upgrade from ME to XP (will my machine handle)

[sharp]

I am currently using Windows ME and I have problems every now and then with it locking up ect. I was told it was because of ME. They said ME was a poor OS. What do you think about that? My question is can I upgrade to Windows XP?
MY Computer is a HP Pavilion (6735) with a 633MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 128 MB fo SDRAM memory with up to 11 MB allocated to video, 15 GB DMA hard drive, 48X CD-ROM.
Will my computer run Windows XP efficiently?
Thanks
Larry

[crashNburn11]

Sounds like XP would work fine, though you would probably wan't to upgrade your RAM to atleast 256MB.

Check out :Windows XP Home Edition System Requirements

Upgrading to Windows XP from Windows 9x/Me

[Theoran]

Everything looks good, however, you may want to bump up your
memory from 128 to 256. That's all that I see.

[sharp]

First, can I get by with the 128 MB of Ram or do I have to have 256?
Next, what is the best way to upgrade to Windows XP. I am thinking about re-formatting my hard drive first and putting Windows XP on this way (a clean install). but I am not sure I know how to do this and get my computer running again. The reason I wanted to re-format my hard drive is I have files from Lotus that I could not get off my hard drive plus other files from doing things wrong in the past.
I would next exact information on how to re-format and re-install everything. Do I need a special start-up disk or something?
I have a lot to learn about computers but want to.
Thanks.

[crashNburn11]

Clean installing sounds the best way to go, it's very easy. Windows XP cd is bootable, no floopy needed. Just reboot your computer with the XP cd in the cd-rom.

Be ready when you restart your PC. It will say, "press any key to boot from cd," then press any key ofcourse. It will walk you trough the whole process, very simple.

XP should run fine on your machine with 128 MB. Additionally, you could do some tweaking once you get up and running and turn off different processes and such that just use up your memory.

If you have any more questions on setting up XP, you can PM or email me if you'd like. My email is in my profile.

GL-Crash

[sharp]

I am running ME but I am not sure how to re-format my hard drive. I need specific instructions on how to do this since I am a novice when dealing with computers.
Thanks.
Larry

[crashNburn11]

Have you already purchased XP? The XP cd will do it for you, unless your just wanting to do it so that XP doesn't make a backup of ME.

Type fdisk at the command prompt, select delete partion.

[30111987]

Answer to your previous question:
Yes you can add another 128mb sdram stick to get 256mb ram provided you have a spare slot for it in your motherboard.

[chrisrob]

ME seems to cop a lot of stick about being unreliable etc. I have used ME for the past year or so and have had very little trouble that I didn't cause.

I have noticed though that ME does give trouble on systems running less than an 800mhz cpu. This comment comes from experience with a number of systems. To overcome this users install I/E 6 and the problems go away.

[sharp]

What is l/E 6 and how do I install it? Also what does it do?
Larry

[crashNburn11]

I think he simply means IE (Internet Explorer browser) 6.0. Which you can get by updating your existing version of IE by download the update using Windows Update.