that partition would have been for a recovery cd, it sets all the settings back to normal, sorta like reinstalling windows but it could include other programs too like drivers

The RAM is the first problem i'm using 35% of my 2gb writing this so he'll be using 70% of his 1gb. The graphics card is very lo so it'll have major problems with vista. The drive shouldn't make a difference.

What i'ld do is format the whole thing in NTFS, aparently it's not so effected by fragmentation. Then install basic, if you want you can try with ultimate again but turn off all the apps using MSconfig, with this you can change the startup registry so that only what you want starts up, make sure you turn off the sidebar it's quite a memory hog and he proberbly won't use it much.

markop2003

So the recovery portion would not be needed? He did have XP on there before. The RAM probably wouldn't be a problem - I have another computer with Vista that only has a gig of RAM and a P4 so I think that's fine. I think I'll just install Vista Basic, but that doesn't explain why he would have had problems BEFORE even booting into Windows (at the installation!). Any other input?

So a friend of mine got a Windows Upgrade CD since he figured XP was going out, but when I tried to install it for him, the installation was slow as all hell. When it finally finished, startup was still horrid and so was the performance within Windows itself. Here are his specs:

Brand: eMachines

1GB RAM
AMD Athlon 4000+ @2.4GHz
200GB HDD
Nvidia 7200GS
Previous OS: Windows XP Media Edition

Now I know what you're thinking: that video card plus Aero equals disaster, yes? This seemed to indeed be the case. After I disabled transparencies, the performance boosted by a great amount. However, things were still far from being perfect.

One more thing. Before I formatted his drive using the application on the Vista CD, I noticed a partition labeled "Recovery". I deleted this since it was already formatted in FAT32 (could have been NTFS, I'm not sure). Could this be one of the problems? If my friend had a CD from eMachines labeled "Recovery" could I install/boot from it and make things dandy again?

A few other solutions I thought of:

-Installing Vista Basic and thereby disabling any chance of Aero or any other annoying memory hog apps being activated.
-Using a slower or possibly faster DVD drive to install Vista; this was a problem with my own installation (DVD drive was too fast).

Help me out, GS!

Went through many integrated platforms before I got to my first dedicated card: the Radeon X300. It took me about 3 years after that to get ambitious enough to "upgrade" to a broken 8600GT. However, I didn't know this was the case and put an ad up to trade it for another card (thought it might've been my PSU not willing to power it up). Seems that I got a 7900GT for FREE from the guy that emailed me! I later sold this card for 80 and got a 7900GTX for the very same price.

TL;DR

Integrated x100000000-->Radeon X300-->7900GT-->7900GTX.

I hope to be the proud owner of a 4870 someday =]

[QUOTE="LightSoulBlue"]

[QUOTE="nVidiaGaMer"]I would stick with XFX or EVGA.Domobomb

He's not talking about Nvidia cards...

He's not talking about what?

Oh.... are they still around?

Your rig's specs as show in your sig would suggest so =P

I would stick with XFX or EVGA.nVidiaGaMer

He's not talking about Nvidia cards...

[QUOTE="LightSoulBlue"]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ATI-Radeon-4850,5728.html

Link! Link! Link!

SinfulPotato

Hot sauce!!!

I wish me bought a 3870 instead of a 9600GT.

Who could have seen this one coming, though? I love that face in your sig btw.