Upgrading from Windows 98 SE to XP??

[shacke]

Can anyone please tell me whether they would advise me upgrading my current operating system from Windows 98SE to XP.

I am currently running PT 5.1.1 and I am intersted in knowing whether there are any problems with upgrading to 5.3.1

I am asking because when I got my Digi 001/ Pro Tools LE back a few years ago, there were numerous problems and I would like to know if the XP and 5.3.1 work well or not.

[Swaphappy]

I think upgrading to XP is great but do a clean install and don't by the upgrade version of XP,
get the full version. Trying to convert 98 into XP with the upgrade version can run into errors and problems.
My approach was to take my Win 98 drive out of the system and put a brand new drive in for XP.
This had two advantages. One was that XP runs better on the new faster IDE drives so I upgraded the hard drive. Two, you will still have your old drive with 98 on it if XP turns out to be NOT your cup of tea.
I still put my 98 drive back in sometimes because I had some plugins that worked only with 98.
I have a removable hard drive bay so I can swap quickly.
There is another advantage too. If your new drive dies you can pop the old drive back in and continue to work on your sessions. Sessions will open on 98 or XP as long as you format the session drive with FAT and not NTFS.

[dans]

I agree that a clean, full install on a freshly formatted partition is always best. However, DO NOT buy the full version of XP! You can and should buy the upgrade version. This will save you about $100. On install it will ask you to prove you own a previous version of windows if it doesn't detect your old Win98 system, but that's easy enough to do with the original CD.

[shacke]

Thanks a lot. I thought I better ask because I remember when I got the system, I had to learn about the insides of computers real quick which I wasn't too keen on, it sounds like the interface b/w XP and 5.3.1 is better than the original 5.0 and 98 SE interface.

A bit confused about whether to buy a new or upgrade version now though?

[shacke]

Thanks a lot. I thought I better ask because I remember when I got the system, I had to learn about the insides of computers real quick which I wasn't too keen on, it sounds like the interface b/w XP and 5.3.1 is better than the original 5.0 and 98 SE interface.

A bit confused about whether to buy a new or upgrade version now though?

[silence_of_stone]

Remember this - if you are running an older and slower sytem, you will definatly see a drop in performance when you install XP.
Good luck. Its worth the change if your system can handle XP and PT too. Some are jsut a tad too slow.
kev

[Antonio Tarantino]

The most important thing in upgrading to Windows XP is to make sure you have enough ram to run it.
I have upgraded a Pentium II 300mhz with 384mb of ram and to my surprise it runs faster than Windows 98.
There's not crashes and it is very speedy.

I'll suggest the upgrade and make sure you have plenty ram.

Ciao,
Antonio Tarantino