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What's the best way to install XP?

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Paul V54639

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I currently run Win ME on my Dell 4300 desktop and would like to upgrade...

Should I back up my current hard drive to my USB HD and then do a clean install on my internal drive?

Any info is appreciated...

Paul
 
Paul, you have several choices...

If you do a clean install, you'll need good backups, and have to reinstall all programs.

You can create a dual boot system, but there are many things to do, and no need unless you have a real requirement for Win Me AND Win XP.

Win XP is a very smooth 'upgrade', as opposed to some of the previous terrors....95 to 98, etc.

I'd just do the upgrade, with your backup of course, and see. You can always do a clean install in the future. You will need to check the system for drivers/updates on all of your hardware/software, and Win XP will help before you install! Just put the CD in, while running Win Me, and you will have the chance to review and print Microsoft's input on hardware and software update requirements, before you install.

Create several boot floppies from Win Me before you start!

--
Mr Pedagogue - Win XP Pro, D7i, PSP7, Canon S9000, WeInk CRS
 
Sounds like a good plan to me... It's pretty widely acknowledged that a "clean" install is the best way to go, and avoids a lot of potential problems. I installed XP on both my laptop and desktop (yes, I used 2 copies). In both cases I installed a new harddrive at the time, and kept the old drives as backups. In the case of t he desktop, I installed the old drive as a second drive and then copied files over to the new one. I think this is a similar scenario to what you are thinking. At any rate, both installations went flawlessly.

Bill
Paul V said:
I currently run Win ME on my Dell 4300 desktop and would like to
upgrade...

Should I back up my current hard drive to my USB HD and then do a
clean install on my internal drive?

Any info is appreciated...

Paul
Click to expand...
 
That's exactly the way I upgraded to W2K Professional. Did a clean install on a new hard drive of Windows 2000 using NTFS and then just installed my old hard drive as a secondary HD an copied files from the old to the new. Easy and simple.

But, I hear that it's dangerous to put a second hard drive in on your motherboard that has an operating system on it as it could corrupt the hard drive(s) when booting up a system with two hard drives, each with an O/S on it.

I've done it several times, but the 2nd HD was on a RAID controller. Maybe that helped it. I also noticed that with the 2nd HD installed, if I clicked on the partition with the O/S on this secondary HD, it'd crash the system. No harm came from it though. I was just careful to not click (in Explorer) on the paritiion of another HD containing another O/S.

I believe there's even a warning about this in my GHOST program. I know there's a warning about this at the Ratified GHOST tutorial at http://radified.com/Destinations/most_popular.htm - required reading for anyone using GHOST.

Stu
 
Before you install/upgrade any operating system you should back-up your data/image files. As part of XP install there is a option to run a compatibility test, do this first. It will check your whole computer (Hardware/Software) and generate a report several pages. It will tell you which hardware/software needs updating/drivers. It will tell you to re-install some software and tell what hardware/software is not compatible. By doing this first you can locate the drivers you will need and also let you know what hardware/software you will lose. Upgrading is safer then a new install and you will save your personal settings. When you finally start the upgrade use the option of using internet access to help with the upgrade.

Koz
Estuardo said:
That's exactly the way I upgraded to W2K Professional. Did a clean
install on a new hard drive of Windows 2000 using NTFS and then
just installed my old hard drive as a secondary HD an copied files
from the old to the new. Easy and simple.

But, I hear that it's dangerous to put a second hard drive in on
your motherboard that has an operating system on it as it could
corrupt the hard drive(s) when booting up a system with two hard
drives, each with an O/S on it.

I've done it several times, but the 2nd HD was on a RAID
controller. Maybe that helped it. I also noticed that with the 2nd
HD installed, if I clicked on the partition with the O/S on this
secondary HD, it'd crash the system. No harm came from it though. I
was just careful to not click (in Explorer) on the paritiion of
another HD containing another O/S.

I believe there's even a warning about this in my GHOST program. I
know there's a warning about this at the Ratified GHOST tutorial at
http://radified.com/Destinations/most_popular.htm - required
reading for anyone using GHOST.

Stu
Click to expand...
 
Clean install is by far the best way to go. Backing up to the USB HD is a pretty good idea as it should just work when you plug it in.

I would go into MSIE and export your favorites and cookies to text files; it will save you time trying to find them on the hard drive. Also locate other files, such as email, and make an extra copy.

I've never heard of the issues the others have mentioned about having two hard drives with an OS on them in the same computer. But I'm not sure I've done it, either.

Do plan out your install, looking for drivers and such. Consider partitioning your hard drive so that your data resides on a separate partition from the OS. If you have a big HD, consider blocking off part of it to use Drive Image or Ghost to make backups into.

Do not use the MS "Backup" program to back up files; use drag/drop in Windows Explorer. You will have some trouble with the Windows folder, but that also contains some information, such as Favorites and Cookies and such, which you may need.
Paul V said:
I currently run Win ME on my Dell 4300 desktop and would like to
upgrade...

Should I back up my current hard drive to my USB HD and then do a
clean install on my internal drive?

Any info is appreciated...

Paul
Click to expand...
 
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