Concerning VISTA upgrade and those without original CDs.... (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

An interesting question that I am unsure if anyone here
has complete knowledge on or not....

There are those of us that never got an original Windows XP
CD with our computer purchase.

For instance, my Lenovo laptop never came with a CD. Instead,
I had to perform a backup of my current OS to a DVD that now
serves as a complete restoration tool.

If the Windows Vista UPGRADE asks for me to pop in
my original XP CD, it certainly will not recognize the Lenovo
restoration disc as an operating system since it is not set up
that way.

So my question is....

When considering a Vista upgrade DVD over a full
version, how does VISTA determine if you already have a copy
of XP installed?

Now, naturally, my guess would be that if you install VISTA over
your existing XP configuration, VISTA will look on your system
for the information it needs. I just hope at that point I can
also opt to have VISTA do a completely FRESH install rather than
simply installing over my current configuration.

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

 

[Radioman970]

Every time Windows XP has ordered the checking of authenticity of my XP installation it's never asked for the actual CD (which I have).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

If your computer didn't come with a Windows CD, then the hardware maker should have placed all of the files from what would have been on that CD in a folder called "i386" - usually in your root directory.
Once you find the i386 folder, create a bootable CD using these instructions. Only, where Bart tells you to copy the i386 folder from your Windows CD, copy it from the folder you've found on the harddrive instead.
This should work just as well as a pressed Windows CD would have. Not providing one is an irritating practice that I wish would stop. The only reason I know about it is because I already had to do it myself.

 

[Radioman970]

Ah, I noticed that directory yesterday when I was placing some screen savers. I installed XP myself but I have that directory as well.

 

[Christian Behrens]

A little program called nLite takes these steps and wraps them in a nice, simple GUI. You can even incorporate patches and other applications, as well as do some configuring of Windows beforehand. For example, I set Windows Explorer on my install CD to always show all files and file extensions, one of the first things I always had to change manually.

Well worth a look!

-Christian

 

[Bryan X]

I saw a video of the Vista Install on PCWorld and that is the case. When you start the install it gives you the option to upgrade or clean install. It even gives you the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions before the install.

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,384-...d,0/video.html