problem with installing windows10

[patmich]

Since I am unable to install Windows 10 into my 8 year old HP Windows XP, what would you advise I should do.  Should I back up everything on the computer with a flash drive before doing anything else?  Then, after that, what do I do next?

[WAWood]

@patmich 

First off, there is no Upgrade Path from WinXP to Win10 -- meaning, there is no way to Upgrade the OS and retain any settings, data, or applications.  You would have to do a Clean Install and that will overwrite everything in the process.  So, not only will you lose all your data, you will have to reinstall all your applications from scratch.

Second, you SHOULD make an Image backup prior to doing this because with a PC this old, there probably won't be Win10 drivers for some of the hardware and the Win10 install is likely to fail as a result.

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I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

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Personally, with an XP-era PC, I would advise AGAINST trying to upgrade it to Win10.