Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with xp

Router noob in need of help

GlassHeart — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:32:57 -0800

Help me make my wireless router work with my XP PC A few weeks ago I bought a laptop and, a couple days ago, bought a wireless router—a D-Link Wireless N300 Router—to allow me to be connected simultaneously to the net on both my desktop PC (which has Windows XP installed on it) and laptop.

Yesterday I connected the router to my XP machine, my primary machine, as the instructions supplied with the router said to: I put the yellow ethernet wire from my desktop PC into the LAN 1 port on the router and put the blue wire, which was supplied with the router, from the INTERNET port on my router into one of two ports in my DSL modem—the port that used to have a yellow ethernet cable in it that went into my desktop PC (the other port, labeled DSL, has a phone cord that leads to the port on the wall. That, of course, is necessary for a net connection; so I left it as it was).

The laptop came with Windows 8. After checking it—Windows 8—out for ten minutes, I knew it wasn't for me and downgraded to Windows 7. After installing Windows 7, I installed the various drivers for the laptop and, upon finishing that, noticed that Windows detected a signal coming from the router. After some tinkering, I was able to connect to the internet on the laptop. As for the Windows XP machine: It didn't seem to detect anything. I then tried setting up a net connection using various methods—without success.

I'm wondering if perhaps I need a wireless card (or whatever it's called)—which I'm quite certain I don't have installed in my XP machine—installed in my XP machine. I somehow doubt it, as the yellow ethernet cable is directly connected from the router to the desktop machine, which should allow net access. If not that, perhaps upon installing Windows XP on my desktop machine, which was sometime last year, I disabled one or more services in Administrative Tools that must be enabled in order to use a router (I tend to disable various services in Windows to gain an admittedly meager performance boost). Which services, that I may have disabled, should be enabled to make a router work?

Here's the network card and "wireless connectivity" my laptop has:

Network Card: 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)

Wireless Connectivity: 1x1 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN

This is the Network card my desktop PC has (can't find anything to do with "wireless connectivity" anywhere):

10-Base-T

(Interface: Integrated into motherboard
Technology: Realtek RTL8201E
Data transfer speeds: up to 10/100Mb/s
Transmission standards:10-Base-T Ethernet)

I was going to post all of the specs for the computers, but that would've been overkill. The amount of ram, HDD space, etc. I have won't help anyone solve my issue.

One last thing: As I said in the question title, I'm a noob when it comes to routers. Though I don't do anything I shouldn't do online, I worry that the router will allow guests who use my desktop or laptop easily view my internet browsing history. I certainly don't want guests who use them to be able to easily view what sites I've been browsing and I'm not at all interested in seeing what anyone else has been browsing. I allow guests to browse whichever sites they please as long as the sites won't get me into shit with the law or give me viruses.

Frequent Disconnects DCOM Errors - Please Help Me

watercarrier — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:44:29 -0800

Hi guys, I've been going through this for a few months. It got better after I switched ADSL modems but the DCOM errors are just mounting in frequency - 2 an hour - seemingly at random. Message: *DCOM got error "The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. " attempting to start the service gupdate with arguments "/comsvc" in order to run the server:
{4EB61BAC-A3B6-4760-9581-655041EF4D69}*

My OS XP-Pro SP3

ISP says everything is fine on their end.

I tried doing repeated network resets via CMD - no impact. I clean the machine regularly with a few programs - no malware (or is there?). What can I do at this point?

Thanks so much for any help!

Best PC Support Utilities?

cjorgensen — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:13:59 -0800

What are your list of the most essential PC support utilities? Virus, cloning, optimization, etc.

I want to create a flash drive of the best applications to address the most common issues.

I have 22+ years Mac experience. 3+ Win7 muddling. I would like to be better at the Windows side.

Cost is not an issue if the cost is worth it.

Please hope me!

VPN XP woes

merocet — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:39:51 -0800

I've installed Private Internet Access VPN software on a Win 7 machine and an XP machine on my home network. The VPN connected Windows 7 machine reports good speeds at www.speedtest.net and streams content like a champ. The XP machine when connected to the VPN shows terrible speeds and buffers and stutters like something not so useful. More details after the fold... The Win 7 machine is connecting to my home network via wifi. The XP machine is hard cabled to the same wifi router.

The speedtest results for both machines when the VPN is switched off are the same. Nice and fast.

Why is my XP machine so slow when going via the VPN?

Internet, you're being weird. Stop it.

Rhaomi — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:01:41 -0800

Trying to set up a new wireless network and running into all kinds of strange problems. Connections dropped every few hours! Some machines work, some don't! Can connect to internet, can't connect to router! DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER (literally). Please help. The set-up is a little convoluted, but does work (until it doesn't).

The original router is an ISP-provided 2wire HomePortal 1700HW, a combination DSL modem/router that plugs directly into a phone jack and broadcasts it as a WiFi network. It's a few years old but has worked decently on its own up to this point, so I don't think the problem lies there.

The newcomer is a brand-new Western Digital My Net N600 router, acquired both to improve on the range of the old one and to provide networked storage capability for shared music and such.

Configuring the two of them to work properly was a bit of a dog, but I finally did get it working. The phone jack plugs into the old 2wire, now set to bridge mode to disable its built-in wireless capability. The 2wire plugs into the N600 via Ethernet. And the N600, armed with all the correct PPPoE login information from the ISP, correctly connects to and interprets the DSL coming in from the 2wire and broadcasts it out. Even the network storage works!

Problem is, every couple of hours this connection fails, and in the weirdest way possible.

Right now, I'm typing this on an old 'n' busted laptop running Windows XP. It's currently connected to the N600's wireless network and can browse the web no problem. All the status lights on the routers are green, running an ipconfig command returns normal IP address information (including the router's IP), I can ping the router at that location fine.

But I can't connect to the router's settings page (192.168.1.1). WTF?

Also, a visiting Chromebook can connect to the network but can't load any websites... except for AOL webmail, of all things. A test email sent from a phone showed up in the inbox fine, while Google, Facebook, etc. look dead. Not even Gmail, mail.live.com, or even just plain old aol.com work -- just mail.aol.com. This Chromebook doesn't have a data connection, btw, just WiFi. I say again: WTF?

Meanwhile, a newer Windows 7 laptop can't connect to the N600 network at all ("Unable to connect..."), and even plugging directly into the N600 router via Ethernet won't work -- I can ping it fine, but neither websites nor the router settings page itself will load.

Various mobile devices are likewise denied -- various iPhones and iPads can't connect to the network at all.

Power-cycling the N600 router solves all these problems and things work alright for all devices... for a few hours. Until everything craps out again, for no apparent reason.

What could be triggering this issue, and how do I fix it? I've dealt with wonky router stuff before, but it seems totally bizarre to me that:

- the status lights on both routers are fine, including the N600's "internet connection OK" light
- ONE laptop can connect to the router's WiFi and browse the web, and can ping the router, but can't access the router itself
- the other laptop can ping the router through a wired connection, but can't access the router settings or browse the web that way
- a Chromebook can connect to the network and can load *one* website (mail.aol.com), but nothing else
- no other device (apart from that first laptop that mysteriously works fine) can connect to the WiFi network at all

Any thoughts or advice appreciated; I'd love to get this problem fixed rather than have to venture back to Best Buy and try to find a replacement (maybe an N900? who knows).

WinXP Debug, Difficulty: Korean

roue — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 06:53:01 -0800

What does this Korean localized WinXP error dialogue say and how can I fix it (optional). I'm trying to help with the install of an image analysis active x plugin used with some poorly supported microscopy software. I've installed this many times without issue, but this time it's failing 6000 miles away, and the only clue I have is a screenshot in a language I can't read. I'm assuming it's Korean. It looks like they're running as and admin. Is there a library missing? I've got no idea. My question: What does that error dialogue say and how can I fix it (optional).

Thanks!

USB ports failing

Kiwi — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:00:44 -0800

My Compaq Presario V2000 notebook running XP is a bit more than 5 years old, and all three of its USB ports are failing. They work OK most of the time, but I need to unplug/replug my mouse cable a few times a day to get it recognized, and syncing my iPod is very hit and miss. I have updated the BIOS as recommended by various websites but without success.

Any suggestions?

Cant get Modem to Install

CollectiveMind — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:29:18 -0800

I am trying to install a 56K modem card from a PC that ran Windows XP onto a PC that runs Windows 7. The card used either the LSI (Agere) driver or the Intel sep 536ep driver. I've found Windows 7 versions (64 bit) of both drivers and both are saved to my new PC. But I can't get either of them to install so that they show up in a list of drivers. One tells me to unzup the file, which I do, and nothing happens. The other says it is installing but again, nothing happens. Nothing meaing (1) neither modem shows up in the list of modems under the Phone and Modem tab in the Control Panel, or (2) the telephone software doesn't see the card, which is supposed to be for voice/fax. What am I doing wrong?

Laser printer won't share itself

dance — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:24:45 -0800

Are some laser printers wholly resistant to sharing? I have a Samsung ML1660 and I cannot share it via the network no matter what I try. I get the "access is denied" message. I've tried the "add a local port" trick, I've tried various enablings of guest accounts and enablings of file/printer sharing. I've tried creating an identical user account to the connecting account on the host machine....

I've even tried connecting the printer via USB to an Airport Express and trying to print via Bonjour. No dice.

Any tips? As I say, are some printers just not sharable?

Many thanks

Accidentally deleted audio driver on Windows XP machine. How do I get it back?

MattMangels — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:45:59 -0800

I accidentally deleted my audio driver software on my XP machine. How can I remedy this? I was going through files on my old XP machine, deleting unnecessary programs and such, and when I was in the "Add/Remove Programs" part of the control panel I noticed a program called "C Media 3D audio" or something like that. I have a bunch of old video and audio converter programs and figured this was one of them. It even said that I used the program rarely, the last time being April of 2005. "Well surely I can delete that!" So I did. And then the computer restarted itself and now I have no more ability to play sound. You know, a fucking prompt that says "hey if you delete this you won't be able to play audio anymore" would be nice, Microsoft. (In case someone from Microsoft is reading this, THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE YOU.) Anyway, what can I do to restore audio capabilities on this computer?

USB WiFi adapter?

nobody — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:16:20 -0800

I think I need to get a USB WiFi adapter. Any recommendations? (Bonus points if it also provides a USB port on its other end. Additional information inside, including, perhaps, a question about drivers.) This laptop (2008 Mac Book Pro running XP SP3 with an internal "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter") has always had problems with its WiFi card, with the card or driver periodically failing completely and coming back up a minute or two later. During the failure period audio playback seems to stutter. After (or during) a failure period, attempting to disable or "repair" the card/driver usually results in the computer freezing up completely and requiring a manual reboot. (I can safely disable the card/driver right after rebooting.)

I never bothered to fix the problem -- other than a fruitless attempt to update the driver a couple years ago -- since I was almost always using the computer within reach of an ethernet cable, but now I'm at least temporarily in a situation where running a cable isn't feasible.

So far I've just been dealing with the intermittance, but I think it's probably time to get a USB WiFi adapter.

Any recommendations? As mentioned above, it would be great if it also provided a USB port so I could plug other devices into that slot simultaneously, but if that makes for a huge price difference I might go with the cheaper one. (I think I have a USB hub somewhere.)

Alternatively, if it would work, I assume it might be possible to get a WiFi adapter that'll fit in the "ExpressCard" slot, but my googling thus far has suggested those may not work when booted into XP?

Lastly, if someone happens to have a reliable link to a more up-to-date driver to try installing, I'm game for trying that out. (An old discussion thread I found linked to a driver that was hosted by HP that reportedly worked, but following the link leads to a page that only lists Vista drivers now. It's also possible that the driver I'm currently using is as a result of following that link a couple years ago, but I'm not sure. I'm using driver version 4.170.25.12, with Device Manager reporting a date of September 2009, but with the .sys file having a February 2008 date modified stamp.)

Thanks for your help. Apologies for the scattered question here.

Permissions on files, so many files

Dynex — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:56:06 -0800

I have an old hard drive that was password locked. I can't boot from it, but I can get to the files. I have to change permissions for every single file before I can copy it over, is there a way to do that for everything at once? It had Windows XP installed on it and the new computer is Windows Vista. I have a few folders of photos and I really really don't want to have to change permissions for every photo. It's a two step process and it is time consuming and boring as hell.

It's just the password for logging in from the main screen, if I could boot from it I'd have been able to just turn off passwords. The motherboard on the old computer is toast, new computer won't boot from old hard drive. Tale as old as time, etc.

User Was Deleted from XP. Help me get back the settings.

watercarrier — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:24:57 -0800

XP Disaster - Deleted User - Help me. Will not beat self up for doing this -but stupid without realizing the ramifications it was. Luckily there wasn't that much data to misplace. Long story short, I did do the unthinkable and deleted *user* (me) from XP thinking I would do myself a favor by *cleaning up* the startup. Whatever. Anyway - I did manage with the help of my good friend to bring back the documents and files in a haphazard way to the desktop. I understand now to get them into Administrator is a major hassle so I won't even go there. What I do need is my settings.

Firefox and Thunderbird to be precise. Basically I need my email settings and my addons and whatever I painstakingly pieced together to perfection before the deletion.

I just need this spelled out in the simplest of terminologies and steps. Help. Please.Thank you. Muchly.

We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life. -- friend based tech support

jadepearl — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:58:12 -0800

Repairing friend's laptop(s). Will be nuking from space. Which Windows OS version to install? Also, failing wifi on second laptop. *sigh* I am helping a friend with his laptop(s). Laptop 1, Lenovo Y510, was not able to boot in safe mode even with a system disk at the local repair shop. I was able to recover the data by popping out hard drive and using testdisk. Now, I want to nuke the thing. I figured out that it came with Windows Vista Premium but he has no install disks. Here are the questions for laptop 1:

Should I try to get a copy of Vista Premium or should I install Windows 7? If Vista Premium is the way to go where the heck do I get the CD (he actually has a vista product key)

Will I be able to install even if a system cd was unable to boot in safe mode? If so, how?

Since I am nuking what should I install on his PC after the nuke besides Microsoft Security Essentials?

On to, Laptop 2, Lenovo T61, which has non-functioning wifi. People at repair shop think that it is software related due to third-party software install done at his law school. Wifi is unable to find or connect. System recognizes that there is a wifi card but software is confused and states "not on" (words of technician) though the "on" button is switched.

How do I troubleshoot a third-party wifi set-up? Is it better to just uninstall the third-party connection software?

Should I just say screw it, and back up his data and nuke it due to the fact the man has no idea about anti-viral protection and his machine is suspiciously slow

Thanks for the help on this. I will be monitoring to answer questions.

Jumping through hoops for Spotify.

sully75 — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:31:54 -0800

If I leave my computer for several hours, or it goes into hibernation mode, my audio programs Spotify and/or Media Monkey become weirdly unable to play audio tracks. What gives? Windows XP With Media Monkey, it appears to search through my archive and can't find any of the tracks I was playing, or any other tracks (it shows them in the library, but appears to not be able to find them on the hard drive). If I close Media Monkey, everything starts back to normal.

With Spotify, it just won't budge. If I click on a track, whether my local library, or a streaming track, nothing happens. I'm still able to search for things but I can't click on a track. If I shut Spotify and restart it, it still doesn't work. If I restart the computer it works fine.

All my music is on a separate internal hard drive on my desktop. Running Windows XP. Computer functions really well otherwise (knock on wood).

Any thoughts?

Windows XP and word 2002 refuse to recognize changes on a document made on a different machine.

IndigoJones — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:39:40 -0800

Windows XP and word 2002 refuse to recognize changes on a document made on a different machine. What gives? I composed a document on Machine A (Windows XP and Word 2002). I put it on a thumb drive. I moved it to Machine B (Windows Seven, Office 2010 saved as Word 2002) and worked on it there. I saved it to that same thumb drive, returned it to Machine A -

Machine A does not recognize any of the changes.

Wait, it gets worse. I return to Machine B, open a fresh Word document, give it a new unrelated name, copy and paste all the material, save it as Word 2002, return again to Machine A, open it - it comes back with old unchanged document.

Yes, I rebooted the machine.

It wouldn't matter except that I've got an old printer that machine B cannot connect to. That, and the precedent.

Thoughts, advice, solutions, painful memories? It's all welcome

Preserve a fresh installation of Windows XP with updates and drivers?

Bushmiller — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:10:12 -0800

I just created a fresh installation of Windows XP with updates and drivers on my parents' computer. How can I preserve this installation, so that they can easily rollback (or even wipe the hard drive) to get back to this uncorrupted state after it is inevitably infected with some unremovable malware? The contents of the hard drive are under 4gb and can fit on a DVD. They don't store content locally, so I'm unconcerned with losing data. And, no, switching to Linux is not an option. Thanks!

Frankensteining a Windows XP Install: old into new?

Uther Bentrazor — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:59:08 -0800

Can I put my old XP state into a new XP install? Recently I was hit by some kind of malware that got blocked by SpyBot halfway through installing, and locked up my machine, forcing a reboot. After which, the computer would no longer boot. After rebuilding the boot.ini and some system restore stuff, I ended up with the NTLDR is missing error. After which, I tried just about everything on this search page, I tried using the XP disc to repair the install, and more. Nothing.

I pulled the harddrive to make sure it wasn't a faulty drive, I plugged it into another machine, ran all sorts of scans on it to make sure the HDD itself wasn't damaged; it wasn't. I backed up all my data, plugged it back into the original machine, tried everything all over again, to no avail.

Finally I gave up and installed a new copy of XP in a separate directory just to get it to do SOMETHING. It installed and booted up fine, of course, it's a fresh install, so nothing (programs, drivers, etc) is there yet.

So at the moment, I have a machine with two XP installs (C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS1). All of my programs and data are intact, and everything is still present in the old install, but I know it isn't as simple as just copying the working parts of one into the other and having my old setup back. As an IT professional by trade, I admit I find my inability to reclaim my old desktop to be a slight bit embarrassing, as it feels like the solution should be, if not easy, at least simple.

So I turn to you, AskMe Hivemind, is my old XP install doomed, and I should start scouring for the install discs of every single program I used to use, or is there a way to rebuild my home?

Upgrading a friend's computer from XP to 7. I recall that simply copying files to a second internal drive resulted in some permission problems. How do I avoid this?

sisquoc15 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:16:38 -0800

Upgrading a friend's computer from XP to 7. I recall that simply backing up files to a second internal drive resulted in some permission problems. How do I avoid this? Specifically, I recall that when I upgraded, documents in the "My Documents" folder weren't accessible, as I was no longer user admin of old computer.

My friend doesn't have the sense to know where all his files are and wants to simply back up the boot drive by copying it wholesale to another internal drive before the formatting and OS upgrade.

How do I avoid the user/permission problem?

Frequently dropping wireless

moonroof — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:30:06 -0800

My wireless connection keeps dropping every few minutes. Eee PC, Windows XP, roommate's Macbook does not have this problem. I've got an Eee PC laptop running Windows XP. We have a Motorola Docsis 3.0 and a Belkin N300 Wireless N router.

Every few minutes, the internet stops working, and we have to "repair connection" to get it back again. We have only had this problem since moving to our new house with the new modem and router setup. In our previous apartment, our modem and wireless setup worked fine. Our roommate's Macbook does not have this problem.

This is a very frustrating problem that has been going on for months. Any advice or help would be appreciated. If you need to know more tech specifics, ask and I will let you know. Thank you guys so much in advance!

Upgrade Downgrade: Laptop Edition

yellowcandy — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:13:36 -0800

Getting a brand new Core i7 laptop. How sensible is it to downgrade it to XP? I'm replacing a workhorse laptop I bought in 2005 that, because I bought it with longevity in mind, is still doing well.

But it's really time for a replacement. So the new one is going to follow the same model.

All of that said, I want to know what kinds of big advantages I'll get from sticking with Windows 7 vs. downgrading to XP. The new machine is pretty speedy 2.0 Ghz, with 8MB of RAM and 7200 rpm HDs with about 1TB of space.

Does it make any sense to flip to XP? I'm also concerned about mounting XP and not being able to use components on the laptop because of a lack of drivers for them... So what do I need to know here?

Can anyone help me turn my offsite backup into a brick?

This_Will_Be_Good — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:38:06 -0800

After reading through lots of tips and tricks on backing up data on here, I am close to a backup system that really works for me. However, can anyone help me with two things: securing an offsite backup, and backing up a bootcamp partition? I have a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard with Windows XP on the bootcamp partition. I am using Time Machine for backups. I have two small Western Digital hard drives that I use for backups (I use one for a few weeks, and then I use the other for a few weeks). After realizing I now had my computer and two backup drives sitting next to each other in an easily swipe-able pile, I moved one of the external hard drives offsite.

So, my first question is this: Can I take all the contents of that external offsite hard drive and put that into an encrypted folder while it is offsite? Could I create an encrypted disk image or create a TrueCrypt vault and move the entire contents of the backup folder within there, and then just drag it out when I have it back home and I need to make a backup? That way if it was stolen, I wouldn't be too worried about losing things beyond the value of the drive. I just want a way to have that external hard drive be a brick if it gets stolen, since it is technically out of my possession.

And the second part: I just spent a ton of time creating a bootcamp partition through VMWare to run several Windows XP programs I have. I don't really store any data there, just the programs. I just realized that the bootcamp partition isn't backed up though. So, I decided to just create a copy of the virtual machine and dump it onto the external hard drive in case I ever have a problem. Is this even something that I could use in the future? If I lost my bootcamp partition or laptop, could I recreate it with this virtual machine copy?

Hopefully that doesn't all sound too paranoid -- I was just trying to listen to all this advice for setting up a good easy backup system and I seem to have fallen down some wormhole of backups on top of backups on top of backups.

Denied by my own! Help!

droplet — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:03:09 -0800

I "don't have permission" to go into the desktop XP folders on my network from my Windows 7 laptop, but the reverse is fine. Help me? On the occasion of getting a spiffy new wireless printer, I went through the hoopdedoodle of setting up a network on my new Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 laptop with my old Windows XP Pro SP3 desktop. They both link up fine with the printer, so that's good.

However, when I go into the network from the desktop (XP), I can get into the laptop (Win 7) fine. When I try to go into the desktop through the laptop via the network, I'm denied because I don't have permission. Password is off, file discovery on. Network stuff on. I can see the folders but can't get in them.

I've gone through what feels like every geek-aid how-to website out there for the last three days and none of their suggestions are working.

I just want to be able to access my documents folder for a little while longer until I can replace the desktop with one that also runs Win 7. What will actually work?

New "Starfield"?

Esefa — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:20:26 -0800

Has anyone made a solid, stable, fancier, and Windows 7 compatible version of the awesome old Windows XP "Starfield" screensaver? I'm referring to This one, which is apparently also known as "Flying Through Space" and "Starfield Simulation".
I've already learned how to get the old one onto Window 7 (just copy/pasting it from a machine with XP), and it works perfect.
I'm really just curious as to whether someone has expanded on it somehow. Colors? Different size/shape planets? Anything?

After googling for a while I've come across a number of folks who have toyed with it, but nothing resembling a stable release (maybe because of licensing issues?).

Sort of a silly use for a Mefi question but I'll bet I'm not the only one curious..

Looking for tips and resources around using a SSD for a Windows XP Pro boot drive, cloned from my existing XP installation.

schmoppa — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:06:28 -0800

Looking for tips and resources around using a SSD for a Windows XP Pro boot drive, cloned from my existing XP installation. I've already plugged in this Kingston SSD Now V100 Series to the motherboard, and I'm already a bit concerned that I've already done something wrong, or at least not done the right thing (copying a 6GB file on that drive to itself took about 3 minutes, which seems awfully slow).

Anyway, ideally I would like to clone my existing XP Pro installation over to the SSD and boot off that. This computer is used as a HTPC and as such, I'm admittedly not entirely sure when I last updated the OS. I'm also not sure whether a "current" XP build would include all the drivers I'd need for this to work properly.

My google-fu is seemingly weak - I'm finding some guides but they seem to pertain to OCZ SSDs, and while I'd assume they would be mostly applicable to my drive, I'm just not sure.

So, I am looking for advice, tips, links to good resources, on how to 1) make sure the drive is running as fast as it should, and 2) whether I can / should clone my existing OS install over to the new drive (and change the boot order of my drives), or whether I would need to install from fresh (which I'd like to avoid if I can).

Thanks!