Usually BIOS is entered using either the F2, F10, or DEL keys. The manual will tell you for sure.

That's an XP-only thing, isn't it? Pretty sure the reason you get bluescreens is that AHCI is a Vista only thing. I think.theragu40

The BSOD-ing is, yes. XP can run SATA drives in AHCI mode, but it requires a floppy to load SATA drivers while installing XP, and XP does BSOD if that mode changes to/from IDE after the OS has been installed. It certainly could be the problem for the OP, too.

Vista (in my experience) can gracefully handle the mode switch after OS installation.

I really Doubt it'll run at all, even on low. Not sure how you could check thoughNibroc420

Yeah, the Intel GMA 950 is even weaker than your old Nvidia 6100. It may be doable, but its gonna pale in comparison to your old notebook. Hold out for an Nvidia based netbook if you can.

Sounds like the HDD partition table went bad. Its possible for this to happen randomly with XP for no good rhyme or reason, but it could also be a sign that your HDD is dying.

All versions of Vista will offer the same performance. I bought Ultimate and found that it has absolutely nothing I needed over the Home Premium version.

Not bad at all for the price, IMHO.

Drive is probably only 5400RPM, but again - for that price, not the end of the world.

Second, if I sell my current PC along with the old IDE HDD that I will include with it (I don't really want to transfer it now, I would rather go completely SATA), what is a safe way to remove all of my information from the HDD? I don't want anyone getting hold of any of my accounts or passwords on it.

chandlerr_360

http://www.dban.org/

Boot and Nuke is a good hard drive wipe utility. Just be sure you have all your info off the drive. :p

Have you tried running a system restore to a point before all this crashing started - before all your risque browsing?

I think you're stuck buying a 64-bit OEM disc if you want to upgrade. At this point I would wait and get the 64-bit version of Windows 7 instead.Bane_v2

True on both accounts - you can't really get around having to buy the 64-bit version in one form or another. At this point, you should wait until Windows 7 comes out and buy your 64-bit version of that.

At this point, if you REALLY want 64-bit right now, try the Windows 7 x64 RC instead - Its free for unlimited use until March 2010 (when it starts shutting you down every 2 hours)

Did you try running the activation wizard again, just incase that step was missed during the install?