Windows XP on 64MB RAM system?

[davidovitch]

Just a quick question;
My dad's having a lot of trouble with his PC (all kinds of random errors). It currently has windows ME and I was thinking of installing XP for him, but there's only 64MB of RAM (actually, it says 63 in the control panel).
Will the system run windows XP smoothly with just 64MB of RAM? And is XP a better choice than ME?

Thanks for any help!

[doctorgonzo]

It sounds like the system can't handle XP. XP will work with 256 MB, and will work well with 512 MB. 128 MB is pushing it, and 64 MB won't cut it.

I agree that Windows ME is garbage. It would be better to go back to Windows 98 SE instead of trying with XP.

What kind of errors is he getting?

[RJ]

Nope, it will be sllooowwww. A friend's PII 333 with 96 MB of RAM was the slowest machine I ever tried Windows XP on. It's no pleasure.
So before installing XP (and yes, it is way better than ME or any other Win9x OS) you should upgrade the RAM if possible.
If not possible, stay with ME.. do a clean install (backup data first), and then it should work fine again.

RJ

[jimmyrules712]

i ran xp on a couple machines with 6 gig HDs and 128 mb ram. the OS filled up half of the HDs, but they actually ran a lot faster then they did when they had win98. but i wouldnt recomend putting XP on anything with less then 128mb of ram.

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

I run XP with 128mb of RAM (until Thursday), and its not pretty. My pagefile useage is over twice the RAM, and that is when running minimum services and programs. Save your dad the trouble and don't put XP on there, even with 128 it does not run smoothly. At school they have 128mb as well, and they have had all kinds of problems, albeit not all of them relating to RAM, although when you spend tgen minutes logging on some of that has to be considered RAM (server only has 128mb as well!)

[davidovitch]

OK, thanks for your replies. Doing a clean install of ME is not really possible because this is one of those pc's that come with the OS on them (no setup-CD).
I have a win98 cd at home so I'll use that.

[TheJackal]

Does your machine have a recovery partition on the hard drive? If it does, it may have a program installed on it that allows you to make your own recovery CDs.

If all else fails you could try calling Microsoft, and see if you can order a new Windows ME CD. If they will, you will just have to give them your CD key (Which should be stickered to the side of your machine) and pay $15 or so, and they will send you a new CD.