What OS to use

[MARINE1142]

I need to format my hard drive and was going to load windows but what version should i put in i have 95 98 first and xp i want to use the mamewah the hard drive is 10gig and the ram is 512 the processor is Pentium 3 1 ghz still need a grahic card but need to get this operating system installed first. Any advice?

[IG-88]

Use 98se. Really tho, do a search, this topic has been covered numerous times.

[MARINE1142]

Thanks for the info. Sorry I tried a search but maybe i did not word it correctly because no useful info came up. o yeah nice IG88

[IG-88]

Ya, that search does suck. I like 98se cause it's "fairly" lite on system resources, stable, easy to set-up and cheap. But really there are as many opinions on it as there are people on this forum.  For your set-up XP would be a bit much IMHO. Are you planning on putting any PC games on it? Maybe give us a few more details on what you're are planning on doing with it??

[MARINE1142]

The plan was yes to be able to PC games also, but somewhere along the line of the build or the design phase i got it in my head that i should us my 27" tv but then i find out that u can not use the tv for pc games but that it is better ro arcade games. So i guess no PC games now i starting to get into the programing phase of this thing and its kind of overwhelming like do you need mame32(what ever that is) as well as mamewah then all the programing involved its just a bit much but hey i have come this far i m going to take it all the way one way or another. And as long as keep getting help from this forum i dont see a too much of a problem. Some times i dont ask a question cause it is so basic most people here would not even bother to answer them.

[IG-88]

Well keep truckin' on. You can get all the help you need from this forum. I haven't met a better place for help. ( and I belong to quite a few ) You shouldn't get a raft a crap for asking so called "dumb" questions either. And remeber the wiki is really great for some of those basic questions too.

[MARINE1142]

Thanks for the help and encouragement.

[MARINE1142]

If your are still there i have one of those dumb question the pc i m going to us is not ready but i want to get started programing the font-end and emulators and controls can i use a n extarnal hard drive (40gig) to do all this make all the changes and play with then just drag the folder to the new computer hard drive and it will be the same. Also can i configure it the games controls with the keyboard then when the pc is ready and the cp just change the controls to the cp?

[8way]

If your are still there i have one of those dumb question the pc i m going to us is not ready but i want to get started programing the font-end and emulators and controls can i use a n extarnal hard drive (40gig) to do all this make all the changes and play with then just drag the folder to the new computer hard drive and it will be the same. Also can i configure it the games controls with the keyboard then when the pc is ready and the cp just change the controls to the cp?

Yes you can do that but, you will have to change all the drive letter references in your ini files to C: when you drag it from your external to your internal (this is assuming you installed windows on C:\)

[MARINE1142]

Is that something that can be done and in a master folder and therefore changeing all letters to c or do i have to go in each one to change it. Also can it just run off the extarnal hard drive? or will it be slower?

[Spaz Monkey]

Most external hard drives run slower due to the connection to the main computer.  I know that there are some external drives that you can hook up via SATA, but most drives are either USB or Firewire. 

Concerning your "master folder", it might depend on which FE you're using.  I'm using Mame32 and it looks for folders based off the folder it runs from (i.e. running in from Z:\VDO, the roms should be Z:\VDO\ROMS).  I can move the whole thing to a different drive/folder and Mame32 still runs, I just need to update the properties in my program menu.

(P.S.: not wanting to complain, but please use punctuation.  I'm not a spelling , but it would make your posts easier to read)