Can't upgrade from Windows ME to Windows2000

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slavas
  • Start date Start date
S

Slavas

Hi guys.
I try to upgrade from Windows ME to Windows2000 on my home
computer. At first the upgrade went smoothly and the
upgrade wizard started to gather the compatibility
information and after it finished and I saved the
information file and tried to continue I got the following
error:

Unsupported Operating System Version

The version of Windows running is not supported. Setup
can only
upgrade official releases. Setup will now exit.

What the hell is is and how to fight it?
I have the registered version of Windows ME and I
purchased the Installation of Windows200.

F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 ! F1 !
 
After I posted, I found that the issue was raised a number
of times and that Mr Dave Patrick have answered the same
answer: there is no supported upgrade path from Windows ME
to Windows2000.
My question now is : do I have to format the drive in
order to install Win2K?

Your help appreciated.
 
slavas - yes, you must do a "clean" W2k install. You won't be able to
migrate any application or system settings...but before you format, you
can certainly move any apps and data to a safe place on another partition.

When you start the W2k install, that process will allow you to delete
(or delete/format) the current ME partition. Do so. Then abort the
install, restart it, and at the proper time tell the install where to
put W2k. Doing it this way will protect you against the chance that
(depending on your drive configuration) W2k will wind up on the right
partition but that partition will be named not C: but some other letter.

By the way, you should plan to have a W2k C: partition at least 4GB in
size. Small W2k partitions eventually create serious problems.
 
Dan,
thanks a lot for quick response. I have only one hard
drive and it is not partitioned (20G). What should I do
now to prevent my data to be erased (apart from buying
another HD :))?
Again, thanks a lot for your help.
 
Slavas - Although drives are not terribly expensive any more and that
would be an easy solution, you need not buy one.

There are products that will resize (and move, create, delete, etc)
partitions without destroying the data they contain. One such is
Partition Magic, from powerquest.com. It is not very expensive. There
may be freeware apps that do the same thing, but I've never used one -
and wouldn't, because of the inherent dangers of having something go
wrong. Diddling with disk file structures is complex.

In your case, using PM as an example, you would:
1. Boot the PM diskettes (which use a version of DOS).
2. Shrink that 20GB partition to the left (toward sector 0, usually
represented on the left end)a good deal (down to 4 or 5GB if possible).
3. Create a new D: in the newly unallocated space.
4. Boot ME and MOVE as much as possible of what you want to save into
D:. This also frees up more space in C:.
5. Repeat 1,2,3,4 as necessary until satisfied.
6. Then begin the W2k install process, which early on will let you
format the old shrunken C: and install W2k on it.
7. Once up and running on W2k, reinstall your apps.

8. If for some reason D: is not NTFS, consider using the W2k CONVERT
command to convert it to NTFS, the most robust and fastest of the MS
formats.

Good luck, Slavas!
 
Dan,
Thank you very much for your help. I will try to apply the
solution as you proposed.
Have a nice weekend :)
 
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