Upgrading from Win 2000

[Doug Scott]

I am currently running Windows 2000 professional on my
PC, and recently was given as a gift the Windows XP Home
Edition Upgrade. I know that I cannot upgrade from Win
2000 Prof. to Win XP Home, but can I use the CD in the
Win XP Home upgrade box to do a NEW installation of Win
XP Home?

If I can, what is the downside to doing a NEW
installation vs. being able to do an upgrade?

 

[Nicholas]

Doug --

Yes, you can perform a "clean install", which is always preferable
vs. upgrading.

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.
2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition(s), then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After installing Windows XP, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

7. It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.
After XP is installed, visit the support website of the manufacturer
of each hardware device to obtain the latest drivers or software
designed to work with Windows XP.


--
Nicholas

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


| I am currently running Windows 2000 professional on my
| PC, and recently was given as a gift the Windows XP Home
| Edition Upgrade. I know that I cannot upgrade from Win
| 2000 Prof. to Win XP Home, but can I use the CD in the
| Win XP Home upgrade box to do a NEW installation of Win
| XP Home?
|
| If I can, what is the downside to doing a NEW
| installation vs. being able to do an upgrade?

 

[Mark Salloway]

Hi Doug
You can perform a clean install, the Windows 2000 CD is qualifying media for
an upgrade to home edition. Obvious downside is you will loose files on your
machine if you don't back them up, because it is necessary to format the
hard disk. You might want to take a look at the Files and Settings Transfer
Wizard to transfer your settings over (on the XP CD -
\SUPPORT\TOOLS\FASTWIZ.EXE). It would also be a good idea to ensure you have
up to date drivers which support XP handy, though most Windows 2000 drivers
will work fine. If I were doing this personally I would prefer a clean
install rather than upgrading.

 

[BHISHAM]

windows 9x > windows me > windows xp home
windows nt4.0 >windows 2k >windows xp prof
upgrade means layer upon exisiting os like w2k it will
upgarde only necessary components and dll's (dynamiclink
librabres nad other stuff)
fresh install means totally clean install os of in the
other partiton in your case. doe'nt differ much