xp disc requirements 7

[petermeachem]

A friend wants to load XP on a dell notebook. And Office XP. It's only got a 2Gb disc. MS says XP needs 1.5Gb! Seems a huge amount. Is it correct. I don't have a pc with xp and office only to check.

http://www.accuflight.com

http://www.lettersdirect.co.uk

http://www.ourhouseinportugal.co.uk/

 

[craigey]

Xp won't normally use the full 1.5gig, (but will probably come close). Also that means it will only leave around 500Mb for a maximum size of a swap file + then you've got your other programs, Windows XP service packs & updates + all your other files etc. To be honest I wouldn't bother installing XP on anything less then about 6 Gig.

 

[bcastner]

I vote for nothing less than 10 gig.

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

The following is the size of my Windows folder ONLY with updates installed...

1.66 GB (1,783,627,981 bytes)

When they say 1.5GB, there is a reason for it !!

Murray

 

[petermeachem]

Thank you all for prompt replies. Stars all round.

http://www.accuflight.com

http://www.lettersdirect.co.uk

http://www.ourhouseinportugal.co.uk/

 

[craigey]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to us and letting us know that our comments were useful. It's always nice to know that the time we've spent thinking / typing an answer is of at least some benefit to those who have asked for advice / help.

 

[kalamp]

I just reformated my 80 gig hard drive and decided to make several partitions. I left 5 GB solely for Windows XP thinking it would be enough. I reserved the rest for my programs and other stuff.
Boy do I wish I left at least 10 GB for Win XP. With updates, temp files, history, etc. I've have to clean up the 5 GB partition about once a week to clear out all the garbage. I've got to stay on it to keep it to 4 GB. For anybody about to partition their hard drive I would recommend more the 5 GB!

 

[dwilko]

I set up my 60GB HD With 3GB On C Drive(For OS) and the rest Split up Between D (For Programs/Games) and E(for Backup and Music) At the time it was ok cos I was running win Me then upgraded XP and Boy did I hav Problems with runnin out Of C drive Space Now I have Had Set Up Win XP So that the Swap File Is On D Drive and Changed the Temp folder To D:\temp\ Just so that I stop runnin out of C Drive space. Now It only has 500MB left on it. where as before i was runnin close to 200MB left and keeped gettin windows Poppin up and Saying that I was runnin out of space. If I didnt have so much stuff on the D and E Drive then I would Re Partition it so that i had More Disk Space on the C Drive for windows

________________________________________
I help Where I can

 

[kalamp]

I didn't even think of changing my temp directory and my swap file to another partition. I should have but I guess I got a case of the brain farts! Thanks for the info. It will come in handy.

 

[paparazi]

Problem is the hard drive won't be the only limitation!
I'm guessing that if this laptop only has a 2gig HD then the processor is below 266mhz and the ram is probably a low 32/64mb, so all round not up to running XP efficiently.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Charliesz]

Hello.

I've partitioned my 40GB drive into the following:

5GB - Windows XP
5GB - Swap/Temp
10GB- Games
10GB- Programs
10GB- Data-Backup

I've redirected Temp folders and Page File to the Swap partition so that way my WinXP partition is not getting defragmented severly.

It looks very orgonized but i daubt its much of difference if i had WinXP and Swap as one partition

 

[AP81]

My advice would be to put Windows 98 on instead. There is no way you are going to be able to comfortably put XP on it- it is just too much of a resource hog).

You should be able to comfortable fit Win98 and Office XP on the disk.

 

[warik]

Charliesz, can you tell me how to move temp and swap folder to another drive? And if I use NTFS for XP, is that OK moving temp and swap at FAT32?

Thank you in advance

 

[AP81]

To move TEMP:
Go to System Properties (Win+Pause, or Control Panel > System, or right-click My Computer and click Properties), click Advanced, click Environment Variables, and edit the locations you want for Temp and Tmp in the top box. You must be logged in as an administrator to change system variables such as Temp and Tmp

To move the swap file:
Control Panel > System > Advanced, click Settings in the “Performance” Section. On the Advanced page, the current total physical size of all page files that may be in existence is shown. Click Change to make settings for the Virtual memory operation. Here you can select any drive partition and set either ‘Custom’; ‘System Managed’ or ‘No page file’; then click "set"

 

[warik]

AP81, Thank you for the information.
I hope it will make my system going better

 

[dwilko]

I dont think that Office XP Will install on Win98 but so you will have to install Office 2000 on to win98

________________________________________
I help Where I can

 

[Charliesz]

Hello warik.

AP81 pretty much answered on your question.

As for moving the swap file. To really increase performance, it'd be a real good choice to reside that swap on a different hard drive which is on a different IDE controller or even RAID 0.

 

[warik]

Charliesz, I have 2 HD :
1. 40GB 7200rpm
2. 8GB 5200rpm

at the first idea, I would like to create small partition at my 8G HD, and store the swap file on it. But after thinking again, I thought put XP swap at 5200rpm will slower than put it at 7200rpm.

So, I make a small partition (3G) at my 40G HD and put the swap like AP81 told me. I hope that would be better for ignoring the fragmented of swap file.

Thank's

 

[Charliesz]

warik

Definitely, good idea.

And your operating system will be on the 8GB ?

 

[AP81]

Warik, having the swap on the same drive will be an improvement, but still doesn't reduce the overhead from then read/write heads having to use the same disk for the swap and to run Windows at the same time.

dwilko, Office XP runs fine on Windows 98. I have it my other PC running fine, and have also set it up on several other PCs with no probs.