Hi Cindy,

No, I didn't get an XP upgrade coupon, but I can live with that. I might want to have NTFS on at least some partitions at some point in the future, and this is one of the reasons I'm trying to prepare for that possibility. I also want to be able to network with a bunch of old Windows 95 machines, though, and it was my impression that FAT-based file systems are needed for file sharing with those machines. The added security of NTFS may not be an immediate factor for me, since I expect to be using Norton Internet Security's firewall. The immediate question for me is whether there is a compelling reason to repartition now, before any other installations, and if so how to go about it most easily.

Yes, I got the machine with a CR-RW/DVD in the fixed drive bay, and I'm certainly planning to use this for backups. Another method of backup I rely upon is to clone selected directories from one machine to another across a LAN. I try to organize my directories to make this sort of backup procedure as easy as possible.

I realize that there are two schools of thought about routinely doing clean installations of everything. I am definitely from the school of those who do this as infrequently as possible, because I have a very large number of applications to install. I generally steer away from beta releases and "bleeding edge" new versions of products. Sure, I'll do a clean install if I must, but my objective is to minimize the likelihood this become a necessity.

Thanks for your help, Cindy. When I was reviewing the choice of what to buy, I recall having seen your own enthusiastic comments about the Inspiron, and that helped to inspire me into this purchase. It sure looks like a great machine.

Mike

>Michael,
>
>I love my Inspiron, which arrived at the end of October. Did yours come with a cupon to purchase a WinXP upgrade for about $25? You might want to plan for whether you'll be doing the upgrade.
>
>Think about whether you'll want the security of NTFS rather than FAT32.
>
>Do you have a CDRW so you can make off-machine backups?
>
>About planning carefully so you'll never have to do a total reinstall, I've taken the opposite approach. Over the past year I've had the opportunity, for the first time, to "own" the machine I use on a daily basis, and to install the OS, and everything else, from scratch numerous times. I learned how to do this, having never done it before. While installing various Beta versions of WinXP I rebuilt my primary machine a half-dozen times, and as a result, I've developed a system to make this easier. It includes directions to myself of things I must save, a list of all the "other stuff" I use like mIRC and Snag-It, along with download URLs and passwords, and a list of all the stuff I want to install, and in what order.
>
>I keep everything in My Documents, including my Outlook PST files and Outlook Express newsgroup files. I have a daily backup BAT file to copy all of this to another area on my hard drive, one folder for each day of the week. I have an additional BAT for a weekly copy of my cookies and Internet bookmarks, etc. I copy to a CD at the end of the month and then delete old mail, etc.
>
>A clean install is a great way to be sure the crumbs are all cleaned out of the corners of the cupboards, and resetting all of the settings is a nice way to re-evaluate the way you do things. It's kind of like moving to a new house. You get a chance to really clean up.
>
>Others will have advice which will differ from mine because each of us has a different work style.
>
>The reason for installing older versions first is so that the DLLs and ODBC drivers are replaced with newer ones as appropriate, or the newer ones are added beside the older ones.
>
>
>
>>I've just purchased a Dell Inspiron 8100 notebook computer with Windows 2000 Professional. It's got a 48GB hard drive as one large FAT32 partition, with an assortment of preinstalled programs, including Office XP Professional. Before I install a few dozen additional apps on this machine, including various incarnations of FoxPro, I would like to plan the most sensible sequence of steps. Here are some of my questions and concerns:
>>
>>- should I repartition the hard drive before doing any installations, and if so how?
>>
>>If it's unnecessary or can be done later without reinstalling everything, I would love to punt this issue for now. Is it likely that I will end up needing to go back to square one if I don't do something about reformatting and/or partitioning up front? Also I'm confused about exactly how to go about creating a new partition under Win2K Pro, and whether a separate "logical drive" would suffice for most purposes. It's unclear whether I can create additional "extended partitions" (or any other type of partition) at this point without reinstalling everything that came preinstalled on the machine.
>>
>>- should I install Norton utils before anything else?
>>
>>I've got a complete set of Norton utility packages, including both Norton Internet Security and Norton SystemWorks (which includes Norton Ghost). I'm very concerned about taking precautions to avoid the likelihood of EVER having to do a complete reinstall. Should I install Norton SystemWorks first (to get Ghost), and would it be best to have created a separate drive partition (or logical drive) before that step? Should I install Norton Internet Security first, to be sure I can safely get live updates?
>>
>>- does it matter what sequence I use to install versions of FoxPro?
>>
>>I will want to install FPD2.6, FPW2.6, VFP3.0b, VFP5 (maybe), VFP6, and eventually VFP7 on this machine. Is it necessary do these installations in sequence? Is there much chance of problems if I install an older version of FoxPro after a newer one (assuming I use separate directories, of course)? More generally, how likely is it that installing older apps after newer ones will cause problems that would have been avoided by adhering to an installation sequence that starts with oldest apps first?
>>
>>- any other tips, e.g. should I disable write cache on the hard disk?
>>
>>The Dell Inspiron machine came with Write cache enabled on the hard disk, which seems risky, especially with a FAT-based file system. Should I disable write caching to reduce the risk of major corruption that might necessitate a complete reinstallation?
>>
>>Thanks in advance for any advice on all of this.