What to do after UPGRADING from Windows XP with the windows.old fi

[Guest]

....and other partition that held Windows XP. I have Vista Home premium
installed, what is the best way to deal with the old partition that held
Windows XP and the windows.old file? I assume that I can just delete the
windows.old file since I have already saved the files I needed to.
And what about the partition that had Windows XP on it. It still exists, to
it is using up space pretty much for no reason since I do not plan to resort
back to XP. So how do I get rid of that partition and just give the space to
Vista? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Rock]

...and other partition that held Windows XP. I have Vista Home premium
installed, what is the best way to deal with the old partition that held
Windows XP and the windows.old file? I assume that I can just delete the
windows.old file since I have already saved the files I needed to.
And what about the partition that had Windows XP on it. It still exists,
to
it is using up space pretty much for no reason since I do not plan to
resort
back to XP. So how do I get rid of that partition and just give the space
to
Vista? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Delete the windows.old folder. Remove the partition and merge it with
Vista. Use Vista's disk management to do that. Note, if the copy of Vista
is an upgrade copy, then the XP OS that was used as the qualifying OS for
the upgrade cannot by the license be installed at the same time as Vista.
If Vista was a full retail or an OEM version then the dual boot is fine if
you wanted to keep it.

 

[Ron Miller]

Delete the windows.old folder. Remove the partition and merge it with
Vista. Use Vista's disk management to do that. Note, if the copy of
Vista is an upgrade copy, then the XP OS that was used as the qualifying
OS for the upgrade cannot by the license be installed at the same time
as Vista. If Vista was a full retail or an OEM version then the dual
boot is fine if you wanted to keep it.

Hmmm . . . I received Vista Business UPgrade in my MS Action-Pack
subscription. I used it to install a dual boot setup with my current
Windows XPSP2. That was easy to do, and I'm now using BOTH. My XP
installation is still valid, and I downloaded about 14 updates for it on
Patch Tuesday this week.
It may be pertinent to note that I had Vista RC1 installed on the
partition where Vista Business is now installed, and the windows.old
folder contains stuff from the old RC1 installation.

When I installed Vista Business, I launched it from XP and directed it
to the Vista partition, expecting that it would reformat it before
proceeding.

Question 1: How does all this mesh with your statement that XP cannot
be installed at the same time as an Upgrade version of Vista? Obviously
the validation tool has no problem at all with my XP installation.

Question 2: Did I perhaps avoid "deactivation" of my XP install simply
by having RC1 on the partition to which I pointed the Vista Business
Upgrade setup? If so, that was a bit of dumb luck.

I've seen conflicting statements on this situation, so I'd like to get
to the bottom of it.

Ron

 

[Rock]

Hmmm . . . I received Vista Business UPgrade in my MS Action-Pack
subscription. I used it to install a dual boot setup with my current
Windows XPSP2. That was easy to do, and I'm now using BOTH. My XP
installation is still valid, and I downloaded about 14 updates for it on
Patch Tuesday this week.
It may be pertinent to note that I had Vista RC1 installed on the
partition where Vista Business is now installed, and the windows.old
folder contains stuff from the old RC1 installation.

When I installed Vista Business, I launched it from XP and directed it to
the Vista partition, expecting that it would reformat it before
proceeding.

Question 1: How does all this mesh with your statement that XP cannot be
installed at the same time as an Upgrade version of Vista? Obviously the
validation tool has no problem at all with my XP installation.

It is against the license agreement. It is technically possible, as you
have shown, but the license agreement states you can't run both. For
example with XP the OEM license says you can't transfer it to a new
computer. There is no tehcnical mechanism to prevent that, except
activation, and those without integrity get around it by lying when they
call for activation.

Question 2: Did I perhaps avoid "deactivation" of my XP install simply by
having RC1 on the partition to which I pointed the Vista Business Upgrade
setup? If so, that was a bit of dumb luck.

Since this is new stuff, there was no specific info on what would be done
through the Vista activation servers with respect to the XP license key.
Would it be deactivated? There was no info to know for sure, just
speculation. And there could be changes in how this is handled down the
road. Will it there be changes in WGA? I don't know.

I've seen conflicting statements on this situation, so I'd like to get to
the bottom of it.

Read the license agreement. From Start | winver | enter, click on the
license hyperlink. Then decide what you're going to do.

 

[Robert Firth]

If you have saved the old files, you may delete the windows.old file.

Also, if you would like to delete or resize partitions paritions:

Right click on computer, select "manage".
Accept the UAC prompt.
On the left pane, open the 'tree' item 'storage' and click on 'Disk
Management'.

From there, you can right click on the displayed partitions to delete,
create, shrink, or expand partitions.

--
/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Robert Firth *
* Windows Vista x86 RTM *
* http://www.WinVistaInfo.org *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */

 

[AJR]

Windows.old was created to preserve data you may want after installing
Vista. It also can be used to revert back to XP - since you state you have
no desire to revert back to XP - delete Windows.old if possible. I say if
possible because it can be difficult - Microsoft suggested way is though
Disk cleanup.

 

[Ron Miller]

It is against the license agreement. It is technically possible, as you
have shown, but the license agreement states you can't run both. For
example with XP the OEM license says you can't transfer it to a new
computer. There is no tehcnical mechanism to prevent that, except
activation, and those without integrity get around it by lying when they
call for activation.


Since this is new stuff, there was no specific info on what would be
done through the Vista activation servers with respect to the XP license
key. Would it be deactivated? There was no info to know for sure, just
speculation. And there could be changes in how this is handled down the
road. Will it there be changes in WGA? I don't know.


Read the license agreement. From Start | winver | enter, click on the
license hyperlink. Then decide what you're going to do.

License agreements don't apply to me very well. Let me explain. My MS
Action Pack subscription allows me to install ten instances of XP and
another ten instances of Vista. It would therefore be completely legal
for me to reinstall XP on a machine here if Vista did invalidate the XP
license. I'm just trying to figure out, by asking here, what's likely
to happen when installing an "upgrade" copy as a dual-boot setup.

A couple of days ago, I legally installed Vista on another couple of
computers as the second OS on XP machines. In neither case, did
activation of Vista result in any "damage" to the license of the XP
installations. If it had, I could have legally reinstalled XP because I
have extra licenses for it, but I've not had to do that so far.

I'm thinking that MS does not intend for installation of upgrade
versions to invalidate the licenses of XP installations that are extant
at the time of the Vista install.

Ron

 

[Rock]

License agreements don't apply to me very well. Let me explain. My MS
Action Pack subscription allows me to install ten instances of XP and
another ten instances of Vista. It would therefore be completely legal
for me to reinstall XP on a machine here if Vista did invalidate the XP
license. I'm just trying to figure out, by asking here, what's likely to
happen when installing an "upgrade" copy as a dual-boot setup.

A couple of days ago, I legally installed Vista on another couple of
computers as the second OS on XP machines. In neither case, did
activation of Vista result in any "damage" to the license of the XP
installations. If it had, I could have legally reinstalled XP because I
have extra licenses for it, but I've not had to do that so far.

I'm thinking that MS does not intend for installation of upgrade versions
to invalidate the licenses of XP installations that are extant at the time
of the Vista install.

I don't know about Action Pack. What I do know is what the Vista license
says about using an upgrade version of Vista. The qualifying OS cannot be
installed at the same time.

 

[Ron Miller]

I don't know about Action Pack. What I do know is what the Vista
license says about using an upgrade version of Vista. The qualifying OS
cannot be installed at the same time.

I think it's pretty simple. If you use your Upgrade version of Vista to
install it in dual-boot scenario, thus invalidating your XP license,
and you then use a different XP license to reinstall XP, you've not
violated any EULA agreements, have you?

 

[Rock]

I think it's pretty simple. If you use your Upgrade version of Vista to
install it in dual-boot scenario, thus invalidating your XP license, and
you then use a different XP license to reinstall XP, you've not violated
any EULA agreements, have you?

Nope. Dual booting with a copy of XP that has a different license than what
was used as the qualifying OS for the use of an upgrade edition of Vista is
fine.