Foolstroupe -

Shame, shame, shame....

Mb = MegaBIT, MB = MegyBYTE, Which did you mean?
And where'd the "/" come from in H/D? Why not C/D's?

Just joshin' you, of course.

Win98SE is the oldest "legacy" OS that still gets some "token" support from Mickey$oft, but the little available is given rather "grudgingly." They have a large number of Win98SE users in some countries that they can't export later versions to because of export licensing difficulties, so replacement files should be available for a while, but they will not generally worry about updates or incremental improvements. Specifically, they will not issue "security updates" for Win98SE except for critical threats, which will likely leave Win98SE users much more vulnerable if/when virus attacks specific to it "leak out" of the areas where it's the only choice. Win98SE can use IE v6, and many of the security holes will get patched by keeping IE up to date, but there's no assurance that you'll stay "safe."

WinXP should not be installed as an upgrade over Win98SE. To get a reliable installation, Win98SE needs to be removed and WinXP installed "clean." A principal reason for this is that WinXP should be installed using NTFS format for at least the HD partition that has the OS on it. It is, I believe, possible to install WinXP on a FAT32 format HD, but not recommended unless necessary. An example of "necessary" would be use of an alternative OS (Linux, maybe, or a "legacy" Win98?) that can't share information from the NTFS format (i.e. a dual boot machine).

Even on a dual boot setup, you should be able to use NTFS for the WinXP partition, if you keep any "shared files" in a separate partition in FAT32. While WinXP can read/write files from/to a FAT (technically FAT16) or FAT12 (floppies and other removable media) partitions, I would recommend converting anything you "carry over" to the WinXP system to FAT32. (Win98SE does work quite well - maybe better - with FAT32, but cannot read NTFS.)

Since the cleanest installation of WinXP actually or effectively includes a reformat of the OS partition, you should move all your data files, and maybe some "legacy" programs to one your new hard drives - not the one where you intend to install WinXP. Reinstalling any legacy programs after WinXP is in place would of course be the more reliable method, and reinstalling may be the simplest way of getting the off the OS drive now.

With your new CD burner (one of your 2 CD drives is a burner?) you could archive data files to CDs, but you need to be very cautious about relying on CD archives-from-HD for program files. Your burn program is quite likely to change a few file names to conform to the Joliet structure. This is not likely to cause a problem with data, since the file extension should never change, and the "new name" will usually be recognizable; but it can make program files unusable.

If you convert your Win98SE drives to FAT32 first, you may be more successful at installing WinXP as an "upgrade" over Win98SE, but it's not the recommended method. You should, of course, check out the installation instructions that came with your package, and hit the Mickey$oft WinXP "users' site" for current recommendations. They did have quite a bit of stuff on installation there, last time I looked. (Clicky not handy at the moment, but I can pull it up if you need it.)

John