I need some advice on PC issues.

[Ingo]

This is a story of laziness and procrastination. When I built my PC a year and a half ago I didn't have enough money to pay for an operating system. So I took my computer to a friend, and he gave it back to me and magically it had window's XP Pro on it. Soon I realized I didn't have USB 2.0 support or any of the other features that come in the service packs. Windows Update downloaded all the stuff and when SP2 started to install an error message came up notifying me that I cannot install SP2 due to the fact that I don't have a genuine copy of Windows XP. Anyways, I want to buy Windows XP Pro to put on my computer. Can I get the OEM version from Newegg @ 137.99? or do I have to pay $299.99 for the retail package? I have my OS on a small partition of my hard drive and my programs, music, and other files on the rest of the drive. Can I just reformatethe partition that holds the OS?

 

[richpjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo Can I get the OEM version from Newegg @ 137.99? or do I have to pay $299.99 for the retail package? I have my OS on a small partition of my hard drive and my programs, music, and other files on the rest of the drive. Can I just reformatethe partition that holds the OS?

You should be able to buy the OEM version from Newegg. Typically you are supposed to buy hardware with it before they are supposed to sell the OS, but most sellers aren't picky about it. Yes, you can just reformat a single partition.

 

[riffer]

Just remember to backup the stuff that may reside on your C:/ drive, like email, bookmarks, etc.

 

[Ingo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by riffer Just remember to backup the stuff that may reside on your C:/ drive, like email, bookmarks, etc.

Do you mean like my 50 gigs of music?

 

[pedxing]

If you divided your existing drive into two or more partitions and placed your important data files on the partition separate of that of the OS, you should be ok. However, you should not be lazy and put off backing data up. You never know what Windows will do.

 

[Ingo]

Thanks guys, I just ordered Windows XP Professional - With SP2 OEM from Newegg.com.

 

[richpjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pedxing You never know what Windows will do.

It's not just Windows - it's any system that stores data on mechanical drives.

 

[zutme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo This is a story of laziness and procrastination. When I built my PC a year and a half ago I didn't have enough money to pay for an operating system. So I took my computer to a friend, and he gave it back to me and magically it had window's XP Pro on it. Soon I realized I didn't have USB 2.0 support or any of the other features that come in the service packs. Windows Update downloaded all the stuff and when SP2 started to install an error message came up notifying me that I cannot install SP2 due to the fact that I don't have a genuine copy of Windows XP. Anyways, I want to buy Windows XP Pro to put on my computer. Can I get the OEM version from Newegg @ 137.99? or do I have to pay $299.99 for the retail package? I have my OS on a small partition of my hard drive and my programs, music, and other files on the rest of the drive. Can I just reformatethe partition that holds the OS?

USB 2.0 ships with windows xp. You don't need service packs for that.

 

[zeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by riffer Just remember to backup the stuff that may reside on your C:/ drive, like email, bookmarks, etc.

if you have many applications installed which you dont want to configure again after your reinstall, make sure you check the installation directories of your apps (for .ini files etc.) including the Application Data directory in your user profile (C:\Documents and Settings\<userprofile>\Application Data)

saves alot of time