[Nimblor]

I am going to be rebuilding my computer soon, pretty much from scratch except the case and memory. I want to use SATA hard drives so the old IDE ones will be gone. I have a windows XP home upgrade disk that I used on my old computer to put xp over 98. Can I use this same disk to put XP on the new computer or am I better off buying an OEM version of XP?

[Th0r]

Yeah you can, any problems, contact Windows Support through the phone, explain you upgraded the PC etc, and they'll give you the code to activate Windows.

[Nimblor]

So should I load windows 98 onto the drive or is there a way around that. I have been reading that there are some peculiarities with loading xp and SATA drives.

[baltoos]

You don't need to load Win98. Just boot from your XP Upgrade CD. Make sure you have the proper SATA drivers for your mobo on a floppy. Shortly after Setup starts, it will prompt you to hit F6 to load SCSI or other hard disk drivers. Load the floppy & wait for Setup to ask you which drivers to install. Highlight the proper entry on the floppy & hit Enter. At some time during Setup, it will ask you to insert your Win98 CD. Do so. This is just M$'s way of making sure you have a valid copy of Win98. The rest of the install should be pretty straightforward.
-Dave