Upgrade vs Clean Install

[John Leonard - Sage]

There has been a lot of discussion re this topic.

I know clean is the best way - but very time consuming!

Is there concern with the Upgrade of XP Pro to Vista?

If all recommendations i.e. follow upgrade advisor, remove Norton, USB
devices .......etc. is done, will the upgrade run into problems??

Thx

 

[GTS]

The upgrade will usually work fine if the XP installation is stable and
compatibility issues are addressed as you noted. It's always wise to do a
full backup first thought. If that is done, there is no risk in trying the
upgrade.

 

[Adam Albright]

There has been a lot of discussion re this topic.

I know clean is the best way - but very time consuming!

Is there concern with the Upgrade of XP Pro to Vista?

If all recommendations i.e. follow upgrade advisor, remove Norton, USB
devices .......etc. is done, will the upgrade run into problems??

Thx

What problems you'll run into...if any, depends on your hardware, even
what version, (motherboards for example have version numbers where
things might have changed, sometimes radically) the BIOS version
they're running, your hardware drivers and so on. There is no set
answer. That is what seperates a PC system from say a Mac system.
There is almost a infinite number of combinations on the PC possible
when you mix in the wide assortment of hardware cards.

So to give yourself the best chance of avoiding problems.

1. Disable or remove EVERYTHING that the Vista Upgrade Advisor
mentions, not just nags about. If it says it "may" have a
problem with such and such device, remove or disable it. Very
likely it will be easy to reinstall AFTER Vista is up and
running because Vista has to be up and running for it to
install automatically a lot of Vista ready drivers.

2. Before trying to upgrade reagardless if doing a clean or
install in place, go to BIOS and reduce settings to bare
minimum. You don't need or want overclocking or anything
fancy just to install a new OS. Again, once Vista is up
then start restoring all the bells and whistles one
at a time.

3. Avoid having devices attached or optons known to cause
troube for some people. These include SATA drives, USB
controllers, disconnect scanners, printers, multiple
graphic cards (leave one), anything you don't need to boot
the system.

4. If you are going to attempt a install in place to avoid having to
reinstall all your applications and redo your settings, ALWAYS
back-up all your critial files first and best if possible make
copies and store somewhere else OTHER THAN the drive partation you
plan on installing Vista to.

5. If you have multiple drives and you're comfortable working inside
your PC it makes sense to disconnect both the power and data cables
on all the drives you don't need to install Vista. Obviously if a
drive if off, Vista can't mess it or its data up. Turn them back
on one at a time after Vista is installed and running correctly.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Follow all the recommendations of the upgrade advisor, backup important
documents/files etc and you should upgrade with ease. When i upgraded it
took 4 hours to upgrade, a clean install, including installing all the other
software i use took just over 2.5 hours. Obviously, in my case it was easier
to do a clean install.

One point worth mentioning is that, when you upgrade from XP to Vista, Vista
uses the XP product key. Therefore, after upgrade, your XP CD is useless to
you. You can't install XP on another computer because Vista is using the
product code number. As far as i know, if you didn't like Vista your XP disk
would still be useless so you couldn't erase Vista and the re-install XP.


--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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[Gary VanderMolen]

One point worth mentioning is that, when you upgrade from XP to Vista, Vista
uses the XP product key. Therefore, after upgrade, your XP CD is useless to
you. You can't install XP on another computer because Vista is using the
product code number. As far as i know, if you didn't like Vista your XP disk
would still be useless so you couldn't erase Vista and the re-install XP.

Do you have an authoritative source for that "useless" remark?
I know what the EULA says, but you're implying that MS will
blacklist the XP product key if it has been used with a Vista upgrade.
AFAIK, a Vista upgrade will use its own product key, not the XP
product key.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[John Leonard - Sage]

Thanks for all the help and support.

I will do all that has been posted and perform the UPGRADE to Vista Bisiness
carefully.

One last question - does anyone know if I would have a problem with Intuit
Tax software? I trying to decide whether or not to do the upgrade now or
wait until my Business and Personal Taxes are filed?