SP1 and Planning Ahead

[Len]

I've installed sp1 from Windows Update. The installation went smoothly, the
system rebooted perfectly, everything is running fine, I have not been asked
to activate again, but....

I have an HP system that I bought with XP installed. I got a free upgrade to
Vista as soon as it was released. I did not try to do a clean install, simply
upgraded, and everything worked and has, with the normal glitches now and
then.

Do I have a problem? Not now, but I know that some day, even if nothing else
goes wrong, I will need to rebuild the system, reload the OS, or recover from
some failure. When I get to that point I will have no clear, simple path to
restore the OS. As best I can tell, I will need to reload the recovery disks
for the original XP os, reapply the original upgrade to Vista, and reload at
least sp1, if not some of the patches in between that are necessary
prerequisites to sp1 being willing to load.

Is there some other way? I'd like to figure out that alternate path now,
while my system is running fine, rather than scramble when something has
happened. Can I download the full Vista sp1 install and restore directly to
that os? Is there some other logical alternative?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[dev]

/Len/ said:

I've installed sp1 from Windows Update. The installation went smoothly, the
system rebooted perfectly, everything is running fine, I have not been asked
to activate again, but....

I have an HP system that I bought with XP installed. I got a free upgrade to
Vista as soon as it was released. I did not try to do a clean install, simply
upgraded, and everything worked and has, with the normal glitches now and
then.

Do I have a problem? Not now, but I know that some day, even if nothing else
goes wrong, I will need to rebuild the system, reload the OS, or recover from
some failure. When I get to that point I will have no clear, simple path to
restore the OS. As best I can tell, I will need to reload the recovery disks
for the original XP os, reapply the original upgrade to Vista, and reload at
least sp1, if not some of the patches in between that are necessary
prerequisites to sp1 being willing to load.

Is there some other way? I'd like to figure out that alternate path now,
while my system is running fine, rather than scramble when something has
happened. Can I download the full Vista sp1 install and restore directly to
that os? Is there some other logical alternative?

Thanks for any tips.

Purchase imaging software, such as True Image...
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Then use it to image the partition containing your operating system, and
update that image on a regular basis - keeping an archival copy on
removable media, in case the drive where the back up is stored goes bad.

This is the BEST $50 (or so) you will ever spend on software.

 

[VISTA_BOY]

I am certainly no expert on what you *should* do or what *might* happen, but
to their credit, I have never had a problem with licensing issues even though
I felt I was on shaky ground like you.

I had one computer go from OEM Win 95, to Win 98 and go through various
updates and re-installs with no prob.

On another, I went from OEM ME to buying a copy of XP Pro SP2 with no prob.s

I had to call an MS support line to re-activate VISTA after one system
restore incident, but it was fixed instantaneously. I don't know exactly
how they keep track of it all, but I have never really tried to use botleg
software, so I never really worried about it except at the few points when I
started to question like you.

Just keep your receipts and activation codes handy !