Apologies in advance. A lot of basic, dumb questions here because I put together my BP6 computer four years ago and haven't modified it since. Now I'm thinking to upgrade. Any answers/advice you can provide is much appreciated.
Currently running Win98SE. Have CD-ROM on IDE1 and a 40GB H/D on IDE3. Plus modem, ethernet & sound PCI cards. One CPU, 433 or 466 Mhz Celeron. And 256Mb RAM.
What I am thinking to do is add another H/D, another CPU matched to whatever I have currently and install XP Pro on the new drive. Will probably get some more RAM while I'm at it too.
First question: is it possible to install XP on the new drive and plug in the existing drive so it is readable as is? And, say, I wanted to boot back into 98 for some reason or other, can I do this just by switching IDE plugs?
Next question: since I want to replace the incorrect capacitor, should I have other components or caps replaced while I am at it? This computer has been running 24x7 for the last couple of years.
Am I right in thinking that if I am going to go with dual CPU's, the additional CPU should be installed before I install XP?
Are there any limitations on the size of H/D I can install?
Guess that's enough for now. Thanks a lot.
various upgrade questions
Re: various upgrade questions
Yes it is. The best thing is to set the old drive as slave, and the new one as master. Then when you want to use the old Win98, just reverse the master/slave combination. Note that you'll need to format your XP drive as FAT32 (not NTFS) if you want to read that drive from Win98. Otherwise, NTFS is recomended over FAT32.mdchachi wrote:First question: is it possible to install XP on the new drive and plug in the existing drive so it is readable as is? And, say, I wanted to boot back into 98 for some reason or other, can I do this just by switching IDE plugs?
I wouldn't bother if everything seems to be working OK.mdchachi wrote:Next question: since I want to replace the incorrect capacitor, should I have other components or caps replaced while I am at it? This computer has been running 24x7 for the last couple of years.
Yes, you should have both CPUs installed so that XP knows which kernel to use.mdchachi wrote:Am I right in thinking that if I am going to go with dual CPU's, the additional CPU should be installed before I install XP?
The best thing to do is to buy a Promise IDE controller card and abandon IDE3/4. Then you'll be able to use any size drive you can find. Also, the IDE3/4 (also known as HPT366) is known to be unreliable.mdchachi wrote:Are there any limitations on the size of H/D I can install?
Thanks for your answers.
> Also, the IDE3/4 (also known as HPT366) is known to be unreliable.
Is this statement a BP6-specific issue or is HPT366 known to be unreliable in general? The BP6 manual states that there may be conflict with devices in PCI slot 3. Or is that unrelated to the problems you are referring to?
> Also, the IDE3/4 (also known as HPT366) is known to be unreliable.
Is this statement a BP6-specific issue or is HPT366 known to be unreliable in general? The BP6 manual states that there may be conflict with devices in PCI slot 3. Or is that unrelated to the problems you are referring to?
It's unrelated to the conflicting device issue. The HPT366 just isn't very well engineered.mdchachi wrote:Is this statement a BP6-specific issue or is HPT366 known to be unreliable in general? The BP6 manual states that there may be conflict with devices in PCI slot 3. Or is that unrelated to the problems you are referring to?
I didn't think of that!24seven wrote:If you put the drives so that the new one is master and the old one is slave, you can add a line into the boot.ini file to allow you to boot the second drive with out haveing to change the drives around.