Hi timfear,

     I don't think it is a bad idea, with hard drives either one could go.  Good Luck, Doug

Dell Dimension 2400
P4 2.6 GHz
512MB DDR SDRAM
40GB Hard Drive
3.5 Floppy
GeForce MX4000
17in. Monitor
BENQ DVDRW/CDRW
Windows XP Home (SP2)
Lexmark 3 in 1 1150
Norton Internet Security
Dazzle DVC 80
Pinnacle Studio V.9
LINKSYS 10/100 Fast Ethernet
SURFboard Cable Modem

timfear.

Upgrading to XP is excellent and you should be able to install any HD up to 137GB in the L733r system without a problem.
To go higher than 137GB you will need to install a PCI ATA/100 or 133 controller card and attach the HD to it. The controller card would overcome the limitations of the L733r Series BIOS.

As a follow up, I am wondering the following:  I am under the impression that I will free up additional hard drive space on the new hard drive by formatting it with XP.  I am currently running ME.  A friend told me I should NOT try to upgrade the ME, that I should blow it out and start from scratch with the new operating system.  To format the hard drive, I guess I would need to uninstall ME then install XP on the existing hard drive, format the slave, then switch the drives out.  Is that correct or am I making this way too difficult.

Thanks for your help and any help you can offer here.

Thanks,

You are making it more difficult  . . If you are going to use the 160 G drive, I'd partition 15 - 20 for the operating system and use the balance for your data . . XP will do all that for you.

This is a good guide for reinstalling on a Dell:  http://www.djdenham.com/Install%20Procedures.htm

After you have installed XP and have an antivirus in place, you can hook up the original drive temporarily and copy files over. 

You will have to reload drivers (Chipset first) and applications, After the installation, you will need to download and install the MicroSoft Critical Updates.  Alternately, this would be a good time to install SP-2, while windows is clean.  Prior to connecting to the internet be sure you enable the XP firewall.

If you want to save your files and settings, you can use the XP Files and Settings Transfer (FAST) wizard to create an image of them and save to cd or other removable media.  This is a good guide to using the FAST wizard. Just be sure you have an up-to-date antivirus before you re-instate them!

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_fstw.asp

wrs

Thanks for the info but I still have one point of confusion.  Because this larger drive is brand new, I have to format it using the already installed ME and that is not allowing me full use of the drive.  I cannot format using XP because it is not loaded.

Should I load XP on my 20 GB dirive, then format the 160, then switch out the drives?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm missing something here and I want to make sure i do it right.

Thanks,

You really shoul look at the links that were provided . . .

Once you create the new partition (s), XP will format them and proceed to installing . . you do not need to format using anything other than the XP CD

wrs

Message Edited by simpswr on 12-09-2004 07:49 AM

Okay, I'm finally getting started on all of this and have come to a road block I cannot seem to get by. The instructions on the sites referred above tell me to change the booth drive from floppy to CD.  The Dell site tells me to reboot computer and press delete when the dell logo appears.  The problem is, no matter how I re-boot or re-start, i cannot get a Dell logo and cannot figure out another way to get to setup.  Anybody have any helpful hints?

Thanks,

Sounds like Silent Boot is enabled . . when you turn it on, tap the delete button repeatedly about once a second and it should load the setup ( BIOS )

wrs