One little thing to remember, though, if you are installing XP overtop another WinBlows OS.
I know this may seem common sense, but I'll post anyway: make damn certain you uninstall OS-intensive things like Norton Utilities 2000 and such, which have a firm hand 'round the cojones of your OS. In my fervor to try out XP on my desktop, I pulled a Homer and forgot. It was like putting a prom dress on a pig, same amount of heads/limbs but not really a good fit (and where *does* the tail go?). You can theoretically uninstall XP and go back to your previous OS, then uninstall all pesky interlopers, then reinstall XP, *then* of course all your new XP device drivers.
That's if it lets you; mine did not, and I had to reformat the drive (though XP does offer you that lovely NTFS).
And of course, if you installed any software since installing XP, *especially* XP-specific software (Tweak XP comes to mind), you'll do well to uninstall them BEFORE you uninstall XP, so you can then go back to your original OS...simply, it's gotta be easier to do it right the first time.
. Installed drivers for the usb network adapter while it was still on the desktop. Transferred drive to the iop and let it run. After installation was complete I loaded the video and sound drivers through the network. After video and sound I then copied my XP disk to the hard drive of the iop. Had some problems with the usb nework adapter not seeing the other computer but finally did see it and transferred the XP files. I created a folder on the desktop of the iop called XP and put the files there. All I had to do from there was click on setup and choose the upgrade option and let it go! Took over 2.5 hrs to fully load the operating system. Everything works. Had no problems with the network seeing the other computers after upgrading. My opinin is that XP does cure the usb problems on the iop. The reason I installed XP after ME is that I wanted to see if there were gonna be any overheating or lockup problems from extended usage. The iop ran from 9:00am est to 1:00 pm est non stop transferring files and loading OS's. No lockups or overheating. I would however like to increase the processor speed if possible. I tried changing the switches but no matter what I did the processor stayed at 200 mhz.