98 just died on me... To ZXP or not?

[WarriorII]

98 just died on me... To XP or not?

Today I was doing my usual stuff on the PC, and it started locking up. So I did a reboot, BAM ! all of a sudden I have bad boot sectors and need to do a low level format to correct it.
Grrrrrrrrr........
Meaning I have to wipe my C:\
Good thing it is partitioned into several sections.
Except I lost all my e-mails I sent the family from when I was overseas.

So, the question is: Do I XPPro or not?
How is it for overclocking?
I know its a resource HOG (oink-oink)

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Oni]

Save your money and get Win2k if you can. It's just like XP, but w/o all of the bloat and whatnot. Runs fast right out of the box, whereas you have to tweak XP out the *** to make it go fast.

 

[WarriorII]

I had Win2K Pro on 1 of my HDD's around here somewhere, I didn't really like it all that well. Reminded me of NT @ work.

Is that what you're running?
Our systems are pretty similar.

 

[Audioaficionado]

You couldn't just format the MBR and reload the 98 boot files?

Did you try to reinstall 98 over itself first?

I've had it so screwed up that I had to reload 98 off the win98 install directory using a floppy boot to get to the setup.exe.

All the program folders and data were left intact as windows just overwrote it's own files.

I only reformat if I'm changing from say FAT32 to NTFS.

Now that you've done the deed, you might as well go with an NT flavored OS. XPpro is better than the Homely edition. I like w2kpro better, but that's my preference.

 

[WarriorII]

Seems this P.O.S. is dieing as we speak.
I just hate it when I loose a HDD.

Reinstall 98? well... no I didn't.
I had thought about it, but didn't think it would correct the prob.
When I shut the system down this last time, I couldn't get back into windows. So now I am in DOS.

 

[Disputant]

You couldn't just format the MBR and reload the 98 boot files?

Did you try to reinstall 98 over itself first?

I've had it so screwed up that I had to reload 98 off the win98 install directory using a floppy boot to get to the setup.exe.

All the program folders and data were left intact as windows just overwrote it's own files.

I only install over like that to try to retrieve lost files, I don't think Win98 overwrites all the dll files when you do that, I could be wrong. But in the past that has caused some screwed up unstable systems, so I go with the fdisk and a clean install everytime. Unless of course I am trying to get back my e-mails or files, then I blow it out.

I used Win2k Pro for quite a while and found it to be very stable, more so than my current XP Pro. XP Pro is pretty boated and a bit of a system hog, I barely run it on my ol P2 233 at work.

 

[WarriorII]

Is there any limit to memory in Win2K as in 98 & ME ?
I don't think so, but if you use it every day you would know for sure.

 

[Audioaficionado]

You can delete the whole windows directory but leave the program directory alone. After windows recreates a whole new installation, you just reinstall the apps and the data should still be intact.

Always back up critical data first (e-mails, browser favorites, etc) as we're dealing with M$ OSes.

 

[WarriorII]

Too late. It's toast. (C:\)

 

[Disputant]

You can delete the whole windows directory but leave the program directory alone. After windows recreates a whole new installation, you just reinstall the apps and the data should still be intact.

I did that to the intern's computer in my office because I didn't feal like fdisking it. He hoses it about once a month. Had some minor problems with IE, but they could have been unrelated, I guess.

 

[WarriorII]

LOL ! thanks funny.
I was doing that for a while myself.
Then I stared using Ghost to back it up.

 

[Audioaficionado]

When you get a new HD and install the OS, you may be able to slave the toasted HD and pull your data off. If you didn't already format it...

 

[WarriorII]

It's partitioned.
I think I will have to drop a new one in though. Glad I have the removable tray.
At least I can slave it like you said.

 

[Disputant]

I have a document entitled 200 ways to revive a hard drive. Pretty cool reading if you need it I can e-mail it, way too big to post.

I think I got it from Tech Republic

 

[WarriorII]

I think I might have that here some where. I printed it @ work.
But just to be on the safe side I'll PM you.