Vista 'Clean Upgrade', I am Confused?

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1. Have been told that a 'clean' install is the way to upgrade, can i do this
with a Ultimate Vista upgrade disk?
2. If so, the 'easy transfer' is confusing. Have a PC with access to a large
external drive. Can 'easy transfer' transfer all of my data to the external
drive?
3. Can i then do a clean install on the PC, and reload the data from the
external drive?
4. What is Easy Transfer companion?
I think a have a typical case. There is tons of verbiage from Microsoft, but
i am afraid that when i execute Easy Transfer i am having trouble even
getting it to move the data to the external hard drive.
 
There is no such thing as a clean upgrade. There's only "clean install" (no
upgrade), or upgrade. Here's some info on upgrading and using the upgrade
advisor:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

Easy Transfer is about getting stuff from an old computer to a new Vista
computer. You wouldn't use it to copy files to an external hard drive.
There'd be no need to. You can copy anything you want to an external drive
without using Easy Transfer or anything else. With Easy Transfer you connect
the old computer to the new computer directly with an Easy Transfer cable.
Here's some info on Easy Transfer:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/easytransfer.mspx
 
Thanks for you quick response. I did go the upgrade link you recommended and
quickly got to the point. I have one pc not two. What i am attempted to do
is, save all my data and applications to an external drive, do a 'clean
instal' to do away with the many artifacts i have produced over the years,
and then reload the key applications to the new vista environment, hopefully
at all time only using one pc.
 
Papillion said:
1. Have been told that a 'clean' install is the way to upgrade, can i do
this
with a Ultimate Vista upgrade disk?
Click to expand...

Yes there are documented ways to do this.
2. If so, the 'easy transfer' is confusing. Have a PC with access to a
large
external drive. Can 'easy transfer' transfer all of my data to the
external
drive?
Click to expand...

It's not confusing. Yes, use WET to transfer the data and settings to the
external drive, then run WET on the Vista install to bring in the
data/settings.

How to use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate files and settings from one
Windows-based computer to another Windows Vista-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928634/en-us

I would recommend, though, that you have multiple / redundant backups of
your data independent of usingWET. I suggest also using a drive imaging
program such as Acronis True Image Home, version 10 to save an image of the
XP installation to the external drive. Run WET on the XP installation, save
the data to the external drive, then install Vista and use WET to bring in
the data and settings. If you need it the XP installation can be restored
from the image.

Once things are running well delete the XP installation image. [Note the
Vista upgrade license prohibits running Vista and XP which was the basis for
using the upgrade. Keeping the image until things are stable is fine, but
you can't keep it to have a separate installation of XP. ]
3. Can i then do a clean install on the PC, and reload the data from the
external drive?
Yes

4. What is Easy Transfer companion?
Click to expand...

It's in Beta, for migrating programs. There are significant restrictions on
it's use, for one thing it can only be used for computer to computer
transfers, which is not what you have.
 
Rocco Moe said:
Easy Transfer is about getting stuff from an old computer to a new Vista
computer. You wouldn't use it to copy files to an external hard drive.
There'd be no need to. You can copy anything you want to an external drive
without using Easy Transfer or anything else.
Click to expand...

Ah, but the problem is knowing *what* to copy. For example,
would you know which XP file holds the Outlook Express mail
filter rules? This is where Easy Transfer comes in. The problem is
that it is a Vista program which has to be started from the Vista
machine, which means the pre-Vista machine has to continue to exist.
In my case I solved the problem by installing Vista as a dual-boot
to a second partition, keeping XP intact on the first partition.
This allowed me to run Easy Transfer afterwards.

Gary VanderMolen
 
Thanks for you quick response. I did go the upgrade link you recommended and
quickly got to the point. I have one pc not two. What i am attempted to do
is, save all my data and applications to an external drive, do a 'clean
instal' to do away with the many artifacts i have produced over the years,
and then reload the key applications to the new vista environment, hopefully
at all time only using one pc.
Click to expand...

That should work just fine. That's the way I always install my OS and
software, owning only one computer as I do.

Donald L McDaniel
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