Reinstalling XP

[MrSpike]

Hi, I am going to reformat my drive and reinstall XP. I have an upgrade disk
which I used to go from ME to XP. It is a Dell computer and the only disk I
have is a restore disk. Can I just install with the XP upgrade disk if I
burn the sound, video, network, etc. drivers to a CD and install them from
there? Or do I have to do the restore and then do the upgrade. Which way do
you think would be easier? Thanks for any input.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi, I am going to reformat my drive and reinstall XP. I have an upgrade disk
which I used to go from ME to XP. It is a Dell computer and the only disk I
have is a restore disk. Can I just install with the XP upgrade disk if I
burn the sound, video, network, etc. drivers to a CD and install them from
there? Or do I have to do the restore and then do the upgrade. Which way do
you think would be easier? Thanks for any input.

It's possible to perform a clean installation using the Upgrade CD,
provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier OS.

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.



--

Bruce Chambers

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[Bert Kinney]

Hi MrSpike,

Some OEM CD's will not satisfy the compliance check to allow the WinXP
upgrade CD to install clean. In this case just do a clean install of
WinME then immediately upgrade to WinXP.
If the OEM CD does satisfy the compliance check take a look at this
article for clean install instructions. XP Clean Install:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

You don't want to use WinME drivers for WinXP. Go to the following
Dell download site and enter the service tag number and product model
then download any drivers that may be needed. If this is a desktop
system rather than a notebook, there's a good chance WinXP will have
the drivers for the system. If this is a notebook it will need model
specific drivers, such as Power Management, Touchpad (if applicable),
video, and sound to name a few.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

[MrSpike]

Thanks for the info Bruce and Bert.

Hi MrSpike,

Some OEM CD's will not satisfy the compliance check to allow the WinXP
upgrade CD to install clean. In this case just do a clean install of
WinME then immediately upgrade to WinXP.
If the OEM CD does satisfy the compliance check take a look at this
article for clean install instructions. XP Clean Install:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

You don't want to use WinME drivers for WinXP. Go to the following
Dell download site and enter the service tag number and product model
then download any drivers that may be needed. If this is a desktop
system rather than a notebook, there's a good chance WinXP will have
the drivers for the system. If this is a notebook it will need model
specific drivers, such as Power Management, Touchpad (if applicable),
video, and sound to name a few.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi, I am going to reformat my drive and reinstall XP. I
have an upgrade disk which I used to go from ME to XP. It
is a Dell computer and the only disk I have is a restore
disk. Can I just install with the XP upgrade disk if I
burn the sound, video, network, etc. drivers to a CD and
install them from there? Or do I have to do the restore
and then do the upgrade. Which way do you think would be
easier? Thanks for any input.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Hi, I am going to reformat my drive and reinstall XP. I have an upgrade disk
which I used to go from ME to XP. It is a Dell computer and the only disk I
have is a restore disk. Can I just install with the XP upgrade disk

No. Do it this way. Restore ME using the Dell disk. Then run the XP
Upgrade CD from that system. Either just Upgrade, or you *can* take New
Install instead, and when it asks where to install, hit ESC, delete the
present (ME) partition and make a new one - the check has by then be
made. But upgrading a clean ME replaces just about everything so it is
probably not worth it