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Upgrading from Win98

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Hi

I have Windows 98 (I think SE) on my PC but more and more software seems to need a minimum of windows 2000 to work, is this the best (ie most economical) version to buy, and can you point me to where I can get this from? In fact is it actually possible to upgrade straight from win 98 to 2000?

Many thanks!

Comments

  • devizes18193
    devizes18193 Posts: 1,594 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    provided your machine meets win 2000 specs then yes you can upgrade . However I belive for the same money you can get windows xp. this will better for drivers and has a windows 98 compatibility mode .I've got a old pc which had hardware driver problems in win 2000 which where sloved by upgrading to xp
  • Simran
    Simran Posts: 106 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Many thanks devizes 18193, where are the best places to obtain such software from?
  • albertross_2
    albertross_2 Posts: 8,932 Forumite
    If you need to upgrade, it may make more economic sense to upgrade the PC at the same time. Xp isn't cheap, and needs more ram to run efficiently. You can get a newer secondhand PC with the O/S for around the same price.

    Even though a lot of software says W2000 etc, it may still run on 98.
    Ever get the feeling you are wasting your time? :rolleyes:
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    if its been running '98, and you havent upgraded the processor, RAM etc, i'd seriously consider just buying a new machine at this stage.

    Dell were doing a deal for a brand new base unit for £152 delivered, and it could be got running XP. 512mb RAM, decent processor, 160Gb hdd.

    If XP is going to cost you £50, a ram upgrade of DDR or SD is probably going to cost you another £50 anyway.
  • Simran
    Simran Posts: 106 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Thanks a million for all the advice, in short, it sounds like I'm looking at a spend of approx £150 to get higher versions working, in which case its either better to buy a new PC or to stay put.

    Many thanks
  • devizes18193
    devizes18193 Posts: 1,594 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    if you get a new one put your old machine on freecycle though
  • economiser
    economiser Posts: 897 Forumite
    if you get a new one put your old machine on freecycle though

    I wouldn't risk this without removing the hard drive if you have any sensitive data on it. Very hard to be sure you have erased everything.
  • superscaper
    superscaper Posts: 13,369 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    economiser wrote: »
    I wouldn't risk this without removing the hard drive if you have any sensitive data on it. Very hard to be sure you have erased everything.

    I think you can consider it safe if you just use something like DBAN. Even a forensics team would be unlikely to recover anything and I doubt it would be worth the effort and expense of anyone to try.
    "She is quite the oddball. Did you notice how she didn't even get excited when she saw this original ZX-81?"
    Moss
  • GoofyGAT
    GoofyGAT Posts: 1,835 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yeah, new PC - instead of just OS upgrade - is sound advice. What's the spec of your previous PC, & what did you use it for? What are you going to do with your new PC? This will give us a better idea of what you should go for.

    This is the £153 Dell PC, pgilc1 is referring to (more deals at dmxDimension). You'll need to makes changes to the original spec to get it for that price - these are the changes I made, which incidentally increases the price to £165:

    * Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
    * Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support
    * No 17" Monitor
    * 16x DVD +/- RW Drive [had to choose this because it was flagging up a compatibility issue with the 48x CDRW/DVD Combo Drive - you could try sorting this out by calling them]

    Note that it has 'integrated' graphics which is no good for 3D games, but if this is not your thing don't worry. If it is, it's important you let us know.

    Another option with the old hard drive: if it's a largish drive, you could stick it in your new PC & use it for data storage. Then, before giving the old PC away, get an inexpensive 4-10Gb drive off eBay (or even 2Gb) & stick it in. Or, you could just leave it to the new owner to do this & save yourself the hassle & added expense.

    As the others have said, XP is probably the best to go for. I reluctantly upgraded from Win98se to XP couple of years ago (including hardware I must admit) but I needn't have worried & soon grew to absolutely love it - it's surprisingly stable, fast & easy to use (can't say the same about Vista :o apart from the stability - but that's another story & another thread ;)). G
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