Originally Posted by
matrix101
One for the computer guru's among us...;
I have been given an older PC, which is running Windows 8 as it's OS, but it is very slow and prone to crash. Upon investigation, I have found that Windows 8 requires a minimum of 2gb RAM to operate, however this machine only has the capability to take a maximum of 2gb. I suspect this is the primary cause of it's problems.
What I am wondering, is can I install XP over Windows 8 (ie a clean install of XP) as XP is far less hungry for resources and should be more stable. If so, how is it done? I have an XP Home CD and original product key from my old deceased laptop, and this machine runs DDR400 RAM so I cannot go any larger with that either.
Thanks for any input you may have.
To do a clean install of XP you will need to format your HDD. Put the disk in and then restart your computer. Make sure that you boot from the disk, you should see a small bit of text come up asking if you want to boot from the disk. If this does not happen and you boot into Windows 8 then you will need to restart your PC and go into your BIOS settings and change your boot order so that your VD drive is listed higher than your HDD
Once you have booted from the CD just follow the prompts and make sure you delete the partition when prompted and then sell full format over quick format.