Hi, my Mother's computer's hard drive has crashed for the second time,   It had Vista on it and It's only 2 years old. It is going to cost them a small fortune to have it repaired. So they have bought a new hard drive and i was going to put WIN XP on it for them, will i have any problems in doing that. I know it's a  compaq desk top computer, and it has 500 megs of ram give or take i know it's in the 500's know more when i get to their place tomorrow. Bit concerned.No, shouldn't be a problem. Just MAKE sure you have all of the correct hw drivers for XP before you start.Ok Thanks, I was told that sometimes the sound and graphic drivers won't install and to just go to the compaq site to download them, but...isn't graphics for your monitor??? so if that is the case how do i download...i sound really dumb, but i have installed xp on xp computers but have never done this before and i don' t want to screw this up and cost mum and dad more money... and it's a sata hard drive and that concerns me as wellGo to the Compaq site and download all hw drivers for the system for XP (chipset, video, sound, ethernet, etc) and copy them to a cd or usb drive. Then install the OS and copy the drivers to a FOLDER on the new installation and then install them. Install the chipset driver first.

If you want to download the drivers after you install the OS that won't be a problem - the OS will install generic drivers for everything (INCLUDING video). But you want the oem provided drivers as your permanent solution. Remember to install a good anti VIRUS utility as soon as possible after installing the drivers. Don't spend much time online until you do so. (Sigh) WELL today is the day, I will give it my best shot. Thankyou so much for your help, wish me luck Good luck .

It's really not that big of a deal, but we're here if you need us.