Question for the computer guys...

[BradC]

Ok, here is the background details. I have a fully functional P3 system at home. A co-worker is getting a new computer, and will give me her old system. It is a P4 with more RAM, bigger HD, etc, etc. The issue is that it crashed and was giving her a blue screen of death. I can boot her P4 w/a windows CD.

My question is how do I put this together for the best performance?

Should I reformat the p4 computer (I have all the disks, etc) and if it runs slave my HD to it? Will it matter if the system has media center and my old HD has XP Pro? Or will it just look at the old drive (slaved) for data?

Should I just take my HD and put it in the P4 as the master and pray it boots? Then maybe format the drive currently in the P4 and slave it?

Or, other suggestions.

I am not super retarded with the stuff, I would just like some ideas and suggestions please!

Thanks

 

[BradC]

(bump)

 

[Moeed]

Ok, here is the background details. I have a fully functional P3 system at home. A co-worker is getting a new computer, and will give me her old system. It is a P4 with more RAM, bigger HD, etc, etc. The issue is that it crashed and was giving her a blue screen of death. I can boot her P4 w/a windows CD.

Cool

My question is how do I put this together for the best performance?

Ram, ram and more ram. Better vid card. Faster HD something with 8 meg cache. If its sata how bout the drooling fast 10k 16mg cache drive.

Should I reformat the p4 computer (I have all the disks, etc) and if it runs slave my HD to it? Will it matter if the system has media center and my old HD has XP Pro? Or will it just look at the old drive (slaved) for data?
Slave your old pc drive, and start fresh with the new compy. If you can, you might as well even upgrade it since you are starting from scratch.

Should I just take my HD and put it in the P4 as the master and pray it boots? Then maybe format the drive currently in the P4 and slave it?
It will work, but it wont be great performing. Just format and slave.

Or, other suggestions.

I am not super retarded with the stuff, I would just like some ideas and suggestions please!

Thanks

they go. PB Jelly

 

[BradC]

they go. PB Jelly

Cool man, thanks for the info.

Anyone on here have any experience with Windows Media Center? I have a copy of that and a copy of XP Pro. Not sure which I should use?

 

[smo0f]

it's not really recommended to move one harddrive with windows on it from one system to another. it doesn't fully readjust itself to the new hardware. i suggest a complete format from scratch. format her harddrive first, move any data you want backed up on to it from your old harddrive, then move both to the new computer and install winxp on your old harddrive.

 

[BradC]

it's not really recommended to move one harddrive with windows on it from one system to another. it doesn't fully readjust itself to the new hardware. i suggest a complete format from scratch. format her harddrive first, move any data you want backed up on to it from your old harddrive, then move both to the new computer and install winxp on your old harddrive.

Cool. Can I format her HD w/out installing windows, and use a "clone tool" to migrate all of my installs and data onto her newly-formatted HD then format mine? The reason I am asking is I would like to not use up another product key for XP, Office 2003, etc, etc...

Do I need to have a copy of windows on both? Or will the computer just look at the slaved drive as a source of storage/data?

Last question, I swear!! I should format her HD in her computer, then install windows. Do I then slave my drive in her cpu, move all data, then format the old drive? Or am I looking at this wrong??

Thanks for all your help guys, I appreciate it!

 

[Kansei]

Last question, I swear!! I should format her HD in her computer, then install windows. Do I then slave my drive in her cpu, move all data, then format the old drive? Or am I looking at this wrong??

Thanks for all your help guys, I appreciate it!

You could do that. You'd have a nice clean install of windows, and then you can get all your documents and such (you can't really move programs over though), and then format your old drive and then just use it for general document storage.

 

[styme]

yes i would also start with a complete reinstall of EVERYTHING....dont mess around with windows media center, your hardware prob wont support it. and i wouldnt spend alot on upgrading a video card, the slot that is on the motherboard (if there is one) is no longer around theres a new interface for video cards so anything you buy now will not work with newer computers. whatever ram you buy now prob wont be work with newer computers either, but i would still buy some and put 512mb minimum and if you can afford it 2 sticks of 512mb would make you alot happier.

Last question, I swear!! I should format her HD in her computer, then install windows. Do I then slave my drive in her cpu, move all data, then format the old drive? Or am I looking at this wrong??

easiest way of doing it yes, but be carful what you are going to move from your old hard drive over to the "clean" one, you dont want to move any "crapware" over. i would only try to move my media, bookmarks, and documents, things of this nature.