SSD is Windows XP?

[Diosoth]

I want to keep my old XP computer running as I rely on it for older games & such that 7 & 10 can't handle(16-bit stuff, Japanese games that require Applocale to even work, etc). It's a Dell Optiplex 750 or so(I believe made in 2007, has SATA connectors), cloning the HDD would require an external USB drive adapter to even clone it as I can't physically fit another HDD inside as it's an SFF case(honestly I don't even know how many SATA ports are in there, been a while since I opened it). An SSD would be overall better anyway... so what kind of hassles will this give me? I gather that XP doens't support TRIM so I'd have to run a manual program to deal with that... but anything else I should know before sinking money into this only to find it's too much of a nightmare?

 

[SIW2]

I dont know anything about xp, however, samsung and crucial and others have their own software for handling their disk, I expect you can trim with those. They are called things like magician , and dashboard.

this kind of thing:
How it Works: Samsung Magician 6 SSD Tool - YouTube

 

[Alejandro85]

I don't think there will be any important problem with it. While it's true that XP doesn't knows anything about SSDs, they still share the same interface as normal disks. Just to be sure, if any trouble arrises, put it in legacy IDE mode in the BIOS. Other than that, just use it normally.

While XP don't supports TRIM natively, you can do it manually though the drive's software, or even not at all. TRIM helps increase performance and minimize wear, but it's nothing you can't live without. In practice, on modern SSDs both effects are barely noticeable.

I would say go ahead and try it.

 

[samuria]

You would be better running free virtual pcs on 7 or 10 and running xp that way. Most xp software isnt disk intensive so there may be no advantage having a ssd

 

[Alejandro85]

Most xp software isnt disk intensive so there may be no advantage having a ssd

We have no idea what the OP is using, besides this being a over-generalization that generally don't hold off. Windows itself makes heavy use of disk and many programs do too. Not to mention that there is no such thing as "XP software".

 

[Diosoth]

I'm keeping a physical PC on hand solely to run XP. It's already set up, has been used for years. Aside from maybe a better GPU(but I have 2 other PCs so if something needs better hardware I can just run it on those) it's basically as-is to run older games on. Web browsing is iffy as few browsers still support XP and older browsers don't always support newer webpage stuff- got a lot of blank pages on an outdated copy of Firefox. Though online access is no longer essential for that, shy of maybe downloads, as I have separate Win7 and Win10 PCs(I opted to keep this PC going functional on a permanent basis after some hassles with a brief power outage damaging Win10's startup files, which required a fresh install to fix... I am making dedicated SSD clones of all drives from now on).

Setting up XP in a VM AND reinstalling all those games would be a tremendous chore. Cloning would be easier. I am also aware DOSbox is sometimes an option, but it can be an issue dealing with it for every individual game. Some of the titles I have, excluding things from the 80s/early 90s, tend to run as-is on XP but not a later OS.

That said, cloning will be time-consuming. From HDD to SSD it took over 2 hours to clone my Win7 setup even at 160GB of data(compared to 18 minutes from SSD to SSD on Win10). I expect for that XP drive it will be 3-4 hours, probably with the DVD drive unplugged to use its SATA port. That's if Macrium is still XP compatible, which I believe it is. But having run 2 clones yesterday and those drives working fine, I expect no real problems there. That HDD is also 7 years old so I wouldn't mind replacing it.

 

[file3456]

Get one of these

Get one of these. Make sure it's USB 3.0 compatible. The connector will be blue.

A Crucial SSD is what I'd use. Samsung would also be great. I'd stay away from others. There are only six NAND flash memory manufactures that I know of and Micron (Crucial), and Samsung are two. I've heard Samsung has a better speed. I'd have to look at some charts and/or get one for myself and compare it to my current 1 TB Crucial SSD using the control in this experiment of my computer. I should go m.2, but not in the mood right now.

As to the browser issue in XP and a VM. You have this in reverse. Use a VM like VMware Workstation (now called VMware Workstation Player) to install Windows 7 or 8 into and run a browser in that. Or I'd just install Linux in the VM which is free. Damn Small Linux (DSL) would work. Raspberry PI OS would suffice as well. Ubuntu has been infected with Windows crap so be aware of that. They sold their soul.

Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac – Raspberry Pi

Add an awesome UI. Twister OS

See screen shots.

Twister OS


The highest version of VMware Workstation that supports XP as the host is version 10.0.7 VMware Workstation 10.0.7 Release Notes

This link was working for me for the download and now is not. They do this sht to me all the time. Maybe it'll work for you. If not, I'll grab the f$^^ker some other way. Pisses me off they have to F around like that when you just want the damn download. It's like if you refresh the page a number of times they kill your ability for download.

VMware Maintenance


Addendum:

While Clonezilla has a bit of a learning curve, it'll would work well and may be faster. It is NOT OS specific that I know of. You boot it and clone. If you need to clone back, you boot Clonezilla, and clone back. Simple as that. Clonezilla - About

It's a Dell Optiplex 750 or so(I believe made in 2007, has SATA connectors)

SATA I first came out in 2003. I utilized SATA I in my Dell Dimension 4600. It of course had PATA ports. (IDE is a misnomer. Both SATA and PATA use IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)). Was it any faster than the PATA ports? Not really. Might have had better bandwidth, but I sure didn't notice a difference. That 4600 was a work horse let me tell you. Everything from gaming to running the Folding@Home distributed client. I upgraded EVERYTHING in it except the motherboard.

Edit-

I see Dell released a chipset driver update for the 4600 in 2012! That's at least nine years after the 4600 was sold! HAHAHA I didn't think they'd support the thing for that long. Nice they do I guess.

 

[flavallee]

It's a Dell Optiplex 750 or so(I believe made in 2007, has SATA connectors)

What's the exact 7-character "service tag" number on it?

 

[cornemuse]

Years ago I installed an ide ssd in a toshiba laptop. It worked fine, and fast!

(edit: XP Home - re-installation)

Amazon.com

 

[Diosoth]

I finally got around to this yesterday. Took 2 hours, 32 minutes to clone the drive thanks to HDD speeds. Unfortunately this PC only has 2 SATA connectors, I had to unplug the DVD drive to make the clone, I can't use a second drive in this PC- not that I need to, total space is only 50% used anyway, it's mainly here to play older games on that don't play nice in anything after XP.

I used a Mushkin 500GB SSD with new SATA cable.

 

[siliconbeaver]

You may try Win 11 to see if those games running fine. seems Win 11 has better compatibility than Win 10 in my test.

my old XP was running Outlook Express Mail (which cannot run on Win 7 or higher) and Office97 until Google recently NOT supported Outlook Express mail due to security issue (yes, it could. but I have to take password assigned by Google for my email account on computer).
I decided to stop OE mail use because of Google's policy. and upgraded computer to Win 11. It's found Office 97 running fine on Win 11.

If old Office97 can run on Win 11, your old games may run too.

 

[MisterEd]

If old Office97 can run on Win 11, your old games may run too.

Every time there is a new version of Windows some program or game that will not work with it. In most case there is nothing you can do about it except keep an old computer around to run them. For games that depend upon 3D graphics even virtual machines won't help. Another thing to consider is whether the game of program only installs or works in 32-bit Windows. I have tried to install games in which the installer would not run on a 64-bit version of Windows.

I have had a few games that would not work on anything above Windows XP. Eventually people figured how to create installers or drivers to get around that and allow these games to be installed and run on Windows 7 and 10.

In some cases the Game developer released modified versions old games that run on more modern versions of Windows. Examples are Grand Theft Auto all the way back to the original version.

You can't assume that just because one old program works on Windows 10 or 11 that other old programs will also. Every program system requirements are different. Unless you know otherwise sometime you just to try to see if an old program will work.

 

[Diosoth]

My XP computer is less hassle than trying to fiddle with getting many of those games running on anything more modern. Some are Japanese releases that relied on Applocale to function. I can barely use it for the internet anymore as the latest browsers to work on XP are still old & becoming unable to view some sites.

I'm mainly still on 7 but I need to set my Win10 PC back up & either try to find NVidia drivers that don't crash it or get a different video card. Even web browsing is a hassle now on 7, too many games need 10, I've maxed this PC to top specs but it's not good enough anymore.

 

[MisterEd]

Nvidia video drivers shouldn't crash. I try to use the newest driver for the cards I have. Note the same card with different versions of Windows might have a different driver.

What video card are you having problems with? What driver are you using with it? Also, what version of Windows?

I have a number of Nvidia video cards. They range in age from less than 1 year to 21 years old. For the older card I keep a list of what was the last driver that was released for them. I also try to keep an archive of those drivers.

 

[siliconbeaver]

My XP computer. I can barely use it for the internet anymore as the latest browsers to work on XP are still old & becoming unable to view some sites..

True,
Win XP has more and more problems to view newly-designed webs.

a while ago, I did test Windows 7, 10 and 11. at final, my decision was to skip Windows 10. to go Win 7 if running fine or Win 11 if unable to install Win 7 (such as my Yoga Win 8.1).

upgrading to Win 11 is easier than people thought. and Win 11 indeed running better than Win 10 (Win 11 requests less resources, saves more Available Physical Memory per my test. and smaller OS size. on same HP computer, Win 10 OS 20 GB vs. Win 11 OS 16 GB, in my test).

Hence, if possible, I would install Win 11 than Win 10. (yes, you can install Win 11 on any computer. I even tested DDR2)
my Win 7 is a different story. they are data computers. running data querying and processing using macro/python. If upgrade, need too much re-work to run those scripts. I tried then gave up.

 

[MisterEd]

You might find this useful.

Can you install Windows XP on a SSD drive?
Can you install Windows XP on a SSD drive? - CompuHoy.com

In any event don't let Windows XP try to defrag your SSD! Look in the settings to make sure that is disabled. Defragging may be good for a hard drive but is bad for an SSD. SSDs by design have a limited number of writes so defragging them will shorten their life.

 

[siliconbeaver]

Thanks,

Only weekend I have time to come over. weekdays too busy. have missed many useful posts (SIW2 is a good resource).

After my last test, I have decided to groups computers in two: Win 7 and Win 11. disposed XP computers (unable to upgrade to Win 7/11). also made a Rule

1. If SSD, then go Win 11 (otherwise, hardware investment is a kind of waste. also Win 11 good is for SSD defrag. super-fast)
2. If laptop, then go Win 11 as touchpad/smart gesture driver, I2C driver, now is Win10/11 built-in. Win 7 has missed this key driver)

Therefore desktop computers are still hybrid of Win 7 and Win 11. will keep them up awhile (really wouldn't re-work those scripts). No XP in use any more when Outlook Express Mail gone.

 

[yatoto]

I done this with my old machine, but not satisfied with the performance

 

[file3456]

True,
Win XP has more and more problems to view newly-designed webs.

It's not entirely an OS issue. It's the limited browser you are forced to use in an old OS like XP. The browser is the software that just renders all of the code on a website. That's its chief function - to render website code. You go to a website, the browser makes a request in the form of a "GET" and the browser renders all of that code in your browser. If that website server uses code yur browser can't parse (understand) then that's the issue. Not so much the OS. But a website that may use SNI will play hell with XP I believe. I believe there are proxies to remedy that. A proxy not meant to try and "hide your IP" (proxies do a very bad job at that). This type of proxy is for layer 6 and 7 of the OSI model...


About Windows 11 et al, in my opinion Microsoft has made the OS into a massive pile of crap. I could write several paragraphs as to why I think that is in an effort to not sound like "one of those people" or what ever the fan boys say. To be concise, they (Microsoft) want to use you as a cash cow. They want to allow ONLY their programs from their play store to be installed in your OS on YOUR PC. They want all of the control, the telemetry, the Ad revenue and analytics. They are a company after all...
It's getting to the point you'd be better off customizing your own Linux environment with Gentoo. But not everyone knows how to do that let alone can use Linux because they are either tied to Microsoft products or it can be a real bitch to learn Linux and fix things if you're not a regular user of Linux. Type in the wrong command in terminal? Good luck reversing that crap. It ain't happening. So Microsoft knows this and people will continue taking the blue pill and paying homage to their corporate overlords.


This is why Linux needs to be easier for the user. It is now-a-days, but if I grab a package on the Internet and want to install it I can't just double click on it like an .exe in Windows. At least not for most. If for example I find some awesomeness on Github that runs in Linux I'd like to install I'll have to run a bunch of commands to get it to work, and chances are it'll fail and now you find yourself at Stack Exchange finding an answer. Linux does already have a "play store" but I personally don't trust it for reasons... I don't even trust apt get update for God sakes. LOL (Yeah, sounds silly, but you have no idea what I know. LOL). You really want to compile from source yourself. That's why some software is called open source. You can look at the code (if you know how) and compile it yourself knowing full well what you're getting and executing. It's really on a whole new level of computing most people don't do let alone know how. It's like possessing the skills of Neo while everyone else goes about their lives working that 9 to 5 job, paying their taxes - and helping their landlady carry out their garbage..

In the end we are "coppertops..."

 

[yatoto]

You might find this useful.

Can you install Windows XP on a SSD drive?
Can you install Windows XP on a SSD drive? - CompuHoy.com
In any event don't let Windows XP try to defrag your SSD! Look in the settings to make sure that is disabled. Defragging may be good for a hard drive but is bad for an SSD. SSDs by design have a limited number of writes so defragging them will shorten their life.

How can we transfer our old Win XP OS hard drive to SSD without losing any thing