first of thanks for looking i really need your help hope this is the ryte place to post this, ok here goes i hav been given a really old pc but its all i hav so its better than nothing and it is running windows 98 but i am wanting to install XP and was wondering if this will even run on the system? im a bit of a noob as you can tell but hey weve all got to start somewhere ryte. ive downloaded everest so ile giv u the system specs from were it says system summary if thats any help.
Field Value
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows 98
OS Service Pack -
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Pentium II, 266 MHz (4 x 67)
Motherboard Name Epox EP-61EXA-A/61LXA/61LXA-M/68LXR/KP6-LA
Motherboard Chipset Intel 82440LX/EX
System Memory 128 MB (SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (03/05/98)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter ATI 3D Rage Pro (atir3) (8 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI 3D-Rage Pro
Monitor Hyundai HL-7770A (905380)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative SB AWE64 Audio Adapter

Storage
IDE Controller Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
IDE Controller Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
IDE Controller Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
SCSI/RAID Controller D347PRT SCSI Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller VAX347S SCSI Controller
Floppy Drive GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK
Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47
Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE46
Optical Drive CREATIVE DVD5240E-1 (5x/32x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive Generic DVD-ROM
Optical Drive HP CD-Writer+ 8100 (4x/2x/24x CD-RW)
Optical Drive SCSIVAX DVD/CD-ROM
SMART Hard Disks Status Unknown

Partitions
C: (FAT32) 6184 MB (391 MB free)
D: (FAT32) 19083 MB (2833 MB free)
Total Size 25267 MB (3224 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Mouse WheelMouseIM (PS/2)
Game Controller Microsoft PC-joystick driver

Network
Modem Parallel cable on LPT1
Modem Serial cable on COM1
Modem Serial cable on COM2
Modem U.S. Robotics 56K Voice INT
Modem U.S. Robotics 56K Voice INT #2

Peripherals
Printer BitWare Fax Driver
Printer Brother HL-1430 series
Printer Lexmark 5700 Series C (Copy 3)
Printer Lexmark 5700 Series ColorFine
Printer MS Publisher Color Printer
Printer MS Publisher Imagesetter
Printer Print to Fax
USB1 Controller Intel 82371AB/EB PIIX4 - USB Host Controller

Problems & Suggestions
Problem Disk free space is only 6% on drive C:.

there are a few things i would lyk to keep lyk the full version of win avi alcohol 120% nero but i guess i could just dl them afterwards i will be buying sum ram will any sdram work ok? just im on a tight budget at the min as im out of work hopefully not for long tho i also want to instal a dvd rewriter i have dl a copy of xp sp3 would i just burn this to disk and put in comp or do i have2 format the drives as i dnt no how :/ so any help and advise would be great i cant afford a new comp at the min and am using this one to access the internet so i would need a good bit of info be4 i do anything to get it clear in my head so i dnt mess it up as i wudnt be able to jus cum back and ask what i did wrong so please help lol
thanks
camp8ell :)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

Quote:

---

Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional
• PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended

• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

• 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*

• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor

• CD-ROM or DVD drive

• Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

---

I wouldn't even bother with XP as I don't think it would be worth your time. You might give one of the Linux distros a shot as they only require the bare minimums as far as system specs go.

http://www.slackware.com/install/sysreq.php

Quote:

---

Slackware Linux doesn't require an extremely powerful system to run (though having one is quite nice :). It will run on systems as far back as the 486. Below is a list of minimum system requirements needed to install and run Slackware.

486 processor
16MB RAM (32MB suggested)
100-500 megabytes of hard disk space for a minimal and around 3.5GB for full install
3.5" floppy drive
Additional hardware may be needed if you want to run the X Window System at a usable speed or if you want network capabilities.

---

There are dozens of good "free" distro's to choose from as well.

http://distrowatch.com/

Specifications link
http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?id=EP-61LXA
is that a full version of xp including sp3 or just sp3? delete the 2 partitions on your hd & make a new one the full capacity of your hd which is 30gig tho shown as 25gig.

you can go to windows 2000 professional.

thank you for the replies people sorry i could not reply earlier i had to go out of town for a few days and ive just got back i hav no experiance with linux i will go away and read up on it now will all programes work with linux like nero and win avi which i already have installed on the comp also how do i delete the partions on my HD and if i wanted to keep anything when i format my HD how would i go about backing it up?
thanks for the help
camp8ell

I love the way M$ say that xp will run on an AMD K6.. it won't.. No L2 cache. I tried installing it on one with 180mb ram last week.. Now it's running my minimal debian homebrew OS like a star.

If you go to linux on this old machine go for tiny-me or Puppy. Ubuntu will be poor, and nothing else apart from slackware or debian will install..

Forget everything you know about windows programs. Linux has a completely different set of totally free (and very often better) software.

Nero? K3B wipes the floor with it..

winavi? lots of FOSS applications tovid/toidisk, avidemux, dvdauthor k9copy .. literally heaps and heaps all free to download.

They are different, and some are not exactly user friendly, but that is because they are made to work first and be easy/pretty second.

The way this thread is going it might be better now in the linux discussions where the linux users can all chip in with suggestions.

camp8ell, do you want me to move this thread to the linux forum?

i think that myte be for the best ddp as this seems to be the best way to go cheers mate

moved.

ryte well now that this thread has been moved i guess my question would be what would be a good version ov linux to install on my comp using the stats posted above and how would i go about instaling linux aswell also is there a web browser already in the OS? what programes would i use to convert avi files to a dvd medium and burn to cd's/dvd's and would i be able to keep anything that is on my HD or would i lose everything?
thanks again
camp8ell

Well one thing at a time.. Linux uses a different filesystem, but CAN read and write to fat32 partitions. So.. you could move your data to a fat32 partition and still have it afterwards. You will deal with that during the partitioning part of the install.

Now about the other stuff. Browsers.. There are lots, firefox, opera,epiphany,seamonkey, iceweasel, konqueror, kazehakase, galeon.. take your pick. Most major variants come with the one the developers like, or which suits the desktop/system .

DVD manipulation is a bit of an art.. tools depend on which way you go, which desktop you have and how complicated you want to get. Forget the windows methods, they don't work.. linux is a little more hands on, and we don't like talking too much about breaking the encryption (it's easy.. just we don't like telling how easy because hollywood is watching and it uses illegal software for the usa)

Leave all that for now.. one thing at a time. Test your hardware..

Download and burn a live mini distro to check all your hardware. There shouldn't be anything too unusual in an old machine like that.. certainly easier than trying to find windows drivers for it.

What I would suggest for a starter pack is puppylinux http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads take puppy4 (dingo) it works very well, and burn as an image file.. just like any other image. Then change your bios to boot from cd and reboot. there will be a few questions.. don't worry, you can't break anything just running it live like this and you will find out about your graphics hardware while you are booting.

Success with the startup wizard will give you a nice desktop.. all running from the cd. Try the connect icon (one click usually, not 2) and get online. Fire up seamonkey (the world icon) which will get you puppys starting off page.. read and see what you want to know about ;)

How easy is that? I would suggest playing with it like that for a while and getting the feel before jumping in with a full install of a larger distro. You can install puppy in a minimal fashion to the hdd and use it to backup data if you want, but I wouldn't bother saving any windows programs.. you will not need them.

My house has now been completely windows free for 4 years. Don't miss it either.

Notice how I actually suggested what would work best for him Jan...instead of slaggin off Linux I actually recommended it.

It's the only realistic option on hardware that old. You can't buy 2000 now, but as proprietary software it's still illegal to download and use.. so what other option is there? XP will not work on a machine like that.

When they turn on all the DRM in fista you will see what we have been saying for the last year. I have seen machines where the OEM retailers have force updated and turned on the drm.. result.. useless system for anything multimedia... 74 vista uninstalls this month and counting. Improve your vista experience.. uninstall it ;)