Note about "Upgrading" to Win XP

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RWhite

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I have been intending for awhile to upgrade one of my PCs (NOT my main recording PC) from Win 98SE to Win XP. Now I generally live by the rule that if you are going to install a new OS, wipe you hard drive first and do a clean install.

However, because I do "mastering" on this PC, and it has boatloads of software on it, and just for general amusment purposes, I decided it would be fun to try it as an upgrade. This machine has been getting cranky, occasionally refusing to shut down, so it made a perfect "worst-case" candidate for an XP upgrade. Furthermore, I have been planning on replacing the motherboard soon and I wanted to wait until I did that before doing a complete clean upgrade. I had intended to do the upgrade and then test run all my audio apps (Cakewalk, Sound Forge) etc. and write a little review on it here. And then switch back to Win 98 until I get my new mobo.

Well, to make a long story short it never happened. Despite running the Upgrade agent first and then removing every app / hardware XP identified as being a potential problem, the XP upgrade refused to complete. It would get to the "Now preparing for upgrade.." part and then just lock the machine. Tried everything I could think of, no dice. Eventually I had to give up and restore my Ghost backup (which I made just before the upgrade).

Moral of the story: The convensional wisdom is the best wisdom. If you are going to migrate to XP, do it clean don't try the update.
 
hmm interestin i upgraded from win me but i instruced win xp to erase the original window drivers but i don't have all those problems it does act quarky at time wit crashes wit IE and Sonar but i guess that could be because my recording computer is my school my i-net browser...etc. could be it needs clean install as well i guess too
 
RWhite said:
I have been intending for awhile to upgrade one of my PCs (NOT my main recording PC) from Win 98SE to Win XP. Now I generally live by the rule that if you are going to install a new OS, wipe you hard drive first and do a clean install.

However, because I do "mastering" on this PC, and it has boatloads of software on it, and just for general amusment purposes, I decided it would be fun to try it as an upgrade. This machine has been getting cranky, occasionally refusing to shut down, so it made a perfect "worst-case" candidate for an XP upgrade. Furthermore, I have been planning on replacing the motherboard soon and I wanted to wait until I did that before doing a complete clean upgrade. I had intended to do the upgrade and then test run all my audio apps (Cakewalk, Sound Forge) etc. and write a little review on it here. And then switch back to Win 98 until I get my new mobo.

Well, to make a long story short it never happened. Despite running the Upgrade agent first and then removing every app / hardware XP identified as being a potential problem, the XP upgrade refused to complete. It would get to the "Now preparing for upgrade.." part and then just lock the machine. Tried everything I could think of, no dice. Eventually I had to give up and restore my Ghost backup (which I made just before the upgrade).

Moral of the story: The convensional wisdom is the best wisdom. If you are going to migrate to XP, do it clean don't try the update.

I'm curious as you didn't mention it in your message. I assume you were installing XP Home, right?

You are allowed to go the upgrade install route for XP Home only from the DOS based OS's (98,SE,ME).

XP Pro needs to find NT or 2000 to perform the upgrade install.

I agree with you, clean installs with MS OS's are the way to go, any other way, and you're just asking for trouble...
 
Actually brzilian you have it backwards - XP home will upgrade from Win 98 or ME ONLY. XP Pro will upgrade from Win98, WinME, Win NT4, Win 2000, or Win XP Home. This was XP Pro I tried.

And while I'm at it, I may as well fess up to something else regarding the install... the copy of XP Pro I was using was not "legal". Since I had no intention of leaving it on the machine past 30 days I was not too concerned about this, this was more a exercise to see if it would work. But what was interesting was that when I first ran the install, XP apparently went out to the Microsoft site (via my LAN connected to Cable modem) to check this serial number, then came back and said "Your serial number is invalid". So I quit the install, disconnected my PC from the LAN (and thus Microsoft) and ran it again. Surprise - now my serial number was just fine. Very sneaky of them...

I have also been told of a little trick that I'm going to try. Microsoft has always sold what are called OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) copies of their OS. This is what you get when you buy a new computer. OEM software is not allowed to sold with being packaged as part of a system purchase.
Well apparently some companies are pushing the fine print of this, and are now selling OEM copies of XP packaged with things like a Microsoft Mouse, or a Microsoft keyboard. This supposedly fullfills the letter of the OEM requirement that the software be packaged with "hardware". I've heard that you can get the full XP Pro version this way for about $100, quite a savings. Of couse you get no manuals, just the disk and serial number, but that's all most people need.

I will be checking into it shortly...
 
NEVER do an upgrade from win98se to xp...do a clean install...I speak from experience. I was too lazy to do a clean install - i have tons of files/apps. So I did an upgrade. Now, everything is a mess - IE won't do pop up windows, messenger constantly crashed, outlook express won't open, file permissions are all screwed up...won't load some software....So I run a dual boot with win2k now for audio. I am going to do a clean install of xp soon...
 
You can install from scratch with the XP upgrade disk. Just have a copy of 98 or 95 handy when it prompts for verification. Boot from CD, no DOS involved. As far as whether to actually install XP, and use it....
 
When I eventually upgrade to XP "for real" I will indeed reformat the system drive first. The XP CD is supposed to be bootable, although the one time I tried (different machine) it refused to boot. But I think in that particualr case it was due to a cranky old CD-ROM drive.
 
Milkman said:
wouldn't formatting be involved?

Yes, but you don't need dos for that. The XP installer takes care of that just like NT and 2000 did.
 
Emeric said:
You can install from scratch with the XP upgrade disk. Just have a copy of 98 or 95 handy when it prompts for verification. Boot from CD, no DOS involved. As far as whether to actually install XP, and use it....


OK, people making this comments are starting to really get old. Don't go bashing the damn thing until you ACTUALLY INSTALL AND USE IT!

All this does is make you come off as some holier than thou annoying know-it-all who really jas no reason to be making these knds of comments. XP has been the best and stablest OS I've ever used and I will not switch back to anything else.
 
I have installed and used the damn thing on many occasions. I don't like it - that is just my opinion. If it works for you and others, GREAT! I do agree it is a step up from win98 and should get better with the service pack. But at this stage, I'll stick with 2000 and 98.

Whatever works is the bottom line.
 
RWhite said:
Moral of the story: The convensional wisdom is the best wisdom. If you are going to migrate to XP, do it clean don't try the update.

Very wise words. And that doesnt just apply to XP... it applies to any OS Upgrade
 
You are allowed to go the upgrade install route for XP Home only from the DOS based OS's (98,SE,ME).

These are not dos based. win95 was the last dos based OS.
 
That is not true, the core of all Win9x operating systems is essentially the same. 95,98,98SE, and ME are all DOS based. Windows NT/2000/XP are the only non-DOS based Microsoft operating systems.

The XP Home "upgrade" is indeed intended to upgrade 9x-based operating systems.

I agree with everyone that a clean installation is the way to go. Reinstalling applications isn't so bad, and it's actually a great time to weed out the shit you weren't using.

I also agree with Emeric. I have considerably more hardware and software glitches with my XP machines than my 2000 machines, and will continue to use 2000 on my DAW until I am convinced that XP is a stable platform over as wide a range of hardware as 2000.

Slackmaster 2000
 
bdemenil said:


These are not dos based. win95 was the last dos based OS.

Sorry, gonna have to dissagree with you. They all share the free memory vs. free resources issues because they still use legacy 16-bit code to ensure backwards application compatability. The app memory pointer stack is virtually identical to what it was in DOS (64k). Hell, these OS's still make use of CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files!!!

Lets not forget either that botting up in Command Prompt mode is the same as the old days with DOS+Win 3.1 - you can still type win and have the GUI run just like Win 3.1 did.
 
In 98 or Me, to enter into true DOS you must reboot to DOS. This is because windows is no longer running like a shell on top of DOS like it did in 3.1 and 95. As far as I know, you cannot start windows from DOS in 98 an Me without also rebooting. Perhaps these OSes are still 'based' on DOS in the sense that much DOS architecture is integrated into them, but that's not quite the same. Many old DOS programs will not run in win 98.
 
You are incorrect. Win95 was not a shell like Windows 3.1. The underlying architecture of Win95 and Win98 and WinME are the same.

Slackmaster 2000
 
OK, maybe I'm talking too much without a true knowledge of the subject.)
 
I kinda breezed through the posts here, but there is something I heard about XP that seems to jibe with RW's problem. It's my understanding that XP will only let you install it on one computer. Even if you have more than one "personal" computer that you wish to install it on (unlike the previous windows products), and it will let you go through the entire installation process before it shuts you down (nice, huh?). That's the one reason I've put off upgrading my windows version. I don't mind purchasing software, but I do mind the fact that I can only use it on one of my machines unless I buy into more registrations. I'm patiently waiting for a program to show up at a computer show that circumvents this problem by resetting the 30 day trial period at 29 days (I know that the programs are out already in places like Hong Kong). Like I said, I don't mind buying software, but when it only will install on only one of MY machines, then there's a problem... ...hell, you can't even make a personal backup copy of the original disk!!:confused:
 
Fmmahoganyrush said:
I kinda breezed through the posts here, but there is something I heard about XP that seems to jibe with RW's problem. It's my understanding that XP will only let you install it on one computer. Even if you have more than one "personal" computer that you wish to install it on (unlike the previous windows products), and it will let you go through the entire installation process before it shuts you down (nice, huh?). That's the one reason I've put off upgrading my windows version. I don't mind purchasing software, but I do mind the fact that I can only use it on one of my machines unless I buy into more registrations. I'm patiently waiting for a program to show up at a computer show that circumvents this problem by resetting the 30 day trial period at 29 days (I know that the programs are out already in places like Hong Kong). Like I said, I don't mind buying software, but when it only will install on only one of MY machines, then there's a problem... ...hell, you can't even make a personal backup copy of the original disk!!:confused:

Ummm, have you EVER read the license agreement on any OS (even going back as far as Win3.1)?!?

When you buy software, you are not buying the software itself, just a license to use it. Therefore, if you want to use it in more than one place, you need to buy another software license. Its that simple.

I don't know what you mean aboutnot being able to make a bakup copy of the original disk. You can burn a copy of the XP installation CD just like any other CD...
 
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