A warning to upgraders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andre Da Costa [Extended64]
  • Start date Start date
A

Andre Da Costa [Extended64]

A lot of persons in here are upgrading their one and only, production
install of XP. If you are itching to do that, DON'T! DO NOT, upgrade your
existing install of XP if you use it for work or you use it for daily use.
Not because Vista is at BETA 2 means its ready for prime time or production
environments, it is to get feedback on whats wrong with the product in such
scenarios.

I also suspect some persons think Vista has been finalized, no its not, its
still in development. I know Vista looks enticing and all, but it is still
not ready for prime time and the numerous post with unsuccessful,
problematic clean installs, upgrades are proof of that.

If you want to try upgrade scenario's at least make sure you do it on a
spare installation of XP, you have back up image of your existing install or
simply do a clean install. For those who have already upgraded their
installations of XP and want to return to XP, your only option is to format
that drive and reinstall it. There is no way to uninstall Vista.

Also, there are no upgrade paths from Windows XP Professional x64 to Vista
x86 or x64. You cannot launch Vista x64 setup in Windows XP x86 or you will
get a "invalid Win32" error. You have boot off the DVD.
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Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
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http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
 
May I also make a suggestion.

Many of us have probably got a spare Hard Drive laying about as most of us
willing to test a Beta product also have an obsession with upgrading our
PCs. :)

I have installed Vista on a spare Drive and use my bios to change the boot
drive. So I now have one PC with dual boot where Vista hasn't touched my
standard XP drive at all. Its a little more hassle changing which OS to boot
into but it gives me peice of mind that my XP drive is left well alone.
 
LOL! you think that's a little more hassle - I installed Vista on a spare
hard drive in my notebook. when I want to boot XP, I have to remove the Vista
drive, and put in the XP one.
 
Dunc -
You losted me on "I have installed Vista on a spare Drive and use my bios to
change the boot drive. So I now have one PC with dual boot where Vista hasn't
touched my standard XP drive at all. Its a little more hassle changing which
OS to boot into but it gives me peice of mind that my XP drive is left well
alone."

Would not a boot manager be able to determine which drive to boot from based
on which OS you select? ( thinking about downloading Pro-Networks' VistaBoot
and use this for a boot manager)

The reason that I am asking - I was thinking of adding a spare 80 GB HD for
loading Vista while keeping my XP Pro untouched. I though this might be the
easier route to go instead of partitioning a new logical drive on my main HD.

By the way - Andre, exactly suggestion.... I wonder how me people have
indeed deed gone down the route of upgrading over their production XP install
with Vista..
I shudder to think and how many of those same people are blaming Microsoft
for the huge problem they have gotten themselves into because they failed to
understand what they were getting into.. just my 2 cents

thanks Kenny
 
Dunc -
You losted me on "I have installed Vista on a spare Drive and use my bios to
change the boot drive. So I now have one PC with dual boot where Vista hasn't
touched my standard XP drive at all. Its a little more hassle changing which
OS to boot into but it gives me peice of mind that my XP drive is left well
alone."

Would not a boot manager be able to determine which drive to boot from based
on which OS you select? ( thinking about downloading Pro-Networks' VistaBoot
and use this for a boot manager)

The reason that I am asking - I was thinking of adding a spare 80 GB HD for
loading Vista while keeping my XP Pro untouched. I though this might be the
easier route to go instead of partitioning a new logical drive on my main HD.

By the way - Andre, exactly suggestion.... I wonder how me people have
indeed deed gone down the route of upgrading over their production XP install
with Vista..
I shudder to think and how many of those same people are blaming Microsoft
for the huge problem they have gotten themselves into because they failed to
understand what they were getting into.. just my 2 cents

thanks Kenny
 
Sorry for the double post.. when I went to submit - it came across that it
was unable to submit... hmm - where can I go and submit a bug for the
newsgroups?
kl
 
I don't think microsoft was really prepared for the number and type of people
that decided to get the beta, but that could be a blessing in disguise. many
of them couldn't even download the file, and came here looking for help. what
they saw here may have scared off the more timid ones.
 
MS gets lots of info on how to simplify things this way. But I think that
exposing as many folks as possible to the OS should help sales later on.
 
One other major factor why not to upgrade with this release is that as of
May 31, 2007 you won't have an OS anymore. According to the EULA (yeah, I
kinda of skimmed it) this build becomes inactive.
--
A8N-Sli Deluxe
Athlon 64 3700+ @2805 Mhz
2 x Asus 6800 GT in Sli ( sometimes)
2 Gig Memory
1 20 Gig HD
1 500 Gig HD
 
Hrm why use your BIOS to select the boot drive?? When you dual boot XP and
Vista you should get a menu on startup that will let you select which OS to
boot. When you decide to get rid of Vista (or it expires) it's pretty easy
to get rid of the boot manager.
 
Call it paranoia. Vista is still Beta and that means the Boot Manager and
installer are still Beta. I would rather no beta software came anywhere near
my production environment. So I turn my production Hard Drive off in the
BIOS and there is no way that Vista can touch it. :)
 
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