Upgrade from XP Home to Vista Home Premium

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Guest

I'm planning an XP Home>Vista Home Premium upgrade and I'd like to verify my
upgrade plan. I verified my PC meets Vista upgrade requirements.

XP is currently installed on C: with all other programs and My Documents
installed on E:

After I back up any IE and Outlook data, I want to format my C drive, make
my CD drive rebootable, insert the Vista upgrade, reboot, insert my XP CD to
verify I have a licensed version of XP, then install Vista to C from my CD
drive and re-install any programs, which I'll delete and reinstall on E.

Does it look like I've covered all the steps and is this an acceptable way
to upgrade to Vista? I want to accomplish a clean install.

Thank you
 
Does it look like I've covered all the steps and is this an acceptable way
to upgrade to Vista? I want to accomplish a clean install.
Click to expand...

You can boot off the Vista upgrade CD and wipe out XP, which is the better
of the two options of fresh install and an upgrade over XP.

Is the machine compatible to run Vista? There is a tool you can run from XP
to check a machine for Vista compatibility.
 
Walt said:
I'm planning an XP Home>Vista Home Premium upgrade and I'd like to verify my
upgrade plan. I verified my PC meets Vista upgrade requirements.

XP is currently installed on C: with all other programs and My Documents
installed on E:

After I back up any IE and Outlook data, I want to format my C drive, make
my CD drive rebootable, insert the Vista upgrade, reboot, insert my XP CD to
verify I have a licensed version of XP...
Click to expand...

I could be mistaken because I didn't install Vista as an upgrade, but my
understanding is that you must run the Vista install DVD from a working
install of XP. I believe there is no option during the install to enter
any proof of ownership for XP.

You can, however, do a fresh install without entering a product key if
you have enough free disk space. You then have 30 days to decide
whether Vista is right for you before activating with your upgrade key.

Most folks here feel that a clean install of Vista is safer than an
upgrade on top of XP.
 
Almost....sentence two is not entirely correct. See these links.
http://www.google.com/search?q=clean+install+vista+upgrade+cd

: You can, however, do a fresh install without entering a product key if
: you have enough free disk space.

You then have 30 days to decide whether Vista is right for you before activating with your upgrade key.
:
: Most folks here feel that a clean install of Vista is safer than an
: upgrade on top of XP.
:
:
 
I'm planning an XP Home>Vista Home Premium upgrade and I'd like to verify
my
upgrade plan. I verified my PC meets Vista upgrade requirements.

XP is currently installed on C: with all other programs and My Documents
installed on E:

After I back up any IE and Outlook data, I want to format my C drive, make
my CD drive rebootable, insert the Vista upgrade, reboot, insert my XP CD
to
verify I have a licensed version of XP, then install Vista to C from my CD
drive and re-install any programs, which I'll delete and reinstall on E.

Does it look like I've covered all the steps and is this an acceptable way
to upgrade to Vista? I want to accomplish a clean install.
Click to expand...

No, the upgrade process in Vista is different than that for XP. Vista does
not do a shiny media check to verify ownership of a qualifying OS. The
upgrade is designed to be started from the desktop of the installed
qualifying OS. In this case from the XP desktop you would insert the Vista
DVD and run the installation.

There is a way around this, to do a clean install onto a bare drive from an
upgrade version of Vista. It requires two installs in a row. In the first
you don't provide a product key, then you do an upgrade of that Vista
install with the same CD and provide the product key. See this link:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932
 
I'm certainly glad I asked before starting the install. Looks like I can
format C to wipe out XP and do the Vista install twice for a clean install.

Thanks for everyone's input. Great feedback!
 
Walt said:
I'm planning an XP Home>Vista Home Premium upgrade and I'd like to verify my
upgrade plan. I verified my PC meets Vista upgrade requirements.

XP is currently installed on C: with all other programs and My Documents
installed on E:

After I back up any IE and Outlook data, I want to format my C drive...
Click to expand...

While I like Vista, I'm compelled to say that many people have had less
pleasant experiences with it than I have. There are still bugs and
problems which need fixing, so to burn your bridges by doing a reformat
of your XP partition is very risky.

At a minimum you should do a complete backup of your XP with a product
like Acronis True Image or the like, before you reformat. Be warned!

BTW, technically your upgrade product key requires that you start the
upgrade process from inside XP rather than doing a new install from
the DVD. (There are workarounds available which can be found with
a google search.)
 
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