INSTALLING WINDOWS VISTA BETA

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It depends...
If you do an upgrade install, no, your files will be fine.
If you do a fresh install, yes, your files will be erased.
If you install Vista on a different partition (blank), no, your files will
be fine.
At any rate, I'd backup your files to be safe or store them on another
partition or network drive.
 
Please turn off your caps lock. It is considered "shouting."

The upgrade from XP x86 to Vista x86 is supported (your files stay intact)
but it is still a beta so may not work and destroy your files. Even if it
works, you cannot return to XP without losing your files (Vista Beta
timebombs and becomes unusable June 1, 2007).

The rule of thumb should be never to risk your files. Install Vista Beta on
a test machine or at least on a separate drive or partition on your work
machine (still not advised). Do not install Vista on the C: drive of your
work or primary computer under any circumstances. If it is worth it to you
to see what Vista is like then invest in a drive if you need to.
 
Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it
copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my
C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total
350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it
possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still
went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even
had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and
only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my
40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it
that way or? Cheers for the help guys!
 
It will not work with a usb drive. The only external drive that will work
is a SATA enclosure connected directly through a pass-through to a
controller on the mobo.
 
Mmmm....ok so thus I think my current XP Pro install is toast because it
tries to boot into Vista at start up but gets errors and I chose to roll back
and boot up XP instead. Only thing is now there is about 1.5gb of HDD space
taken up on C: due to the install or partial install. So I suppose I will
have to do a fresh XP Por install tomorrow...fun times =( Now my XP install
is on my 200GB SATA drive an dI also have an additional 160 SATA drive as
well. Should I partition that one and install on that? That way whatever is
stored on the 160GB will be on a safe partition. Do I make the partition on
the 160GB active for the Vista install or? Cheers Colin!

CHOUT
 
Hey Colin,

Ok I formatted my 160GB SATA drive and made a 15GB partition on that for
Vista. When I go to install it again, the option for installing it on my C
drive is greyed otu due to limited space, which is perfect. The odd issue is
now, when I choose the 15GB Vista partition, it writes the $WINDOWS.`LS to
that drive and the $WINDOWS.`BT to my C drive?? So now my C is dwindling in
size due to that folder which is ever growing during the install process. Is
that normal? Is the BT folder a temp folder which is later trashed by Vista
or? I don't get why anything would be written to my C drive if it was
initially greyed out by the Vista install due to limited space? =\ That
confuses me. Any clues? Cheers!
 
Some files are written to the C: drive such as the log files for the
installation. In the event of an installation failure you can find the log
files MS needs for analysis on the C: drive.

IMHO you are allocating far too little space for both editions.
 
I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it
says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the
upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network
adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now
its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do
i do?

And is there anyway i can uninstall it?
 
Safe mode with networking is what I usually choose.

You cannot uninstall Vista but you can reformat the partition.
 
Ok i got it to work by just pressing buttons but not when i enter the product
key it says its wrong and it says Authentication failed im pretty sure im
puting it in correctly .... anything suggestions
 
Ensure you don't have your Capslock on while entering the product key;
Windows hates that. Using the shift key makes it perfect; I installed vista
at 3am; and accidentally used the caps lock the first 2 times; then took it
off and the product key worked fine.

J
 
Thats what i was thinking also but my product key is all in caps and also
even if my caps lock is off it still shows as captial
 
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