Clean intallation of XP using XP Home Upgrade

[RJS]

I am preparing to upgrade from an OEM version of Win98 SE
to XP Home. My current Win98 installation is giving me
all sorts of problems so I planned to install XP on a
clean hard drive. Will the Upgrade version of XP allow me
to do that or must I "upgrade" from 98? I have not been
able to find an answer in the Microsoft site.

Thanks.

 

[Chris Lanier]

To install it on a "new hard drive" you must have the CD Media for Windows
98 to tell the setup you own a pervious copy of Windows. If you mean just
to do a Clean Install "over" Windows 98 then you will not need the CD Media
for Win98.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

It is possible to perform a clean installation using an Upgrade
CD.

Simply boot from the WinXP Upgrade CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. The Upgrade CD checks to see if a qualifying OS
is installed, and, if it finds none, it asks you to insert the
installation media (CD) of that OS. Unfortunately, an OEM
"Recovery/Restore" CD will not work for this purpose; you must have a
true installation CD, complete with the "\Win98" folder and *.cab
files, or the "\i386" folder of WinNT/2K.

Alternatively, or especially if all you have is an OEM Recovery CD
for the earlier OS, you can even start the upgrade from within the
current Win98/Me/NT/2K installation, and still elect to perform a
clean installation, to include formatting the drive. In this case,
there's no further request for the qualifying OS's installation CD,
because the installation routing "remembers" that you started from
within the qualifying OS. This process is more time-consuming, but
you get the same results: a clean installation of WinXP.


Bruce Chambers

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