Ahem...i didn't really know where to put this so this seemed like the most reasonable place. I recently got a used 2001 Compaq Presario 700 series (old school) running windows 98. Now my problem is simple, or not so much. I want to change the os from 98 to XP. I do have an XP disc but thats about it im trying to see if their is a way to Boot the computer from a disc without losing any of the Drivers seeing as the person i got it from no longer has the Driver discs. Last time i booted from a CD it was for a new dell and i had the drives and misc. stuff right there so no biggie but right now i only have one shot so if there is a way to o it great if not...well idk what to do.

I don't recommend an upgrade from 98 to XP. You're likely to run into serious problems, the upgrade path is too steep.

If you look in Device Manager, you can see what drivers are loaded and download the XP versions before you wipe and reload the system.

just save all of the drivers to a flash drive and then upgrade.

Just like mooreted said, I don't think upgrading from 98 to xp is a good idea. First of all, the computer is probably not even good enough to run xp decently. Its gonna be like people trying to upgrade from xp to vista when they're computers are like 3 years old. If you're computer is old don't upgrade, its not worth the trouble.

Old hardware + new software = shit.

create a partition and install the new os on it, that way you can see if the hardware is up to running xp, and scan the other partition for the drivers if they will work on xp(unlikely), and if it doesnt work delette the partition and try somthing else.

hey i have a question im pretty sure it doesnt go here but since he started talking about drivers how do i obtain drivers for like vista xp 7 98 95 etc when you only have the os disc im sure you need to look in the internet but since most of these OS's are outdated their arent many sites that have em is their a program u can use to automaticly find and download the drivers needed? sorta like uniblue driver rescue? not sure if that the one i need but i read its used to upgrade drivers so im imagining u need the drivers first so u have something to upgrade. thanks for the help