Win98 to XP

[boxig]

Well, a bit out of topic but I know many members use win98 or XP. I just upgraded and I have to say I'm very disappointed. Maybe because I have pentum 3 and I have the feeling that XP is better used with pentum 4 only. I am still thinking 98 is the best but I destroyed it when upgraded Internet Explorer 5 to 6, and reinstalling 98 didn't worked. So before you upgrading, here is my advice: If you are satisfied with 98 - don't upgrade ! ... and dont upgrade to Internet Explorer 6 if you use win98 !!!

[Michel]

As you said, the upgrade from W98 to XP is a very, very bad operation.

Warning: don't upgrade W98, but install directly Win XP !!!

[ralvis]

Boxig did you do a clean install of XP, in other words did you format your drive or did you

install over top of 98?

If you don't do a clean install of XP you are going to have some

problems down the road.

I run XP Pro, W98 SE222 , and W2K Server on 3 primary partitions and

Suse 9.0 on a logical partiton. I can boot into any one of them.

It is a simple matter to dual boot 98 and XP.

I run NTFS for XP and W2K , Fat32 for 98 and Reiser FS for Suse 9.0

Xp wil run fine on a pentium 3. I have 2 computers on a network.

My 2nd computer is a Celeron 600 ABit BH6 Mboard with 512 k Ram.

XP runs fine on this. On this class of a machine you have to really

tweak xp up. You basically run it looking like Windows 2000.

Once you get used to the clear fonts in XP it is tough to go back

to not having them.

Don't get discouraged, XP is a great operating system if you know

how to set it up properly for your hardware.

Ralvis

[LumenLux]

Ralvis, thank you for exposing so much information here. I wrote a reply to boxig yesterday, which due to technical difficulties never posted. Your information is much better than what I was going to opine. But now you have also opened yourself up as the key recipient of my own current concern and questions.

Surprisingly, the Abit BH6 motherboard is the very board I have in the PC in question. A few years ago, I upgraded the processor to 766mhz PIII! But here is my problem - in a long nutshell.

In order to install Adobe Photo Album version 2, I had to go from Win98 SE to XP Home. I did a full install onto a new hard drive. I am happy with XP, especially all the re-boots I know longer have to make. But my machine is still open after two months as I am re-installing hardware and software as I incur the need.

Now for the problem(s) -

Running XP I soon learned that my SCSI flatbed scanner would not work with XP and apparently there is no intent from anyone that it should. I accepted that and was greatful that my aging Minolta Scan Dual film scanner (also SCSI) was still working fine with XP! My system has 3 hd's with total of 5 partitions. About a week into XP, one partition could produce none of the information that was indeed still there. Ultimately, I put that drive in a Win98 SE machine at work and was able to take all the data off and copy it to another partition. Then I put the drive back into the XP, formatted the guilty partition and went my merry way. Until - two days ago, when I tried to use the film scanner. My search for a solution sort of ended on the Minolta site. There I am told that unless I happen to have a certain late model of my scanner, I should not expect it to work on XP. You see my consternation however, as I know the film scanner did indeed work initially with XP!

So the question is, can I possibly find a way to make the film scanner once again work in XP? Or, second choice - could I reasonably re-install Win98SE in some kind of a dual boot for the sole purpose of using the film scanner and the abandoned flatbed scanner as well? I do want to use XP as my normal OS.

[ralvis]

Lumenlux I sent you an email did you get it?

Ralvis

[alrobin]

Bob,

I have been thinking of moving up into a P4 machine with XP, but have been holding off until now as I, too, have a SCSI scanner (an old Agfa Duoscan) which I am worried will not work satisfactorily under XP.

So, I have decided, now that I need XP (or Win 2K) in order to run Cubase SX and Photoshop CS and other future software upgrades, to keep the old system and dedicate it to scanning and any other time-intensive tasks such as CD copying, etc., which can run concurrently with other work on the new XP-based pc.

Will let you know how I make out.

[boxig]

Ralvis

Thank for the info and.. as Bob said, I too had problem with my scanner and I can't use it now with XP. So I guess members who want to upgrade to XP should take into account the possibility of extra expenses - buying new scanner.

[ralvis]

A Win98Se2222 image file is approx 80 megs. My pooter

can restore that image file in about 10 seconds.

So you can run Xp and when you want to scan or

test software on Win98 restore your Wn98 image file or

keep a 509 meg fat32 2nd primary partion and boot into it.

I can give you detail on how to do this.

Ralvis

[ronwil]

I switched to XP Home about 12 months ago. To my dismay there were no longer suitable drivers for my SCSI film scanner and flat bed scanner which originally cost me a total of £1300 (UK). Fortunately I was able to purchase an Epson Perfection 3200 Photo Scanner (I believe there is a different version in the States) at a cost of £330. It is an excellent substitute doing both the jobs of my old equipment and more.

My A3+ Epson Printer was also no longer fully functional and this I too have replaced with an Epson Stylus Photo 2100.

Ron [uK]