windows 95 osr2 with 120gb hard drive

#1 dsa1971

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Posted 13 July 2005 - 12:33 PM

I am building a new computer. I have bought a new 120 gb hard drive to use so I am trying to figure out the best way to install windows xp pro on the new computer since I don't have a full version of Windows XP to start with. My current system is a dell with an OEM version of windows xp home and I intend to sell the system so I am not going to use that version of windows xp home and I don't even think I can use that on another system anyway.

I have my old full windows 95 osr2 installation cd, and upgrade cds for windows 98 se and windows xp professional. so what I want to do is install windows 95 and upgrade it to windows 98se, and then upgrade to windows xp professional.

option 1)
I'm pretty sure the windows 95 version I have supports fat32 but I am still concerned I will run into issues with using a 120 gb hard drive. do you think I can do this?

option 2)
I have thought that I could use an old 4 or 5 gig hard drive not in use that I could use and go through the windows 95-->windows 98-->windows xp pro installation and then clone that to the 120 gb and swap out the drives.

any ideas on which option is best or other options?

#2 pip22

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Posted 13 July 2005 - 02:43 PM

First, you are right about the OEM version of XP Home, it is permanently 'tied' to the system it was supplied with and cannot be used on a different PC. Basically, when it's host PC dies, the OEM version of Windows XP dies with it.

Now, as for installing an upgrade version of XP Pro. The best method of installing to ensure the least number of problems and the highest degree of stability is to install it on a freshly formatted, empty partition. "But it's an upgrade" I hear you saying, "How can I do that?"

Well, just because it's an upgrade doesn't mean you have to install the previous or older version. Just boot from the XP upgrade CD and at some point setup will ask you to prove where your copy of Windows 95 or 98 is. Just swap the XP CD for the 95 or 98 one (unless you have two optical drives), and navigate with the mouse to the Win95 or Win98 folder on the old CD. Click OK, XP setup will be satisfied and will ask you to put the XP CD back in. So no problems with the OS recognising the large-capacity disk, provided the BIOS is fairly recent (4 years or less), and there's no need to install an OS just to perform an upgrade.

This post has been edited by pip22: 13 July 2005 - 02:45 PM