How to retain all your software and settings even when an upgrade from Windows 2000 to XP fails

[Dominik Jain]

Hi!

I am reporting my experience on an upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP
because the method I ended up using allows you to keep all your installed
software and user settings even though the upgrade failed, i.e. after the
upgrade process has (successfully) finished, you cannot start Windows XP.

I started the upgrade to Windows XP from Windows 2000 by running setup.exe
on the Windows XP CD and chose to upgrade my existing installation (having
backed up the entire partition to another hard disk beforehand). The upgrade
process appeared to go well, but when it was completed, and Windows XP was
to be started for the first time, my machine simply rebooted after having
loaded just a few drivers. Safe Mode was exactly the same... I attempted to
repair the installation several times, varying the driver installations
during the install process, but the immediate reboot problem remained.

What I then did was to do a clean install of XP onto the same partition but
in a new directory (the old one was in C:\WINNT while the new one was to be
installed in C:\WINDOWS). The clean installation booted without any
problems, but of course all the software and user settings were gone. So to
get my software data back into the registry, I loaded up a recovery console
and overwrote the SOFTWARE hive of the new, clean installation with the one
from the upgraded installation. Then I did a repair install on C:\WINDOWS to
fix any registry entries that concern Windows itself. After the repair
install, I could still boot without any problems and all the software
settings were back. Some programs did not immediately work because they were
missing DLLs that had been installed to the Windows directory, which had now
changed, but you can easily fix that by adding C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 and other
directories from the old installation to your path environment variable or
by copying the required DLLs on demand.

Now the only thing that was missing were the user settings, as the new
installation created a new, clean user along with it, i.e. if your old
user's home directory was in C:\Documents and Settings\MyUser, the new one,
if it is called the same, will be in C:\Documents and
Settings\MyUser.COMPUTERNAME. All the information on the user's directories
and the user's registry are in the registry, so all you need to do is fire
up regedit and replace all references to C:\Documents and
Settings\MyUser.COMPUTERNAME with C:\Documents and Settings\MyUser. Once
that is done, do a reboot and you get everything back: your desktop, your
application data, your start menu, everything.

So whenever an upgrade to XP appears to work, but you can't boot afterworks,
I think this method is worth trying. I had my Windows 2000 running for 5
years without reinstalling, and now I have all my settings in XP, which is
really neat. It would have taken me weeks to reinstall and reconfigure
everything.

I hope this information is useful to somebody...

Best regards,
Dominik

 

[Dave Patrick]

You might be happy with your result but that method is wrought with disaster
lurking in many places. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Dominik Jain]

You might be happy with your result but that method is wrought with
disaster lurking in many places.

That is, of course, true. But on the other hand, what have you got to lose
(other than a few hours of your time)? When the upgrade has failed, there is
no point in *not* trying to get it fixed that way. If it doesn't work, you
can always go back and reinstall.

I have been working for several days now and everything works just the way
it did unter Win2k... So if you do it right, I don't think it's really all
that keen.

bye,
Dominik

 

[Dave Patrick]

Sorry but there is no "other hand" about it. There's no chance I would
accept an installation done this way. You should bite the bullet and clean
install.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Dominik Jain]

Sorry but there is no "other hand" about it. There's no chance I would
accept an installation done this way. You should bite the bullet and
clean install.

I do believe there is an "other hand". Why would I do a clean install when
everything is working just fine. And by everything, I mean everything: All
hardware components working, not a single crash so far, Windows updates have
installed fine, all programs (old and new) working just the way they're
supposed to. Why would I bite the bullet? That would just be irrational.

I have fixed my Windows installation many times over the years (even writing
programs to do it) where other users might have given up. I miscounted by
the way; my Win2k must have been running for about 7 years now. If you know
a thing or two about Windows, you needn't reinstall your system once every
year, which some people claim is necessary. The only condition under which
I'll reinstall is if there's no other way to really get everything working
the way it's supposed to. Considering all the effort that goes into fully
configuring a system that is heavily used for more than one purpose, you can
hardly blame me for that.

Anyway, I just wanted to let people know there might be a way to recover a
failed upgrade. And if you think about what I did, it's not really
surprising that it works. Replacing the SOFTWARE hive is not such a big
deal; and neither is changing a user's home directory.

bye,
Dominik

 

[Dave Patrick]

You have a low reliability standard for an operating system installation. I
glad you're happy with the result but please don't recommend to others that
this is an acceptable practice.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Dominik Jain]

You have a low reliability standard for an operating system
installation. I glad you're happy with the result but please don't
recommend to others that this is an acceptable practice.

I'm not sure where you get that "low reliability standard" from, because, as
I said, everything is working flawlessly, i.e. I am not tolerating any
unreliable behaviour. Nor would I tolerate any unreliable behaviour, I
assure you. As a matter of fact, the Windows 2000 installation I upgraded
from has often been running for several weeks without even a reboot (I
always hibernate), and it did not have a habit of crashing either (probably
about twice a year, and that only happened when I thought I'd try a game
once in a while, the 3D graphics drivers being as faulty as they are).

If you really think I'm crazy to do this, perhaps you can actually tell me
why you think my system is doomed and where it is bound to fail? And if you
can't, then why don't you just see this as an option for people desperate to
get an upgrade fixed, which can save them weeks of their time, which they
had better spent getting some actual work done. And for the record, I am not
recommending anything; I am just informing people that there might be a way
to get their failed upgrades working, that's all.

bye,
Dominik

 

[Dave Patrick]

You just admitted that the steps you took were an act of desperation. You
should only use this to recover your data in preparation for a clean
installation.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Dominik Jain]

You just admitted that the steps you took were an act of desperation.

Actually, I did not. Desperation is but a sufficient condition for wanting
to try the method I described, it is by no means a necessary one.

I don't see any reason to argue, really. If it works, how can it be so bad?
That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Dominik