If I put an old harddrive from a Win98 machine in my newer XP machine would it boot up and not hurt.?
95818
it's possible, but be aware of the different formats. I suppose your Win98 disk is FAT32 formatted, while XP disks are NTFS formatted.\n\nXP is able to read a FAT32 formatted disk.
892939
You should have no problems whatever with current files, accounts, etc.  It is always a good idea to back-up your system on external media (data DVD, CD, External HD, etc...)  \n\nWhatever you do...do not turn off power (power-cycle) your computer while updating...even at the end of the instalation process...you must let it shut-down (it will prompt you at the appropriate time to do this or do it itself) and boot up or XP will no longer work.  It trashes the System32/config files.  you have to repair from the intall CD...and you then may loose the "my documents" portion of your system.  \n\nI don't mean to scare you with doom and gloom, but if you have a system that came with Xp on the HD on a "Secret Partition" then you will need find a viable copy of XP or Buy one...because Microsoft will laugh at you if you call them with this particular problem.
818794
When you install a new mobo its best to start a new OS. I think you're windows disc will be fine
622323
That's a hard question to answer. It depends on how old the computer is, and what kind of hardware it has. If it is a relatively new computer, then you can go out and buy a copy of windows xp. If it is an older computer or one without good hardware, then xp may not run on it. Your best option then is to put something like windows 98 on it if you can find it, or else Linux. If you know someone who is knowledgeable about computers, then ask them to burn a Linux ISO for you. Linux is free this way (except the cost of the disk). I have heard good things about Ubuntu Linux. You can get it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/
1018139
Assuming you used followed all steps in the Windows XP setup you will most likely have formatted the drive in an NTFS file system. Unfortunately 98 uses FAT32 file system and they are incompatible. To install 98 you will have to format and start from scratch using a win 98 CD. I have to agree with the others though going to 98 is a major step backwards, stick with XP. If your desperate to change OS either go to linux or wait for vista which is just around the conrer
228822
I had a friend who did the same thing, he put xp on and realized it could barely boot up. Just put in the win98 cd and let it format the drive during installation. Make sure you have all the drivers for 98 BEFORE installing. Find out what drivers you will need. That is the hardest part by far.
615872
Copy the XP setup cd onto ur hard drive and then run the setup.. it should run fine then..
857218
you should be ok just pop in the xp disc and follow the prompts
640983
This depends, IF it is able to install, then right click on the .EXE file, and go to properties -  compatibility - and select Win95\n\nIF it will NOT even install, then the problem is probably one of 2 things\n1) The installer cannot recognize an NTFS partition\n2) The installer thinks any drive over 2GB is a negative sized drive... IE you have MINUS bytes on the hard disk.\n\nI have several games that will only install on 95 not on XP, so I keep an old 95 PC for this purpose.\n\nIf this is the case then a 95 PC will probably be given away free, all you then need is a KVM switch (KeyboardVideoMouse) connect this to both PC's and this allows you to switch between them both, saves buying extra keyboard, monitor and mouse, and saves space too
1075845
Basically you can make it as a slave because your BIOS can detect the hard drive with win xp. But when you boot up your 98 OS, you will see that it still cant see new drives there bec your 98 OS has the fat32 file format, and it cannot read NTFS (which is obviously the format your win xp uses).  Either you make the win xp drive as master so that it boots up first (if that works) then you can manage both harddrives without a problem. Make sure you back-up your files before trying to manipulate the drives just in case something goes wrong. =)
386941
Why would you want to go from 2000 to 98?? Of course it costs something. XP is around 80-85 dollars unless you want to obtain it illegally which since you dont know how to install an operating system might be a pain. You can't "upgrade" from 2000 to 98. If you went from 2000 to XP you cuold upgrade (with an upgrade disk) otherwise it will format the drive and install XP (the best way for a clean install)
792388
You can reload the file from your win98 CD using the expand command.  Upgrading to WinXP may not be feasible as your computer is probably not powerful enough to handle XP.  You need a cpu of 800 mhz or better (yes it will run on a slower one but slow is the operative word), a minimum of 20G free space on your hard drive - again, more is better, and at least 256M ram.  It will work on 128 but slowly.  A Win98 computer would usually have 64M ram and 128 if it was boosted plus the CPUs were either P1 or P2.
559160
Windows XP does not accept to work on other machines than the one that been installed into.\nmeans, when you install windows XP on hard drive in machine1, you can not run that windows by moving hard drive in machine2.\n\nYou need to install new Windows XP into this old hard while in machine2.\n\n\nXLMan
763244
Usually, with or without windows on it, and even if the current hardware was different as u mentioned, the drive should have read alright..shouldn't have any problems.\nDo you a drive letter for that old drive when you go My Computers?\n\nThings to check:\n.. does your BIOS detects that an additional drive is there?\n(if not, your jumper settings are wrong)\n.. is the old drive set as slave and your current drive set as master? \n..do you get a drive letter for the old drive when you go to My Computers?\n(if not, right-click on My Computers--Management--Storage-->Disk Management).\n\nunless your hard disk is damaged or otherwise, you should be able to access it if you stick closely to those checklist.\n\nAnother solution I can give is to just format it, and then use a recovery software to search for and recover files deleted during reformatting.\nOne such example is RecoverMyFiles\n\nCheers!
695952
The biggest difference between Windows XP and Windows 98 is the basic OS architecture.  XP is built on the NT kernel; 98 is built on DOS. Because of this difference, XP supports the NTFS file system, while 98 does not.\n\nMany companies--including Microsoft--have ended support for 98, so new software and hardware are less likely to work with Windows 98.\n\nThat being said, if Windows 98 does what you need to do, there is no reason to upgrade to XP. "Because it's the latest" is not a reason: that's marketing.\n\nI keep an 98 machine around to run older software because, in my experience, XP's compatibility mode is too slow.\n\nIt comes to this: XP is newer, bigger, slower, more compatible with modern hardware and software.  (Please note, I did not include "more secure." I don't believe XP is more secure than 98.)
431470
A pentium 3 can handle Windows XP with enough memory installed. (256MB+) I'd recommend an upgrade as apposed to Windows 98. Win98SE is still a great operating system.\n\n(BACKUP ALL DRIVERS ONTO A FLOPPY, CD OR THE NET BEFORE STARTING!)\n\nIf you haven't been persueded towards an upgrade already, you can format Win2K by simply popping in the 98 boot disk (floppy), --> boot up ---> choose to load 98 without cd-rom support ----> at the command prompt, type format C:. This is called a low level format and will take a few minutes to completely erase the hard drive. It will ask if you're sure, just hit Y or yes which ever.\n\npop in the 98 boot disk (floppy), --> boot up ---> choose to load 98 without cd-rom support ---->at the command prompt type FDISK. Type yes to enable large disk support. Then you need to delete all partitions and create a new primary partition. Then exit and reboot.\n\nThis time choose to load 98 WITH cd-rom support -> Put the Win98 CD into the CD-ROM --> at the command prompt type SETUP. The Windows 98 setup program will start and you can just follow the onscreen prompts through the rest.
482311
You can also upgrade from Windows 98. Boot from the Win 98 CD and format the hard disk, then install.