Upgrading second hand computer

[Clayhead]

A friend of mine has just bought a second hand pc and asked me if I can help with it. It's an old computer, it's about 10 years old, it's operating system is windows 95 and it has no usb ports, also he didn't get any system disks with it so I don't know how to reset to factory defaults (there's still a lot of crap on it from the previous owners). Is it possible to upgrade this computer to windows xp and fit a usb port with the minimum of cost as my friend is on a tight budget.

[b]Thread is old and locked - MidiMoto[b]

[Tom]

Windows XP on a computer that old?

Most probably not. - Windows 2000 would be more resonable... and it is a fairly reliable operating system.

[Clayhead]

No it's windows 95, I'm trying to upgrade to xp.

[Tom]

Yes.. and i said that upgrading to XP would not be possible / a good idea... However upgrading to Windows 2000 would be better.

[Clayhead]

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying.
So how easy is it to upgrade to windows 2000?

[Tom]

Put the disc in... click next a few times.

You will have to check the requirments for it though, If the PC doesnt have enough memory, the hard drive isnt big enough, or the processor is too slow, then Windows 2000 will be painfully slow and unstable.

[Clayhead]

Can't get any easier than that I suppose. I'll pass the information on to my friend. Thanks

[syphus]

Err actually, Windows XP runs much better than Windows 2000 on old systems..

But NOT systems that old. I'd forget about anything later than Windows 4.9 (Otherwise known as ME). You can fit a USB PCI card, in theory. Alternatively, you could run Linux on it fairly well.

Maybe you should tell your friend to just throw that thing away, or give it to someone who wants a backup server. :-\

[Tom]

Oh.. My bad. :P

[Clayhead]

Well I had another look at it tonight and I think it's quite possible that it'll make a good doorstop ;D

[Tom]

..A very large... door stop... ?

[Clayhead]

For a very large door