Windows Millenium upgrade to XP Pro???

Kyle_in_Tex · Mar 3, 2007

I have a Sony Vaio about 7 years old. It has some nice propietary software that came with it however, it also came with Millenium. It crashes sometimes and gives lots of alarms and warnings.

The question is, should I do a full (wipe the slate) install or an upgrade install?

The computer is an 866 pentium, 256ram, 40gig hd, dvd burner. I know we will probably need 512ram to run smoother. I can add this later if needed.

My mother uses it to email, play a few games, and view and print pictures.

ByronBob · Mar 3, 2007

We did an XP upgrade from 2000 and it solved many of the crashes your experiencing. I think you should try this first as it's a cheaper alternative and easier to do.

You need more RAM as you know. I wouldn't blink at putting a stick of 512 in there to add to your 256. That would be good.

jwstewar · Mar 3, 2007

If you don't use the Sony software, I would wipe it and start over. If you go to the Sony site you might be able to download the software. Before you wipe though you will want to go to Device Manager and get a list of all of the hardware so that you can load drivers for them after the install. Chances are XP will have drivers for most of the things, but it may save you some headache if it doesn't. Also a lot of the manufacturer's drivers have more features than the default MS drivers.

Kyle_in_Tex · Mar 3, 2007

Thanks folks!
I'll see what happens and report back. I'm going to try an upgrade 1st and if I don't like it, I'll do a full install....Kyle

MossRoad · Mar 3, 2007

Window ME was not a very "nice" operating system. Before you wipe it out or even upgrade, consider installing a new hard drive and restoring your version of ME to it from the disks that came with your machine. Then, before you add any of your software, data, etc... upgrade to XP and then run all the updates for it. Then copy the data back from your original hard drive. Doing it this way prevents your current drive from getting hosed up in the upgrade and safeguards your data. Hard drives are cheap and it will be nice to have a second one for backups.

By the way, you will start finding it hard to find XP upgrades with the release of Vista, so do it quick.

Best of luck.

Bird · Mar 3, 2007

I think Mossroad is giving good advice. I'm currently using this Dell computer that came with Windows ME and a certificate for the XP upgrade when XP became available. So Dell later sent me the XP upgrade and I very carefully followed the instructions, only to find it didn't work. It fact, my computer didn't work at all. Several phone calls to Dell accomplished nothing. Finally one of their "tech support" guys told me there was just nothing they could do for me. Thank goodness, it was the only time I had bought a computer without promptly paying for it. I had let them finance it. So I told him to go get his supervisor and ask him where they wanted me to ship their junk, since I wasn't going to pay for it. That's when they got someone else on the phone who was able to make it work. Of course, my hard drive became drive E: instead of C: but at least it worked. I eventually did add another hard drive, added more memory, and actually bought a retail copy of Windows XP and installed it, instead of the OEM Dell XP.

So, if you do the upgrade, I hope you have better luck than I did.

tawilson · Mar 3, 2007

If you get the upgrade cd, I believe it will ask you for your original Me cd if you start from scratch, which is what I would do. I've run all the operating systems since Win95, and Me was the worst and XPro is the best. I still use a computer with 2000 at work and it runs works allright, I just think XP is a little slicker.

Licklog · Mar 3, 2007

I did a couple of upgrades to XP Home soon after it came out. I upgraded three older Dell Pentiums and an eMachine. Did not have any problems with any of the upgrades.

You will see an improvement but beware that Microsoft requires and ID code for each machine and XP software and your original ME software. You cannot use software that was previously installed on a different machine.

After the upgrade make sure that you have SP2 included. Takes care of quite a few bugs....

Good Luck

dgl24087 · Mar 3, 2007

tawilson said:
If you get the upgrade cd, I believe it will ask you for your original Me cd if you start from scratch, which is what I would do. I've run all the operating systems since Win95, and Me was the worst and XPro is the best. I still use a computer with 2000 at work and it runs works allright, I just think XP is a little slicker.

My worst experience with crashes, etc., has been Win95. I have had a Gateway laptop with ME that operated flawlessly, much better than 95 or 98. My current desktop is an HP (3 yrs. old) with WinXP, I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop (2 yrs old), also with WinXP. Both have been very reliable machines.

tawilson · Mar 4, 2007

dgl24087 said:
My worst experience with crashes, etc., has been Win95. I have had a Gateway laptop with ME that operated flawlessly, much better than 95 or 98. My current desktop is an HP (3 yrs. old) with WinXP, I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop (2 yrs old), also with WinXP. Both have been very reliable machines.

I'm sure the laptop came with ME, and that probably made a difference. My experience was with upgrading from Win98. I used to do a lot of fiddling and experimenting with different software and hardware and until XP came along, I used to have to reformat every 6 months or so. XP seems to take my abuse much better. I'll probably get a computer sometime this year and I'll get that with Vista.