Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
I've been reading about a tool called nLite which can take lots of features out of an XP install. If i used this tool, would I be able to get XP down to the "barebones" to install on my old PII 300 with 224MB RAM - how well do you think it would run on this spec? Or is it not worth the hassle?
Cheers
I have never paired down XP for an install like you mention so of little help there, I myself would think that something up to 2k might be as far as you are going to go and it still run at a workable speed, 98 would fit nice there as well as most distros of Linux....
Keep the old stuff running
0 
Thanks for the reply.
I was tempted to put Linux on it from the off, but I backed out! I have bought a few Linux distros over the years and also installed them on my PC, but have never been able to "get into it" - I'm sure one day I'll give it a proper go!
As for the laptop, yeah it currently runs 2000 and it runs fine. It's just that XP tempts me because of the little features I like in SP2 like the pop-up blocker and things like that!
0
If you can image the OS on there right now and give the XP install a go, nothing lost but a little time if you don't like the outcome, if you do post back so others may learn from what you did.....
Keep the old stuff running
0
using nLite can indeed strip down XP to it's bare essentials. the 'best' result i ever got was a windows folder smaller than 300 MB, 13 processes running after the initial installation, 45 MB of the memory being used for the operating system. so, yes, it would run on this laptop of yours.
btw., a new version of damned small linux (DSL 3.0.1) has just been released.
Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'
0
Like you, I tried many Linux distros over the years but "couldn't get into it". Then I came across Ubuntu Linux. For me, the end of dependence on Winblows is in sight. Ubuntu is, without a doubt, the easiest Linux distro to migrate to from Winblows. The Ubuntu support forums are easily understandable (unlike the geek-speak usually encountered). Ubuntu also has great hardware support compared to some other distros.
Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.
0
Hello.
If you would like to try WinXP, there is no need in my opinion to make XP barebones before installing it.
Just install it and then you can turn off many of the Services that you do not need, depending on how slow your machine runs with XP the way it installs itself on old machines.
Regards
suatcini
0
I have a Fujitsu Lifebook C350 with a 266mhz PII and running a whopping 94mb of ram, and installed a full version of XP pro and it runs like a champ!! It is a bit slow compared to what I'm used to, but it's tolerable. My friend has a Dell Insperon with a 500mhz PIII that my Fujistu runs circles around it. The only problem with the full install is that I only have a 4.1 gig hdd, and XP takes like 2gigs of hdd space, so I don't have that much room left.
Emachines T-2200, Sound Blaster live 5.1, ATI 9200se main comp
Asus A7N8X, AMD 2500 Barton, 1 gig Corsair, Geforce 4200ti
0
I have XP Home installed on an old Cybermax AMD K6 233 MMX. 128mb Ram and it works OK. Not much slower than Win98SE which I have it set to multi boot on that hard drive. Ironic as my friend with a Dell Dimension 600 mine booted quicker as it was a barebones setup with almost everything disabled on selective startup and the virtual memory set to 1024mb. Hard drive is a 120mb Maxtor 7200rpm on a promise Ultra ATA controller card.
0
Thanks for all the replies! Some very handy tips and also nice to hear how it runs on other people's older machines.
I am interested in doing what response 3 says:
"If you can image the OS on there right now and give the XP install a go, nothing lost but a little time if you don't like the outcome, if you do post back so others may learn from what you did....."
I have 2 partitions on the laptop though - is there anyway I can image the whole of the drive (so both partitions) onto my other PC (this one) over the network?
Cheers
0
What all do you have on the laptop right now, what OS is on there and are there things on it that you can not afford to loose ?
Your options are to create a complete "Image" of the drive or to just "Backup" what is there right now, if you have the orginal OS install set then all you will need to do is a backup of data and not a full image, if you go with an image it will take a lot more storage space than if it were just a backup of data.....Keep the old stuff running
0
You make a good point actually, I can just backup the data on the laptop across the network to my PC. There's nothing on there I can't afford to lose really, as it hasn't been set up long.
Also, currently it has 2000 and 98 - 2000 for reliability, 98 for any old, old, old games should I want to play them. It all works fine, but I don't know if I did anything wrong when installing because I wanted 2000 on partition C and 98 on partition D. Is this actually possible, as I couldn't find any way to do it?
Cheers
0
Actually scrap that, I'll just boot off the XP CD, delete the 2000 partition and then create a new one to install XP onto.
0
"...because I wanted 2000 on partition C and 98 on partition D. Is this actually possible, as I couldn't find any way to do it?..."
Although you've now decided to wipe the system... In response to your question in post-12 - extract above...
You would have preconfigured (and preformatted the c and d: partitions (as fat32) via stnadard '98SE bootdisk. Then started a typical '98 installation; and at the point where it states the "assumed" destination for '98 (c:\windows) you would have changed it to read d:\windows, and proceeded from there. '98 would have installed its bot/start-up files in c: and the actual system files (the OS itself) into d: .When installed W2K as per norm it too would offer c: as the assumed location for W2K. This you would accept and allow the installation to proceed. It would find evidence of a dos-based OS ('98) and create the necessary bootsect.dos via which '98 would ultimately boot via the W2K boot-loader.
You would have your dual-boot with the OS where you wanted them.
Similarly... youcould have preconfigured the drive as above (c: and d: as fat32) and then installed W2K first, and accepted the default/assumed location as c:\winnt (or c:\windows - whichever it offered). Afterwhich you would have wisely made the ERD for W2K. Then installed '98 and changed the proffered/assumed location from c:\windows to d:\windows and so on...
Once '98 was installed you would have access only to '98. At this stage you would run a standard W2K repair routine, and this would both restore access to W2K, and also establish the necessary bootsect.dos for '98 to boot etc.
You would have your dual-boot as desired...
Wisely you would then renew the ERD... and keep safe.
0
Hello.
The important thing is, are you going to be able to find all the necessary drivers for your hardware, especially the network card and sound card ? Without them, a PC is virtually nothing.
WinXP has a utility called Upgrade Advisor. Run it before installing XP. It will tell you if you have hardware/software incompatibility. You can run it on your current OS, Windows family.
Regards
suatcini
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
