M
mister_friendly@the-newzgroups.com
Flightless Bird
I just bought a used computer, complete with a licensed copy of
Windows XP Pro SP3. I bought the computer from a guy who bought a
whole batch of them from some office and was reselling them. They
came with a legal license serial number on the computer for XP Pro.
He wiped the drive and resinstalled XP along with some other licensed
commercial stuff and some freeware. All in all, what I got was a
ready to run computer, including everything except the monitor.
I have never owned XP, and was still using Win98 and Win2000 mostly
because of a slow computer and the fact I did not want to purchase XP.
Instead, I bought the whole computer which is 3 times faster than my
old one, for what I would have paid for XP.
But there is one problem. He installed it using the NTFS format. I
DO NOT want NTFS. (Two reasons, 1. I still use some dos software, 2.
NTFS scares me, because if Windows fails on Fat32, I can still access
the data from Dos, but I know far too many people who lost all their
data when a NTFS partition failed. I know that XP will run almost as
well on a Fat32 partition (just like my Win2000 works fine on Fat32).
IF I CHANGE THE FORMAT FROM NTFS TO FAT32, WILL XP STILL RUN?
(I do not want to reinstall).
I have "Partition Magic", which will not only change the partition
without losing all the data, but can even make partitions on one
drive.
Of course I'll backup first....
But will XP run when changing the drive from NTFS to FAT32?
If for some reason I cant get Partition Magic to work, I have a USB
plug in harddrive that I can copy everything to, and replace it later.
Another thing, will I need to re-activate XP with MS after doing this?
----
Another question. The guy did not have the original XP Cd. He gave
me a Dell Cd for XP. This is not a Dell computer. I inderstand that
those "branded ones" dont install properly, or can not be activated,
or something like that..... What's the deal with this?
-OR-
Can I just get a friend to burn me a generic version of XP pro and use
the license on the computer if I needed to reinstall? (not sure how
legal this is, but I'm not too worried about it since I do have the
legal license, and it's just for home use).
----
Lastly, to copy XP to my external USB drive, I know there are some
files that will not copy. In Win98, it's the SWAP FILE. In Win2000,
it's PAGEFILE.SYS and parts of Documents and Settings folder. What
will not copy in XP? Is it the same as Win2000? How do I backup the
Documents and Settings folder in XP? (I prefer direct copies, not a
backup software).
Thanks for all help.
Mister Friendly
Windows XP Pro SP3. I bought the computer from a guy who bought a
whole batch of them from some office and was reselling them. They
came with a legal license serial number on the computer for XP Pro.
He wiped the drive and resinstalled XP along with some other licensed
commercial stuff and some freeware. All in all, what I got was a
ready to run computer, including everything except the monitor.
I have never owned XP, and was still using Win98 and Win2000 mostly
because of a slow computer and the fact I did not want to purchase XP.
Instead, I bought the whole computer which is 3 times faster than my
old one, for what I would have paid for XP.
But there is one problem. He installed it using the NTFS format. I
DO NOT want NTFS. (Two reasons, 1. I still use some dos software, 2.
NTFS scares me, because if Windows fails on Fat32, I can still access
the data from Dos, but I know far too many people who lost all their
data when a NTFS partition failed. I know that XP will run almost as
well on a Fat32 partition (just like my Win2000 works fine on Fat32).
IF I CHANGE THE FORMAT FROM NTFS TO FAT32, WILL XP STILL RUN?
(I do not want to reinstall).
I have "Partition Magic", which will not only change the partition
without losing all the data, but can even make partitions on one
drive.
Of course I'll backup first....
But will XP run when changing the drive from NTFS to FAT32?
If for some reason I cant get Partition Magic to work, I have a USB
plug in harddrive that I can copy everything to, and replace it later.
Another thing, will I need to re-activate XP with MS after doing this?
----
Another question. The guy did not have the original XP Cd. He gave
me a Dell Cd for XP. This is not a Dell computer. I inderstand that
those "branded ones" dont install properly, or can not be activated,
or something like that..... What's the deal with this?
-OR-
Can I just get a friend to burn me a generic version of XP pro and use
the license on the computer if I needed to reinstall? (not sure how
legal this is, but I'm not too worried about it since I do have the
legal license, and it's just for home use).
----
Lastly, to copy XP to my external USB drive, I know there are some
files that will not copy. In Win98, it's the SWAP FILE. In Win2000,
it's PAGEFILE.SYS and parts of Documents and Settings folder. What
will not copy in XP? Is it the same as Win2000? How do I backup the
Documents and Settings folder in XP? (I prefer direct copies, not a
backup software).
Thanks for all help.
Mister Friendly