Installing OS from Win ME to XP?

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raemi00

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Oct 13, 2006
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I have a hand-me-down dell with Win ME installed. It's been sluggish and I'd like to do install OS again but with Win XP home. Have several question regarding this;

1. Is it better to install xp over me or uninstall me/install xp?
2. How do I go about uninstalling ME since I don't have ME install CD?
3. Win XP home is from my other Dell; is it okay to use that cd?

I've tried to browse the forum but it contains too much conflicting info so I would appreciated if anyone's kind enough to give me some input. Thanks.
 
this is just to help you install the OS, I am not going to go into license issues.

Boot from an XP CD, go through the setup steps, choose to format the drive, install OS and you are good to go.
 
The best approach is to boot off the XP CD, and where you choose which disk/partition to install to, delete the old partition ME is on, recreate it, and format the new partition in NTFS. You don't "uninstall" ME per se, you'd just write over it.

Edit: beaten.
 
raemi00 said:
I have a hand-me-down dell with Win ME installed. It's been sluggish and I'd like to do install OS again but with Win XP home. Have several question regarding this;

1. Is it better to install xp over me or uninstall me/install xp?
2. How do I go about uninstalling ME since I don't have ME install CD?
3. Win XP home is from my other Dell; is it okay to use that cd?

I've tried to browse the forum but it contains too much conflicting info so I would appreciated if anyone's kind enough to give me some input. Thanks.
Click to expand...

1.) I've installed XP Pro over ME and a whole lot of straight XP installs. Installing XP fresh is better, so you don't have any of the ME clutter.

2.) During the install process you can set up a new partition table and format partitions; you don't need the other OS's disc.

3.) Maybe, but I would say no. From my experience, Dell's XP CDs don't work across different models, but that might be different now, I don't know. You will just have to try it.

edit: you guys are fast :eek:
 
Back up your data first, clear the drives with something like gdisk, and install XP fresh. It's always better to install a new OS fresh, especially when the base is something as craptacular as ME.
 
I was wondering when someone was going to advise the OP to back up his data before recommending to format.

You don't need any additional software. The windows setup will allow you to blow up and create partitions, then format. Your XP home CD may or may not work when trying to install on another machine. You won't be able to register legally however. XP can be purchased fairly cheaply online.
 
Thanks everyone for your input. This pc is my backup-backup pc so no need for "backup". I'm going to try and see if this cd works on a different pc.
 
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