Ancient PC upgrade

Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!

You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

You are not logged in. If you are already registered, fill in the form below to log in, or follow the "Sign Up" link to register a new account.
You may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Moscow Mule replied

5 March 2010, 09:56
I am locking that bastard down when I've reinstalled it...
Leave a comment:
TheFaQQer replied

5 March 2010, 07:36
Originally posted by tommyc View Post

Discostu is right. Definitely don't offer to help..

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers

That is SO true, I've just sent the link to my brother. I've spoken to him three times this year - to solve the same spoof anti-virus pop-up thing each time.
Leave a comment:
tommyc replied

4 March 2010, 23:19
Discostu is right. Definitely don't offer to help..

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers
Leave a comment:
Moscow Mule replied

2 March 2010, 10:30
Cheers.

Also for tip about drivers - handy.
Leave a comment:
Peoplesoft bloke replied

1 March 2010, 20:40
Tee hee - that PC (your Uncle's) is better than the one I've just upgraded to Windows 7 and put MS Office on - and it's not bad. I know it's pointless but as well as being an early adopter of some stuff I refuse to let go other stuff. I bought a new DVD drive for it as I couldn't boot from USB (BIOS too old to support it) and the win 7 uses a 3gb ISO image to boot from.

EDIT - I googled XP boot disc and found some bloke's tutorial on how to create a boot disc from what's on your PC already. Mine didn't work though :-(
Leave a comment:
Peoplesoft bloke replied

1 March 2010, 20:35
Tee hee - that PC (your Uncle's) is better than the one I've just upgraded to Windows 7 and put MS Office on - and it's not bad. I know it's pointless but as well as being an early adopter of some stuff I refuse to let go other stuff. I bought a new DVD drive for it as I couldn't boot from USB (BIOS too old to support it) and the win 7 uses a 3gb ISO image to boot from.
Leave a comment:
DiscoStu replied

1 March 2010, 17:48
Tell him he needs a new one, otherwise you're about to become his lifetime technical support. Everything that goes wrong from this point on will, in his mind, be caused by you upgrading it.

A slightly more helpful answer, yes, that drive should be fine. Make sure you have all the drivers before you do an XP re-install. There's an app that will back up all the existing drivers and then allow you to re-install them, but its name temporarily eludes me...

ETA: Could you talk him into buying something like this instead? Saves arsing around with the old one for pretty much the same cost as memory and an HDD

Last edited by DiscoStu; 1 March 2010, 17:52.
Leave a comment:
Moscow Mule started a topic Ancient PC upgrade

1 March 2010, 17:19
Ancient PC upgrade
My uncle, who is a cheapskate, has an old PC which is now very slow.

I've ordered some new RAM from crucial, which will be easy to do.

Problem is his hard-drive which appears to be on the way out.

This is his system spec:

Code:

1 SEPTEMBER 19B INTEL PENTIUM 4 PROCESSOR1 {DIMENSION 4500}P4 2.53GHZ/512K, INTEGRA1 256MB 266MHZ DDR RAM MEMORY, (1X256MB)1 40GB IDE (5,400RPM) HARD DRIVE

Will I be able to

1) plug this in - http://www.dabs.com/products/western...?refs=52420000
2) boot from the CD and re-install WinXP on new drive?

Basically - is an ATA-100 drive the same as IDE?
Tags: None