I have a Compaq5726,P3,500MHz,224SDRam,LG DVD Drive, Sony Burner,Hercules Radeon 8500 Video Card,Ess Solo Sound card.

I wish to update From WinMe to XP or 2000. I have looked for Bios & Drivers updates and asked compaq.I dont know which one would work better on my computer? Also what drivers like the bios, were I would get it from? At the same time i wish to update from a 20G Hard drive to an 80G.

This is an IBM OS/2 forum.

Anyway Compaq have all the latest drivers etc you require see: http://www29.compaq.com/falco/sp_result.asp?Model=1427&Os=0 presuming it is a Presario 5726??

IBM is sort of like compaq.
Computers all work the same way.

Anyway i have already tryed there.
But the bios is still for 98 and Me.
I need XP or NT Compatibility.
I do know that compaq parts are not real compaq. Like the dvd that comes with compaqs is a Pioneer DVD drive with the compaq Label on it.

Does anyone know where I can find the full name of the motherboard of my computer and with I might find some NT or XP Drivers for it.

The computer BIOS is not operating specific, are you getting confused?, there is a latest BIOS available from Compaq. The disclaimer about BIOS for W9x/ME is stating that this update is complient with the manufacturers recommended factory O/S installation.

XP and W2K have very good driver support, therefore manufacturers will not supply drivers, also there is software available to detect the hardware in PC

Thankyou for that.

Last Two question

Q1:what OS would you Recommended Win2000 or XP for my system. Meaning which would work better.

Q2:Compaq say I can only go up to a 40G Hard drive but can I go higher.
-I Just dont trust them

XP professional is good but ideally would require more memory 512MB, W2K has been around longer so most of the bugs have been eliminated and will run fine on your hardware. Both are based on NT so Games can be a problem unless you buy the latest release.

40GB hard drive limit is quite usuall though you can use drive overlay software, this is available from the hard drive manufacturer for free, or you can download an OnTrack version from http://LightspeedRefPage.homestead.com/files/ontrack.zip though you need to start with either a new hard drive or clean everything off using this utility first http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/faqs/faqs_20000120_0000000036.htm.

As to Compaq and IBM et al they have very tight support and they build PC's for specific O/S and would like you to upgrade through them, hence the reason they do not supply full versions of the operating system. I have a 15 year old PC from IBM which is still listed in Support, so know would disagree I have always found manufacturers web support informative.

Another Thing
If I was to upgrade Os To XPHome or XPPro.
Which one should I get Full or upgrade?

Full would be good because I can start again from the start but there is a Problem Compaq use a restoreCD and all the drivers are on it and no way of geting them off it.

If I was to get a upgade, it would just be to much piggyback of OS as well as the fact of in the Future if I have to Reformat the computer It would take so long to get it back to how I had it.

Also with the overlay software does that mean I can upgread to an 80G and it will work if I have the software.

So far you have helped me so much thankyou.

The restore CD is only relevent to ME, if you installed XP FULL then those drivers are useless. In the UK XP PRP OEM FULL version is around £125 HOME FULL around £85

The general concensus is that upgrading to XP does cause problems.

Yes all manufacturers of hard drives provide software to allow the full size of hard drive to be used, though in BIOS it would state 40GB, actually an 80GB drive would state about 74GB.

You could always sell the old hard drive...

So If I was to get the XPFUll then it would install its own drivers that came with it.Is that what you mean?

Could I get away with a usb hardrive and keep the old one.

But one qustion with that, can you install games on it because I read somewhere you can only store files like documents on it?

Second question about USB drives, do not know, manufacturers give conflicting advice.

First question, no XP uses different drivers, and though XP has a large database of drivers and M$ has a large database on-line, there is no gaurantee it will install all drivers, but the manufacturers have other drivers, if not XP can use W2K drivers, and if they are not digitally signed it does not matter.

If you buy XP make sure it includes Service Pack 1..........

Q1:So you can install games on a usb Hard drive as far as you know.

Q2:What happends if I can not get update drivers for hardware? Or if I can but can't get them for XP or W2K?

Q1 do not know

Q2 buy different hardware, but the standard hardware appears to have compatible drivers available, except possibly the internal modem.

I tryed compaq and they wont tell me what motherboard I have. I can't get drivers for Hardware if I dont know what Model it is.

Final reply, Dell want you to buy from them period.

Buy XP Professional, clean your hard drive completely of all remants of partitions etcetc http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;255867 and then use the XP install to fdisk/format/partition, do not need to use any DOS boot disks.

I am fairly sure that the majority of hardware will be OK except for internal 56K modems which can have problems, though a new hardware modem is only a tenner.

Just take a deep breath and go for it....