Uses for old Dell Desktop?

[tom34diy]

I am trying to determine if there are any uses for our old Dell with Windows 98. We replaced it a few years ago with a new Dell Dimension E510, with XP. Now, we need a second, newer, reliable computer so our children can get their homework done, and the old Dell is pretty much obsolete. The old computer is,

Dimension XPS T500
Pent III @500Mhz
256 RAM
Intel 82443BX (I think)

This situation leads me to several questions, if you experts would please help me out with some options.

1. I have made a complete backup of the new Dell on an external drive. Any chance I could clear or format the drive on the old Dell, and run the old Dell off the new drive (or put that data, including the operating system on the drive in the old Dell)? I am thinking that one would be too good to be true, and I'd need more RAM, etc.

2. If not, is there anything thing of value in the old Dell that I could use in the newer Dell, such as the 80GB (Seagate ATA Ultra) that I added a few years ago?

3. Should I just bite the bullet and my a new laptop?

4. If I decide to donate the old Dell, is there any free software to wipe the old drive?

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Tom

[mjc]

Actually, if you want something to run an office suite and surf the internet, that old Dell with another 256 MB would be fine...running Linux.

#1 is pretty much what you guessed...not really possible.

#2...you could probably take the 80GB drive and drop it into an external enclosure.

#4...yeah, UBCD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) has a number of useful tools on it, including disk wiping utilities. Also, Seagate, the drive you mentioned putting in it, has Seatools available on its site..get the bootable CD ISO.

[123456]

1 - Only if the drive is IDE. SATA won't work on the old Dell. (BTW, I have 2x XPS T series from that day... I fried one of the mobos, but the other one I still use it as my main rig).
2 - You can definitely use the 80GB hard drive.
3 - Buy a new laptop, right? Not so sure on this one. You could upgrade your Dell a little bit. Do what I did to mine: Bump the RAM to 512mb or more, upgrade from 98 to 2000 or XP, (NO VISTA!), get a better video card, (GX5200 128mb AGP worked for me), and upgrade the processor to a Slot 1 1GHz PIII. This will be a $100-$200 investment, while a new laptop could be $700 or more. The old Dell will still be outdated and not be able to run games newer than 3 years old, however, this is fast enough to do homework and surf the web and such. I even do video editing and Photoshop work on it.
4 - Yes. You can find bootable ISO's on the web that wipe your hard drive. Or, if you have a Windows XP/2000 cd, you can format it with that.

If you have any questions about your XPS T500, ask away! I've spent countless hours taking mine apart and upgrading.

[tom34diy]

Thanks for the replies.

123456,
I may be interested in this route, but only if I can keep the costs down. I can buy a new Dell w/o a monitor for about $500, and maybe save me some headaches of updating this old Dell.

Anyway, How can I be sure this old PC has what I need for XP? I went to the Windows site to download their analyser for an upgrade to XP, and they only offer the analyser for an upgrade from XP to Vista.

Also, would I have to buy XP at Best Buy or somewhere?

Also, it looks like the RAM may be $70, and I am not sure how much the Slot 1 1GHz PIII is or who would have it. It seems like this could get costly, and risky if everything does not come together.

If I upgraded to XP, got the new slot, added RAM, would it then allow me to install my Norton AV (requires XP), and Microsoft Home Office with EXCEL, PP, Word?

Thanks alot for your help.

Tom

[mjc]

$70 for RAM is a rip off...PC100/133 RAM is not that expensive, even if it is ECC. Check out some other source than direct from Dell.

The processor would be a bit harder to find...but should be available on ebay

http://computers.search-desc.ebay.com/slot1-1-GHz_Intel_W0QQcatrefZC6QQdfspZ1QQfposZ26250QQfromZ R2QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQftsZ2QQsabfmts Z1QQsacatZ14291QQsadisZ200QQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQs brftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about Windows on it...Linux would be fine and require a bit less resources than XP (2K would be a viable option if you really want to stick with Windows). Modern desktop Linux is not all that hard to install/configure and run. And if the software is from the new PC then no, you can't put it on the old one. It is tied to the new PC...license and possibly even installers. That is one of the major disadvantages of 'bundled' software.

[Sylvander]

I know of no reason why it isn't OK for me to do the following:

I have a copy in store from March 2007 of the Windows XP Upgrade Advisor exe file.
I have this exe file classified as a portable program...
i.e. [Unless I'm wrong] The exe file doesn't install anything, and can be run from any location that Windows can access.
I just ran the exe file from a folder on E: and it [temporarily?] self-extracted lots of files to somewhere [don't know where, probably the C: partition], and presented me with an XP Upgrade Advisor window.

Here's the UpgAdv.exe file version 6.0.2448.0 (http://www.woofiles.com/dl-167970-FP1i1DvB-UpgAdv.exe)

Presently in the process of running UpgAdv.exe [2nd backup copy] from a folder on my S: partition on my external USB HDD.
That appears to run fine too.