Replacing ME with 98SE--Which version?

[Dan Mitchell]

I have a gateway athlon 1100 with ME, which OS I loathe. I gather from discussions here and elsewhere that the best/least bad alternative to ME is 98SE. Since I went right from 95 to ME, I'm not familiar with the various iterations of 98SE (assuming more than 1). If there is more than 1 version of 98SE, does any one stand out in particular (or should any one be avoided)? I won't be buying the 98 new, so I may have access to versions other than whatever is current (if that's the correct term in this case).

My plan is to format the HDD and load 98SE. In the event the 98SE proves to be unworkable for whatever reason, am I correct to assume that I will be able to *restore* the PC to its state prior to this experiment (minus any documents, etc.) using the *restore* disks (i.e., are they suitable for a complete OS reload on a *blank* HDD, which will be what I'll have if I need to remove 98 by reformatting).

A second, perhaps safer approach might be to retain ME, and load 98SE on a partitioned area of the HD. This way I could try it out w/o risking the removal of the present OS & configuration (not that it's much of a loss). Is this feasible? HD size is 40 gig, about half of which (~20 gig) is presently free (could probably increase this maybe another 5~7 gig). If anyone knows of any especially good info on this, please let me know.

Thanks,

Dan


[This message has been edited by Dan Mitchell (edited 09-10-2001).]

[mjc]

Dan, I was going to try and tackle this last night, but was too sleepy...

The first hing you should do is get all your data to a safe place and then test the system restore disk that came with the machine...that way you'll know if it has a problem.

Then I would go with 98se, it has most of the problems of the first edition ironed out and a couple of minor improvements. After you 98se up and running to your satisfaction (before installing all your programs) I would burn an image (using something like Norton's Ghost) as a back up, then go ahead and install and then maybe make a second image of the complete install (something similar to this was suggested by Fred Langa in this LanagList news letter, but I don't have the link for it handy...), which in essence would give you a restore disk similar to the one that came with your machine.

There are a couple of ME things that are OK to use in 98 like defrag...so you can pull it and put it on a floppy before you wipe out ME.

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mjc
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