Should I use a 4Gig HD?

rizla01

bat999 wrote:

Hi rizla

The motherboard (chipset) drivers should already be installed, I think.

When you power up, your BIOS might notice that the hard drive has changed.

With any luck the pre-installed Windows 98 will 'see' your mouse, keyboard and monitor and reconfigure itself.

You might need drivers later for sound/graphics/NIC cards. Maybe download them from manufacturers' websites.

There's only one way to find out

PS Windows 98 will run well with an 850MHz processor.

The motherboard drivers on the hard drive will be the ones from the donor machine, surely.

These are most likely to be different to the repaired machine so they will need to be re-installed, I think, wouldn't they?

Main problem is that i have a 'Copy' of 98 that was copied many years ago from my brothers windows 98 disk, and I have no way of knowing if it's complete or not. It SHOULD be OK but i've never tried it. Then I have the system disk that came with the repaired machine which contains ME and the new disk that came with the Dell.

Linux would seem to be an alternative but will that be yet another 'can of worms'.

What about incompatibility with Hard/Software, Drivers, Etc?

Thanks for all of the advice so far, you lot.

Blacksheep1979

shutton54321 wrote:

You can sometimes have problems if you are using a slave hard drive that is much bigger than the primary hard drive. Its always reccommended to use the newest or biggest as the primary hard drive.
Would reccomend using the 4gb as a slave and installing xp on a new hard drive.

sorry but that is complete tosh, the only problem with the 4gb hd is that its barely large enough for xp to function properly on and thats before you install word etc. Also the computer doesn't sound like it will run xp too well. Go for the linux option and you can use firefox for surfing and open office for all office related stuff - the bonus with linux is that you can get most software for free/v cheap.

bat999

I'm getting confused now rizla, I'd better go for a lie down.

Yes, Linux will be a whole can of worms.

With Ubuntu you download the OS and burn your own cd for free. That is then a 'Live CD'.
This means that you can run the OS straight from CD (sluggishly). If it runs then it indicates that you won't have any/many compatability problems when you come to install it.

This is the link:-http://www.ubuntu.com/

The version you could use is Ubuntu 6.10
The file name is ubuntu-6.10-desktop-i386.iso
:cool:

rizla01

Also - checking site above tells me that UBUNTO may not be suitable as my machine may be too slow.

What's vector like?

-TangleFoot-

rizla01 wrote:

...UBUNTO may not be suitable as my machine may be too slow.

In that case, try Xubuntu instead.

bat999

850MHz isn't too slow for Ubuntu

Zagu

rizla01 wrote:

Linux would seem to be an alternative but will that be yet another 'can of worms'.

What about incompatibility with Hard/Software, Drivers, Etc?

Theres no doubt about it, Linux can be a can of worms, and some distributions dont sit too well with some PCs for, as far as I can tell, absolutely no good reason what so ever, but if you can find a good distribution that you are happy, you will end up with a much more stable, smaller, hence faster, PC.

Drivers generally are not a problem as long as your system isnt too abstract.

PCLinuxOS is one that places its self as a direct substitute for Windows, and does a very good job in my opinion.

Personally I dont believe that the installation of 98 that you have on the 4Gb is of any real use, as I doubt that you will end up with a stable PC by just doing a straight transfer of the HD, so it may be worth formatting that and trying it out. The 'Live CD' option, as bat999 says, may also be worth a go. Its fairly amazing to see a whole operating system running straight off a single CD, and does make you think what the hell MS put in theirs by comparison!

Then again, it depends how much time you want to spend playing about with different options. Its all too easy to take advice from someone who enjoys playing about with these things, and opening a can of worms that you really dont have the time/inclination for!

-TangleFoot-

Zagu wrote:

PCLinuxOS is one that places its self as a direct substitute for Windows...

It's not a substitute - it's an alternative. If you're looking for a substitute, check out ReactOS. Don't expect to be using it though; it's still very much a work-in-progress!