Operating System Reinstallation

[Zellan]

My PC had XP Home installed about 2 years ago and even though it contains
minimal programs it is running very slow. I wanted to reinstall the
operating system taking it back to a factory condition. It originally came
with windows ME and I have the restore discs for this.

Questions:

Do I restore back to the original ME operating system and then just upgrade
to XP home?
Should I complete the operating system upgrade before installing peripheral
devices? printers etc.
Is the upgrade from ME to XP just a straight forward process and does it
involve just entering the XP disc and following the prompt?

My system
Compac presario desktop
20G hard drive
851M processor
512 M Ram

Can anyone please point me to some online documentation to asssist with
this.

Regards

Zellan

[Dave Keays]

Try these links

IT toolbox on upgrading:
http://tinyurl.com/q9qg9
or
http://windows.ittoolbox.com/documents/popular-q-and-a/dual-boot-and-upgrading-windows-me-to-windows-xp-1850

ARStechnical on filesystem comparisons (FAT32 to NTFS):
http://tinyurl.com/n4kng
or
http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1227&PHPSESSID=eab92901cdf4a3f2b86d517fcdba092c

I've only skimmed through them but haven't read either from front to back so I
really can't 100% vouch for them. But the sources are good and reliable.

Even since Windows started splitting their OS's into different environments
(with the debut of NT), I've heard people claim that it isn't good to upgrade
and that you need to do a "clean install" of the OS and the file system. You
currently have FAT32, but you probably want NTFS even though XP can use either.
FAT32 is much more crippled. Read the descriptions before you make a decision.

--

Dave Keays