In William <
[email protected]> had this to say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I am thinking of using XP instead of win2000 because after buying a
new hard drive (180Gig) win2000 could not see it for some reason but
my wifes machine with XP would, question - why was this and is XP a
better OS than 2000 Thanks
William
As was asked - make sure your PC's BIOS can enable LBA and update to the
newest service packs. You'll then want a third party partitioning tool
(IIRC) to go ahead and make the partition larger or, alternatively, you can
partition the free space into a second drive (as far as the OS is concerned
at any rate.)
Is XP better than 2k? It is in my opinion. Features are better, security is
the same meaning that you will want to pay attention and take a pro-active
stance, support for 2k is going to end sooner than that for 2k, some
software/updates/features for XP aren't going to be made available for 2k
likely, and there are things that can be added on to XP that can't be had
for 2k.
Well that sums it up but it's not accurate as to what I'd really say. If you
have 2k and can wait, if you can flash your BIOS (if need be) and get LBA
support and then use the full amount of the drive (you don't have it's
jumpers set to limited do you???) and all that AND you already own 2k then
I'd honestly say wait. Wait for what? Well, you can get by with 2k for now
and in just a short while Vista will be out. At such time you can buy a new
PC (if you want the benefit of some of the additional features Vista offers)
and not have needed to spend the money on XP.
In short... Is XP better? Yes. Would I recommend buying it in your case?
Only would I recommend it if your BIOS is flashable to the point of taking
advantage of the larger drive AND you have a specific reason for buying it.
It could be that you'd spend the money on XP and find out that there's no
upgrade to your BIOS or that you don't want to risk upgrading it. You'd then
be likely to buy a new PC. Buying a new PC right at this time, unless you
REALLY NEED it is not a good idea in my opinion. Wait and OEMs will have
Vista. <g>
--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."
Sherlock Holmes
