Moving Windows XP Home

[Guest]

I have Windows 98 and have purchased Windows XP Home Full Version OEM. My
internal hard drive is partitioned into 2 drives C:\ and D:\, and I have an
external E: drive.

Windows 98 is on C: drive, and all my important music and data files are on
both C: and D: drives, as well as an external hard drive E:. When doing a
new install of XP, I assumed it would copy over Windows 98 on the C: drive,
but instead, put it on the D: drive. I would like to get rid of 98
altogether and have XP on my C: drive.

My plan is to boot up into XP and open Explorer, format the C: drive from
Explorer, install XP on the C: drive while it is also on the D: drive, and
then uninstall it off of the D: drive. Then, reinstall all my programs on
C: and only put data on D:

Is that the best way to do it, am I heading for disaster, or is there a
better way to do it? Thanks in advance

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have Windows 98 and have purchased Windows XP Home Full Version
OEM. My internal hard drive is partitioned into 2 drives C:\ and
D:\, and I have an external E: drive.

Windows 98 is on C: drive, and all my important music and data files
are on both C: and D: drives, as well as an external hard drive E:.
When doing a new install of XP, I assumed it would copy over Windows
98 on the C: drive, but instead, put it on the D: drive. I would
like to get rid of 98 altogether and have XP on my C: drive.

My plan is to boot up into XP and open Explorer, format the C: drive
from Explorer, install XP on the C: drive while it is also on the D:
drive, and then uninstall it off of the D: drive. Then, reinstall
all my programs on C: and only put data on D:

Is that the best way to do it,

No.

am I heading for disaster, or is there
a better way to do it? Thanks in advance

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to
accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the
existing partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Back up your data before beginning.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Make certain all important data is backed up to the external drive. Unplug
the external drive.
Boot off the Windows XP CD and select the option to Install Windows. After
you press F8 to accept the license agreement the installer will search for a
current version of Windows on the system. It may ask you if you want to
Repair or do a new install. Select the option to do a new install. Delete
all partitions found, create new partitions of the size you wish. Format
only the C partition. Use NTFS. Once formatted XP will install. Once it is
installed boot to the Desktop. Right click the My Computer icon and select
Manage. Open Storage an format the unformatted partition as NTFS. When
finished reboot and finally plug your external drive in.

 

[marijan]

Make certain all important data is backed up to the external drive. Unplug
the external drive.
Boot off the Windows XP CD and select the option to Install Windows. After
you press F8 to accept the license agreement the installer will search for a
current version of Windows on the system. It may ask you if you want to
Repair or do a new install. Select the option to do a new install. Delete
all partitions found, create new partitions of the size you wish. Format
only the C partition. Use NTFS. Once formatted XP will install. Once it is
installed boot to the Desktop. Right click the My Computer icon and select
Manage. Open Storage an format the unformatted partition as NTFS. When
finished reboot and finally plug your external drive in.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I have Windows 98 and have purchased Windows XP Home Full Version OEM. My
internal hard drive is partitioned into 2 drives C:\ and D:\, and I have an
external E: drive.

Windows 98 is on C: drive, and all my important music and data files are on
both C: and D: drives, as well as an external hard drive E:. When doing a
new install of XP, I assumed it would copy over Windows 98 on the C: drive,
but instead, put it on the D: drive. I would like to get rid of 98
altogether and have XP on my C: drive.

My plan is to boot up into XP and open Explorer, format the C: drive from
Explorer, install XP on the C: drive while it is also on the D: drive, and
then uninstall it off of the D: drive. Then, reinstall all my programs on
C: and only put data on D:

Is that the best way to do it, am I heading for disaster, or is there a
better way to do it? Thanks in advance

 

[marijan]

Hi Harry, I made just this mistake and didn't unplug external USB HDD
before reinstall Win XP. Now windows recognize HDD, but it says that
it's not formatted. Is there a way to recover my data from this
external device? I think data should be there but they are not visible
for new WinXP, or did the installation proces delete the data?
Thanks a lot for sugesstion
best regards
marijan