Upgrade over Beta 2 or Clean Install?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Chamberlain
  • Start date Start date
If you have an extra partition available, I would do a clean install.
Otherwise, upgrading shouldn't cause a problem, although some people have
reported problems when upgrading from Beta 2 to RC1.
 
MS asks that we try the upgrade scenarios where possible. They have the
custom install down, but there are many potential conflicts involved in
upgrades and MS would like as many examples of those as possible.
 
I just upgraded from the Beta 2 to RC1 (32bit version) and it did its thing
very well. Of course that is on a spare machine with nothing but Vista and
Office Beta installed. A true beta test would be to try upgrading my
working Window XP Pro system. Anyone do that?

Al
 
Well, then...

I think I will upgrade over Beta 2 and see what happens. I can always go
back and Clean Install...

JC
 
Just tried to upgrade. I had all latest updates for x64 beta 2 - going
to x64 RC1. Booted Vista x64 Beta 2, logged on, and inserted the x64
RC1 DVD that I made into the same drive (J:) . It looks like it started
then came up with an SPWIZENG.DLL file not found error and I cancelled.
I then tried it in my DVD-ROM(L:) drive and got a " No UDF driver"-type
error message. When I did a dir on L:, the only contents was a
readme.txt file that said that I need a UDF-enabled device ( or
something similiar). What do I need to do to the NEC DVD to have it "see
what's on there"? I checked - no newer driver .

I rebooted to XP, popped in the DVD and from windows explorer, I did a
dir and I can read it fine in J: AND L: BUT there is no readme.txt file
on the DVD ??? I found the spwizeng.dll file in the "sources" folder.
I'll make another DVD , but what's with the "readme.txt file is there on
the DVD-ROM when in one drive " - but it's not there in XP ??

From XP, on the DVD, in the \upgrade\vista\beta2 folder I see
"windows6.0-kb922917-v1.readme.txt":
Installation
============
Double-click on the appropriate MSU file in the \upgrade\vista\beta2
directory to install the update:

For Windows Vista Beta 2:
Windows6.0-KB922917-v1-x86-EN-US.MSU

For Windows Vista Beta 2 (x64 Editions):
Windows6.0-KB922917-v1-x64-EN-US.MSU

SO I'll reboot Vista beta2 x64 and double-click
Windows6.0-KB922917-v1-x64-EN-US.MSU directly.
Perhaps an " upgrade_readme.txt" or upgrade.bat" file in the root dir of
the DVD would make it easier for us than browsing/guessing the upgrade
install process. I'll send feedback.

Also, while just re-reading all the new info, I see in my mail message
that they emailed me a different key than I have written on either of my
old x64 Beta2 DVDs (x86 and x64) which installed fine. ??
I entered the numbers that I had written on the DVDs. I THOUGHT I'd pop
this in and be done in 2 hours. Haven't gotten to step 2 yet !
I did run md5 on the downloaded file and the checksum did match the MS
download webpage. Will reburn it.


Bobb
 
i installed pre-rc1 clean, but i upgraded B2 to RC1. The big difference I
noticed was that the upgrade took a really (really) long time
 
It is like a log file that gets written as the result of an event. It is a
generated file not a copy of a pre-existing file.
 
Grisoft AVG balked after upgrade. 'Else seems all A-OK 'cept that the CPU
meter seems to run too high sometimes (sometimes it will stay above 51% for
a long time even with little activity .. dual core Athlon x64 on M2M-E ..
ASUS (nVidia) Graphics .. 2GB

 
The reason is because Setup has to move all your programs and files to
another area of the hard disk, clear the area where Vista will be installed,
lay down the image, complete the installation, and then start reinstalling
your programs and moving your files into the new folder tree. Every
installation of Vista is a clean install of Vista. It is the reinstallation
of your programs and files that is the upgrade part now.
 
By whom?

Unlike previous editions of Windows, every installation of Vista is a clean
install of Vista. The old common wisdom about which is better, clean
install or upgrade, just does not apply to Vista. The issue about upgrading
with Vista is all about the apps being reinstalled by Setup, not about the
OS itself. If you upgrade without following the recommendations of the
upgrade compat report generated by Setup prior to the installation proper,
you will have problems. If you follow the recommendations you should have a
good upgrade experience.
 
tmike said:
i installed pre-rc1 clean, but i upgraded B2 to RC1. The big difference I
noticed was that the upgrade took a really (really) long time
Click to expand...


Chuckling .... very good tmike ....

Well I just bought some DVD-R - reburned the x64 DVD image with Nero7 and
just popped it in. Since it gave me an option I ran " Check Compatability
online" and after fetching the info from the website - it tells me that it
is not an option for RC1x64 - only x32 . Will try the install, but if it
fails - how do I know that it's not due to a hw support issue ?
 
Back
Top