WIN ME upgrade to XP safely

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry Slay
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry Slay

I have many programs under WIN ME on a new ASUS A7N8X
computer (AMD Athlon 2002+ CPU) and have been having some
windows errors etc. and general install problems with new
AGP Video cards etc. etc.... ME not stable.........
Programs working in general OK but ----- weird
things....lockups etc...

BASIC --- I would like to do a direct upgrade to WIN XP
(Home or Pro) --

Question - Is the new XP software smart enough to
completely override the old ME and start fresh?

I would like to avoid formatting drive (120GB) and
reinstalling all of the 'stuff'.

What is the general opinion out there?

I use the computer for engineering consulting work as well
as some video digital processing etc......

Thanks - Larry
 
You have 2 choices.
A clean install in which case all of your apps/programs will
have to be re-installed.
Or an upgrade. with an upgrade some of your software may have to be
re-installed
but not all, however, if you are having stability problems now,
there is a good chance those same problems will be carried over to the
XP through the upgrade.
 
In
John C. Harris said:
I was always told by my support guys that ME would not upgrade to XP.
Is this not true?
Click to expand...


You need new "support guys." The ones you have don't know what
they are talking about.
 
darn good answer Ken !!!! :-) and true!!!!

Of course keep in mind an upgrade carries the chance of having your problems
that you had with ME following you. The best advice is to do a clean (NEW)
install! I put new in parentheses as I was afraid your support guys might
tell you to clean your hard drive with water or something first so I wanted
to make sure you knew what I meant :-)

Make sure you run the upgrade advisor first to make sure your machine can
handle XP: Read this site...
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
--
George
John C. Harris said:
LOL

Suppose I do eh?
Click to expand...
 
Hi, Larry.

You can tell your "support" guys that there are three ways, generally, to
transition from WinME to WinXP.

1. Upgrade: Start with WinME only and end up with WinXP only in the same
volume (a primary partition or a logical drive in an extended partition - on
any physical drive in your computer). This is the quickest and easiest - in
the SHORT run. WinXP will attempt to "migrate" all your hardware device
drivers and installed applications from the DOS platform used by Win3x/9x/ME
to the NT platform used by WinXP. Many users have reported success with
this method, but many others have reported so many major and minor
"almost-but-not-quite-right" annoyances afterward that they've wound up
reformatting and doing a clean install later, after all.

2. Clean install: Start with WinME only - and start over, ending up with
WinXP only, probably in your original volume. Back up your data. (Don't
bother to backup Windows, because you'll be replacing it anyhow. Don't
bother to back up your applications (but be sure you have their original
CDs), because you'll be installing them fresh in WinXP. Having the program
files on the HD is not enough; they need to be installed so that they can
write their entries into the WinXP Registry.) Boot from the WinXP CD-ROM
and follow the prompts, including the early one that offers to repartition
(optional) and reformat your hard drive. Let it format the System Partition
and, if different, the Boot Volume. After WinXP is installed, find Disk
Management (quickest way is to type at the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc ) and
use that to create and format any other volumes that you need or want.
(Throw away your WinME floppy - or hide it - so that you won't be tempted to
fall back on FDISK and Format.exe for these tasks.) Unless you plan to
install Win9x/ME on this computer, use NTFS; it's much more secure, both in
the sense of security from unauthorized users and in the sense of security
from lost or damaged files. Then reinstall your applications and restore
your data files.

3. Dual boot: Start with WinME only and end up with BOTH WinME and WinXP
in separate volumes. You'll need to have or create a second volume for this
purpose. Then boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and tell it to clean install into
that separate volume. WinXP Setup will detect WinME already installed and
automatically create a dual-boot system. Each time you reboot, it will
offer you the choice of WinME or WinXP for that session. You will need to
reinstall each of your applications in WinXP so that the proper WinXP
Registry entries can be made, but both versions can share the same
executable files to save on disk space; both versions will use the same data
files, of course. So long as you continue to boot WinME, though, Drive C:
must continue to be formatted FAT; Win9x/ME cannot even SEE an NTFS volume,
much less boot from one.

Many of us chose the dual boot method, especially in the early days of Win2K
when many hardware makers had not yet written Win2K/XP drivers for their
products. WinXP drivers are available for just about everything now, so
that's no longer a strong reason for dual-booting. You may like to be able
to boot into WinME from time to time until you get used to the WinXP GUI and
the new way of doing some things. After a few weeks, when you are
comfortable with WinXP, you can remove WinME to reclaim the disk space that
it uses - and convert Drive C: to NTFS, if you like.

My personal preference is to avoid the "upgrade". The few hours saved by
this will be forgotten in a week. The nagging frustrations from carrying
forward all the garbage from before will haunt you for months, maybe years.
Of course, it's your computer - your choice.

Let us know what you choose and how it works out for you. In a newsgroup,
we all learn from each other. ;<)

RC
 
In
George said:
darn good answer Ken !!!! :-) and true!!!!

Thanks.


Of course keep in mind an upgrade carries the chance of having your
problems that you had with ME following you. The best advice is to
do a clean (NEW) install!
Click to expand...


Well, I don't agree. Unlike upgrades to previous versions of
Windows, upgrades to XP replace almost everything, and usually
work very well. And of course they are much easier and save a lot
of time compared to clean installations.

So my advice is to at least try the upgrade. If problems develop
(they probably won't), you can always change your mind and redo
the installation cleanly.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

 
Greetings --

Have you made sure that your PC's hardware components are capable
of supporting WinXP? This information will be found at the PC's
manufacturer's web site, and on Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility
List: (http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp) Additionally, run
Microsoft WinXP Upgrade Advisor to see if you have any incompatible
hardware components or applications.

You should, before proceeding, take a few minutes to ensure that
there are WinXP device drivers available for all of the machine's
components. There may not be, if the PC was specifically designed for
Win98. Also bear in mind that PCs designed for and sold with Win9x/Me
very often do not meet WinXP's much more stringent hardware quality
requirements. This is particularly true of many models in Compaq's
consumer-class Presario product line or HP's consumer-class Pavilion
product line. WinXP, like WinNT and Win2K before it, is quite
sensitive to borderline defective hardware (particularly motherboards,
RAM and hard drives) that will still support Win9x.

HOW TO Prepare to Upgrade Win98 or WinMe
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316639


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
Greetings --

Not true at all.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
Larry Slay said:
I have many programs under WIN ME on a new ASUS A7N8X
computer (AMD Athlon 2002+ CPU) and have been having some
windows errors etc. and general install problems with new
AGP Video cards etc. etc.... ME not stable.........
Programs working in general OK but ----- weird
things....lockups etc...

BASIC --- I would like to do a direct upgrade to WIN XP
(Home or Pro) --

Question - Is the new XP software smart enough to
completely override the old ME and start fresh?

I would like to avoid formatting drive (120GB) and
reinstalling all of the 'stuff'.

What is the general opinion out there?

I use the computer for engineering consulting work as well
as some video digital processing etc......

Thanks - Larry
Click to expand...

Windows Me is quite capable of being upgraded to Windows XP.

During the Beta testing of Windows XP I installed every beta version I
received as an upgrade over WindowsMe and never had a problem that
could be related to having done an upgrade rather than a clean
install. I also installed a number of the beta versions as clean
installs just for comparison. The only difference was that the clean
installs were a real p.i.t.a. because all of the applications had to
be installed as well.

My current primary system is Windows XP Pro that started life as
Windows 3.x way back when and has been successively upgraded through
Windows 95, 95B, 98, 98SE, Me, XP Home and now XP Pro. It has no
detectable performance or reliability differences compared to a clean
install of XP Pro on a differnt partition on the same hard drive.

Not to say that all upgrades to XP from Me always work out okay.
There have been some failures, but they are in the minority. And if
you do choose to upgrade and it does not work out then you can always
revert to a clean install.

Before you do the upgrade be sure to read MVP Gary Woodruff's article
on upgrading to XP at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm and make
sure you follow through with the planning and testing steps that Gary
recommends.

One thing that makes upgrading to Windows XP different, and often more
reliable, than previous Windows version upgrades is that the approach
taken by Windows XP is very different from previous versions when
upgrading.

The first thing that the Windows XP upgrade install process will do is
to rename your existing Windows folder to a different name. It will
then create a new Windows folder and install a clean basic copy of
Windows XP into that folder. Once that is done it will then import
the registry entries and whatever files that are actually needed from
the old Windows folder and incorporate these into Windows XP. When
the process is finished the old Windows folder is deleted.

The end result is a cleaner and tidier upgrade than was done by
previous Windows upgrades. Unnecessary files are gone.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
Hi, Ron.

Great post! ;<)

Thanks especially for the part starting with:
One thing that makes upgrading to Windows XP different, and often more
reliable, than previous Windows version upgrades is that the approach
taken by Windows XP is very different from previous versions when
upgrading.
Click to expand...

My own upgrade from Win98 to Win2K was quite disappointing. At that time, 3
1/2 years ago, many hardware makers (including the biggies: HP, Xerox,
Creative Labs, ATI - and many hard drive/controller makers) had not written
Win2K drivers for their products - like they hadn't seen Win2K coming for at
least a couple of years! It took exactly a year for me to get Win2K working
well enough to abandon Win98 entirely. My later upgrade to WinXP was very
smooth, but that was from Win2K, not from Win9x/ME, so driver migration was
not much of a problem. By then, the hardware makers had finally woke up and
smelled the NT coffee, so there were plenty of WinXP drivers.

I'm not about to reinstall Win9x/ME just to see how well the upgrade to
WinXP works, but I'm glad to hear from you that the upgrade process has
improved so dramatically. Thanks for the very lucid update.

RC
 
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