Timeline
Friday Oct 26.  I read the reviews on Windows 8:  Faster boot times! More efficient use of CPU and memory!  Great interface!  I ran the Upgrade Assistant from the Microsoft website--it said I could upgrade without any problems.  PC crashed during upgrade of Win XP to Win 8 on my Dell 8300.  error msg: 0x0000005D  PC would not boot.  Tech support said your PC is incompatible without a CPU upgrade from Dell.  Said to do a clean install.  I said No give me a refund.  After 2 hours, no refund.  Saturday, I called the Microsoft store and they gave me a refund in 5 minutes.

Saturday I shopped for another hard drive to install Windows on so that I could access the hard drive to which windows 8 wouldn't install.  Found an open box 250 GB drive at MacMall, which arrived at my door on Oct 31.  I also shopped for a windows 8 computer and found one at TigerDirect a Dell XPS 8500 with all sorts of fast stuff for 850 which I ordered, but decided to cancel Monday b/c I wasn't sure I liked Win8.
Tuesday I went to BestBuy to test drive Win8.  Went to multiple computers on display.  I didn't feel very comfortable with it.  most of the pc's didn't seem very responsive.  Win8 still has some bugs to work out with touchpads and the mouse.  I move around in Win XP using keyboard shortcuts.

Win8 worked best with the Lenovo Yoga laptop/tablet hybrid.

Luckily Win8 can emulate the Win7 interface to some degree.

Need to achieve some greater familiarity with Win before taking the Great Leap.

Meanwhile, WinXP is formatting the HD I got from MacMall.