I want to uninstall windows 98 and install windows xp but was wondering when you uninstall the os and install a new one does wipe the hard drive cos i wuld like a fresh hd to work with? Or do u hav to reformat ht ehard drive Also can u jus install xp over 98 or do u hav 2 uninstall 98 first and will all the programs b uninstalled (ie a fresh hd) Any advice would b great especially if u could link to guide which would help me to do this thanks
If you put in a bootable copy of xp it will ask you do you want to format or keep the current file system. So if you want to keep your files, choose leave current filesystem intact (no changes). Also it might ask you to choose between NTFS and FAT32, thats just up to you!! I dont see much difference in either!
I prefer to use upgrade. Also note that if you want to keep Win98 files you have use FAT32 which I think is very inefficient.
NTFS file system comes in VERY handy if you're going to do video editing from home video camaras to DVD. I was playing around with this using Pinnacle Studio 8. In the beginning I was using ME, and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't store more than 60 something minutes of video to my computer even though I have a 200gig dediciated hard drive strictly for videos. After some research I found out that the FAT 32 system files that ME and 98 use have file size transfer limitations something like 4gigs! I found out that with XP I could choose FAT 32 or NTFS file system. NTFS has size limitations too, but it will hold an insane amount more than FAT 32. You can always change your file settings from FAT 32 to NTFS down the road without losing any of your info on your computer.
Yes NTFS does indeed support larger drives/files more easily... but the beauty of it comes when you want to do folder by folder security policies and blah blah blah (I could be wrong in that FAT32 can do that too but i dont think it can).
Apparently the WFS (Windows Future Storage) is going to be some form of front-end for NTFS (kinda like NTFS is somewhat of a front-end for FAT32)... again... just crap i read somewhere.