Ghost works well for computers of identical hardware, but watch out when ghosting between unlike systems.

Also if you are interested in backing up your PC's files take a look at this thread below. The third post from the bottom of the first page mentions some software called Backup My PC. Pretty good stuff.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5204&highlight=Back+up+my+pc

Well, I have a firewire drive, and I'd back up everything to that. Can I back up everything that isn't in the C/windows directory? I have too much random stuff scattered everywhere from my less disciplined days to simply reinstall all software. Also, like I said, the windows 98se disk is damaged and I wouldn't be able to reinstall it. I would need a new version of Windows.

Checked on the prices for XP Pro and Win 2k Pro. What does OEM mean? Is this something to watch out for.

My greatest fear is that one or some of the many things installed now would cease to work with the new version of Windows.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer and those are
the Windows versions that a shop is ONLY allowed to sell when
you buy a new PC. But, a lot of shops also sell these to anyone
who wants to buy them and that will only help you to get it
cheaper. They cannot see that this version is not supposed to
be with your PC, so no worries.

Oh, if you are going to buy OEM make sure you get your license
key and the CD!! Also OEM versions tend to ship without a
box and manual (don't know if the normal version of Windows
still includes a manual).

Josh, you say your 98SE installation is unstable and you have 1 Gig of RAM installed.

For some reason Win ME and lower (including 98SE) become unstable with more than 512 MB RAM. Try yanking out some ram to get you to 512 MB.

To use >512 MB you have to go for Win 2000 or XP.

Hans Henrik

In fact for Win98/ME 256MB is the recommended maximum. As Hans suggests, for video work you are better off with Win2000/XP. Win98/ME was never designed for the load placed on it by the demands of video editing. It is best suited to office work and 2000/XP are best used for video work.

I'm currently using Win 2000 on my editing computer and XP on my laptop. I'm finding XP to be a big of a pain in the arse and a total resourse hog so I'd suggest Win2000 for your high performance workhorse.

I had no problems with Win98SE and 768 MB of memory myself...
Upgraded to XP now for that machine. Editing is on my 256 MB
Windows 2000 Professional system.

Sounds like you were lucky Rob :-)

I ran Win ME with 768 MB too, and had a lot of system hangs etc. I then pulled out 256 MB, and the system became stable.

I checked Microsoft knowledge base for the problem, and they actually have an article on it.

Look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912

A short quote from it:

"If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message:

There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.
The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message:

Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer."


It seems that the problem is compounded by using an AGP graphics port with a large memory aperture. This was exactly where I ran into the problem. With 768 MB of physical RAM and an AGP aperture of 128 MB, I exceeded the 800 MB limit described in the article. The problem would manifest itself with system hangs in graphics intensive applications such as games.


Hans Henrik

Well there you go. I will stand corrected on the 256MB limit for Win98.

To you all I say: too bad. I just spent money to upgrade to XP Pro, so I will learn to live with it or pull my hair out trying.

It seems I was indeed lucky, Hans. Oh well. Am on XP Pro now.
That is much better anyway.

Really Rob? Do you have any recommended tweaks to make things run more smoothly with XP Pro? YOu can email instead of using the forum if you want.

Check out the two articles linked at the end of this web page

http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html

No, I am not one of the videoguys but I found these articles very handy when juicing up my PC.