Upgrading from Win ME to Win XP

A clean install is the best way to go.  Click here for Denny Denham's web site and the information he has provided on how to install Windows XP on a Dell system.  As for reformatting the drive, the Windows XP installation will walk you through the partitioning and formatting of the hard drive. 

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 which came with Windows ME and a courtesy upgrade dist for XP, which I installed soon after I got the system. (3 or 4 years ago)

Now the system is really sluggish, says I dont need to defrag, when I force a defrag, it sits there, hard drive whirring away, doesn't seem to be doing anything.  Been that way for 2 hours now.

 

I believe I will have to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything.  I tried doing a repair by inserting the WIN XP on boot up, but it will not let me do that, nor will it let me reinstall WIN XP (it says the version I have installed is newer than the one on the CD).

 

Am I right in assuming that I will have to reinstall WIN ME, then follow that with the XP upgrade if I am forced to reformat?

 

Thanks for any help

 

Jeannette

Jeanette, just do the clean install of Windows XP.  During the XP installation process you will be prompted to briefly insert your Windows ME CD so that it can verify that you owned the earlier ME version of Windows.  Once the verification is done you can go about the task of re-installing Windows XP. 

 

A possible reason it would not let you repair or reinstall Windows XP maybe due to the upgrade CD being the plain version of Windows XP without any Service Packs.  When you tried to make repairs or re-install it, it detected a version of Windows XP patched with SP2.  

 

For additional information, click here for Denny Denham's web site and the information he has posted on doing a clean install of Windows XP on a Dell system.

Thank you, I did visit that site, and will follow those instructions for a clean install.  I needed to make sure it would work for me because I was puzzled by the message I got when I used my original XP CD.

 

Jeannette