Hi,

I bought this used PC. It has WIN ME on it. I want to upgrade it to Win XP or Win 2K, but I don't want to format the HD because the HD has a lot of good programs on it. Is there a way I can install the new OS without deleting any of the programs?

Thanks in advance.

MacPCYou cannot expect programs that are installed on one O/S to work when you upgrade/downgrade to another.  Do you have an upgrade version of Win XP/Win 2k?  If so, check the documentation as to what will be lost on upgrade.

If the programs you refer to are setup files, you can simply run them again, following upgrade.  To obtain the best RESULTS with Win 2k or Win XP, however, you should format your hard drive as NTFS, rather than FAT.  That of course means losing everything on the hard drive (that you haven't backed up).

If I were in your position incidentally, I would go up to Win XP (if the hardware was up to it) or down to Win 98SE.  I would not STAY with Win ME.Those programs may not work on XP either.