Hand-Me-Down Vista PC to the Wife

[rustyd79]

So I got a new rig.

My wife is running an old XP machine. I want to give her my old, yet newer than her's, Dell XPS420 Vista Ultimate (q6600).

I have tons of crap on the Vista so I believe my choices are:
1) Manually delete everything->defrag-> hand off
2) Re-install. This part scares me due to Drivers. It's one of those Cable-ready models which will record live tv & stream via Media Center and what not, so I don't want to lose that if possible.

My question is: What would be the best option in order to pass on a Clean Vista PC to her without all the junk I've accumulated over the last 4-5 years?

As a side-note: Any cool uses for the old XP machine other than wiping it re-installing and using as a paperweight?
I got nothin' thinking about that, except maybe a garage sale 😵.

 

[hang-the-9]

Check Dell for the drivers, they'd have the TV card drivers and software for download. The laptop should have restore disks which would have all that. If you lost them, they can send you a new set for not too much cost.

Clean setup is the best way to go.

If the P4 system is 2.8 gig or more, with 2 gig of RAM or more, it can be used for almost anything. Run it as a file server, resell it. Those go for $60-100 on craigslist.

 

[rustyd79]

The laptop should have restore disks which would have all that. If you lost them, they can send you a new set for not too much cost. ...Clean setup is the best way to go.

Desktop actually, but I do believe i have most of the old disks (somewhere), however - I don't think they sent me a Vista disk O,o But I'll check and see.

As for the clean set-up: Assuming I locate those disks, do I just plug em into the drive and say "reinstall"? Or... is there some nifty freeware program I am unaware of which would make this process much less of a hassle?

If the P4 system is 2.8 gig or more, with 2 gig of RAM or more, it can be used for almost anything. Run it as a file server...

Interesting idea. I've no clue How to do that, however, I assume I will locate that information somewhere here (haven't looked yet).

 

[rustyd79]

Best answer selected by Rustyd79.