Installing Win XP over Win ME (1 Viewer)

[Denward]

My wife just bought a new laptop with ME installed. It comes with a coupon for a free upgrade to XP, which will come when it passes Dell's compatibility tests. I'm a little fearful of installing a bunch of software (mostly mainstream stuff like Zone Alarm, Black Ice Defender, Palm Desktop, Anti-Virus, Winzip, Acrobat Reader, HP printer drivers) when I know I'm going to be upgrading the OS in a few weeks. Is my hesitancy well-founded or should I just dive in? There's nothing critical that I couldn't do without since it's already got MS Office on it.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

It depends on what they mean by an 'upgrade'.
Performing an upgrade installation of Windows is never the best idea, especially when you're going from the 9x to NT kernal like with Me and XP. You are more likely to get problems by overwriting the current installation.
It is always, always better to do a 'clean' installation of any version of Windows.

 

[AndyVX]

If I were you, I would just get ME off that computer as fast as you can! If you're going to be installing XP do it from a clean slate. Format the hard drive, and get a full version of XP. I've never seen an upgrade install of a Windows OS go smoothly.
Anyways, just my thoughts.
Andrew
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ICQ# - 119869807

 

[Jim Benard]

I have not found any problems/issues upgrading since Win2K. I've done many 95/98 to 2000 with no problems at all. I would expect the same with ME to XP. Microsoft had done one hell of a job with their upgrade coding since 2000 came out. It has handled everything I've thrown at it upgrading to 2000. Should be the same with XP since it's based on the same NT kernel as 2000.
Doesn't hurt to try the upgrade, worse case just boot off the XP CD and re-install if you're not happy with the end-results.
[Edited last by Jim Benard on October 22, 2001 at 07:25 PM]

 

[todbnla]

Denward is speaking of an upgrade Dell offers it new customers when they buy a machine which came with ME. I, like him, will be doing the same upgrade as it was only $20. I have ME and for the past 45 days or so it has run just fine. I too have installed Zone Alarm® and other programs and am a little concerned about this, but I have faith that Dell did their homework and all will work out. BTW-IMHO 95% of all lockups and blue screens and not caused by the OS, I think it is caused by the miscellaneous software companies that try and make us have their programs running even if we do not use them. If you ever ctrl-alt-delete, you will see a long list of programs running on your system, Dell is famous for this and this is what I think causes most problems. There are even sites on the web that instruct which programs to take out of startup and free up resources. I did this along time ago and everything is fine. We need to have a little faith

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Regards,
Todd
My HT

 

[Dean DeMass]

I have had no problem with any installs of Win2K upgrades from a 9x OS. Every upgrade I have done has been very smooth and the OS runs without a hitch. I don't think you will have a problem with an XP upgrade at all. If you need the software that you are worried about, go ahead and install it. If you are concearned that it might make the upgrade a bit troublesome, just un-install the software before you do the upgrade.
-Dean-
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My HT Equipment
"I've seen you and you are not cool."

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Although I generally do a clean install of the OS when I went to XP I just installed it over my win98SE partition and it went like clock work...I've now been running XP for a while and its the best OS from MS yet IMO
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http://www.mts.net/~glendap/

 

[Denward]

To Rob G and AndyVX,
So far you are the 2 naysayers on this topic. I've heard of Windows upgrade horror stories as well, which is why I posted this in the first place. Do you have any specific experience with an XP (or 2000) upgrade?

 

[Uchendu Nwachukwu]

Here's what I would do...
Windows XP comes with a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FSTW) on the CD, which can be run from within any other version of Windows.
With that in mind, I would go ahead and install all the stuff you want, bearing in mind it is just for the short term.
Once you buy Windows XP, before you install it, run the FSTW (it's one of the options on the first screen you see when you pop the disc in), and back up everything you want to back up, including files, bookmarks, fonts, program settings, etc.
Then reformat your system and do a clean installation. Re-install all the software you want to use, then run the FSTW again (this time, built into WinXP), and restore the files and settings you want. It's almost like an upgrade operation, only 'cleaner', if you will.
FYI, this will also work with a WinXP upgrade CD. If it cannot find a version of Windows on your hard drive, it will ask you for the previous Windows CD (however, it will not accept a 'recovery disc', so if you have one of those, this won't work).

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Do you have any specific experience with an XP (or 2000) upgrade?

Not with XP, but I did try performing an update installation of 2000 Pro onto an existing 98 machine. Oh boyo, what a nightmare. Installed OK but as soon as the machine rebooted the problems would start. Blue screens of death (which you really should never get in 2000), driver problems, you name it.
After wiping the 98 partition and installing 2000 from fresh, everything was fine.
I think a lot of it depends on the state of the current version of Windows you're running. If it's working smoothly with no problems then obviously you're a lot less likely to run into trouble.
Unless keeping your existing settings and apps installations is cruicial, I'd always go for a fresh install.

 

[Jacob_St]

Boy, I wish I was as lucky as you Todd. I've had my Dell computer with "ME" for about the same amount of time. I've had nothing but problems with it since day one. In fact, I had to replace the first one they sent because it would not load up. I hope my 20 dollar XP upgrade will solve the problem. If not, I guess I'm out another 200 to buy the full home upgrade. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that won't happen.

 

[Andre F]

My experience with Windwos ME has been awful. It crashes just about every time I use it. I guess I'll move to Windows XP or maybe W2K. No matter what I do I'll format then reinstall. It always much better to do this in the long run. Since I do this for my work machine I'm just about a pro at this.
-Andre F
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-= Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape! =-

 

[Denward]

I think a lot of it depends on the state of the current version of Windows you're running. If it's working smoothly with no problems then obviously you're a lot less likely to run into trouble.

Well, the laptop is still new and we haven't installed anything on it yet beyond what came pre-installed. I think I'm going to just keep it that way and try and take the easy way out by just installing the XP upgrade.
BTW, although I may be treading on a taboo subject here, if I upgrade my ME to XP, can I then legally install that same copy of ME on my 98 machine? My 98 machine locks up about once every 3 hours so I might do some experimenting with it.
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[Carl Johnson]

There are even sites on the web that instruct which programs to take out of startup and free up resources.

Does anybody happen to know where I can find this information? I have to reboot my cpu every couple of hours to free up system resources and i suspect its because of all that junk running in the background.......

 

[Jim Benard]

I upgrade my ME to XP, can I then legally install that same copy of ME on my 98 machine

I say no way. The problem is you are paying a lower cost to 'upgrade' ME to XP, $99upgrd, vs. $199full. That should mean that ME cannot be used again. Otherwise people could use that ME license, put it on a brand new clone they built and buy a cheaper copy of the 'upgrade' version of XP down the road.

 

[Mike Voigt]

RE: Experiences with Upgrades
With MS: horrible. When going from 3.1 to 95, what a nightmare! Also, the downloads from their website were, uhm, terrible.
When going from 95 to 98, bad news got worse. Got so bad, in fact, that I threw in the towel and bought a full version of 98. Soon, of course, to be superceded by the 98SE. I got that upgrade for free - and it was worth every penny I paid for it. So I went and bought the full version, grrr. Worked fine.
So when 2000 rolled around, and it had been in the market for a while (I wanted to make sure it was reasonably reliable - there is a lot of hullabaloo when a new product is released, I don't trust them until at least 6 months later, with lots of real-world experience available) I bought the full-install version.
Tried the upgrade, PITB. Same junk.
Then I did what Rob Gillespie also did later on: I reformatted and reinstalled from scratch. Same hardware, same drivers, the whole enchilada.
Result: except for planned maintenance take-downs (e.g. new software, etc.) and the occasional power outage, the sucker has been running 24/7 since, oh, about 2 years ago, sans issues.
Do a clean install...
Re: re-using ME
Don't, if you can help yourself at all. You're buying an upgrade, which means you're using the license from ME to use XP; you're not getting a new license for a second computer...
[Edited last by Mike Voigt on October 24, 2001 at 07:02 PM]

 

[Jacob_St]

So what you are saying is the XP upgrade is worthless. I will have to buy the 199 dollar Home version or my OS problems will remain the same or get even worse. Since I'm now broke, I guess I'm stuck with Win Me until New Years.

 

[Mark Kalzer]

By the way, just so everyone knows, it's always been possible to do a right from scratch install (i.e. formatted hard drive) of Windows 9x using an upgrade CD. All you need is a CD of an older version of Windows. The setup program will merely ask you to insert the old CD at some point as proof you had an old version. Then, it will install from scratch like any standalone version would. Simple as that!
The reason I bring this up, is because some of you are wasting money on standalone copies, when it's really not necessary if you have an older version.
[Edited last by Mark Kalzer on October 24, 2001 at 08:31 PM]

 

[todbnla]

Jacob and Carl:
For the DELL users that have NEWER machines, that have problems, look here: http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/
Regards,
Todd
My HT
[Edited last by Todd Barattini on October 25, 2001 at 04:42 AM]

 

[CameronS]

it's always been possible to do a right from scratch install (i.e. formatted hard drive) of Windows 9x using an upgrade CD. All you need is a CD of an older version of Windows. The setup program will merely ask you to insert the old CD at some point as proof you had an old version. Then, it will install from scratch like any standalone version would. Simple as that!

Thanks Mark! I was planing on doing a clean install (running ME now) and thought I was going to have to buy a $199 Full version of XP.