Joe said:
Would you do an in place upgrade? I have Xp legit now and when I go to
Vista I plan to format the hard drive and start over. I may be wrong but I
just do not trust upgrades. I do not want any chance of a problem in one
Os to hang around in the next. I want to know when I start with a new OS
that the only problems I have are related to the new OS and not a
preexisting problem that did not get fixed.
The problem with an upgrade is not Vista going in clean, it does. It is
installed as a block copy so there is no residue of the old OS left around
to cause problems like it could with XP with it's file copy installation
method. After Vista is installed the drivers, programs and data are then
brought in. This is where things can get messy. If you properly prepped
the system by removing problematic hardware and their drivers, and any apps
that could be problematic, and there is no malware on the system, then the
upgrade should go fine.
I did a clean install for this installation, because I wanted to keep XP as
a dual boot (no printer driver in Vista for my older NEC laser printer),
though I did do some upgrades during Beta testing that went fine. This
install is Vista Ultimate full edition retail. Once I get the printer issue
sorted, and don't need XP, I may try doing an upgrade on that installation
(with a different Vista license that I have available). It is rock solid in
XP so I would be interested in how the upgrade would go.