. Nothing but problems when I used it, always had a hard time getting stuff setup right and staying there. Once I installed pro edition everything just took off and worked great. Plug that sata drive in and install pro edition and your good to go.