re-installing Windows XP on new laptop hard drive

[William Olafson]

The hard drive on my laptop has to be replaced.It was
originally installed with 95,updated to 98,and then
updated again to the XP Home Edition(upgrade version
2002). I am hoping that I can just re-install the XP
without any problems,and not have to go the 95 to 98 to XP
installations.Can you give me any info. I will be greatly
appreciated.
My new hardrive is coming in a day or so. Thank you,

Bill

 

[Steve Aschettino]

Do a clean install of XP--it will be quicker, and will work much betterc
I've found any Win9x to 2k/XP upgrades never wok all that great...

 

[Tim Slattery]

The hard drive on my laptop has to be replaced.It was
originally installed with 95,updated to 98,and then
updated again to the XP Home Edition(upgrade version
2002). I am hoping that I can just re-install the XP
without any problems,and not have to go the 95 to 98 to XP
installations.Can you give me any info. I will be greatly
appreciated.

You should be able to use your WinXP upgrade disk to do the
installation. At some point it will ask for proof of a qualifying
product. At that point, put the Win95 CD into the drive, and it will
be satisfied.

You may have to search the website of the laptop's manufacturer for XP
drivers for proprietary hardware though.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

The hard drive on my laptop has to be replaced.It was
originally installed with 95,updated to 98,and then
updated again to the XP Home Edition(upgrade version
2002). I am hoping that I can just re-install the XP
without any problems,and not have to go the 95 to 98 to XP
installations.Can you give me any info. I will be greatly
appreciated.

First of all, you don't necessarily have to reinstall anything.
It's considerably easier to copy your current installation to the
new drive using something like Ghost or Drive Image.

But if you do reinstall, you can reinstall your XP upgrade
version without first installing 95 or 98, as long as you own a
95 or 98 installation CD.

The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous
qualifying version's installation CD (not an OEM restore CD), not
to have it installed. When setup doesn't find a previous
qualifying version installed, it will prompt you to insert its CD
as proof of ownership. Just insert the previous version's CD, and
follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite normally and quite
legitimately.