ray said:
I am tired of XP Pro after the last two years. I want to
go backwards and install WIN 2K. However I upgraded to
XP from the other worthless OS... WIN ME. Can someone
tell me how to do this. I have an empty 10g partition to
back up current drive so I don't loose programs and files
but so far copying the c: drive partition to the empty
one hasn't worked and norton ghost won't work either.
I've even just plain went through Windows Explorer and
tried copying the drive. Please advise...
Windows XP is (IMO) far superior to Windows 2000 in several ways. It
handles memory much better, detects inconsistent hardware much faster, has a
built in rollback driver feature, has a built in system restore feature, has
a better interface and more options on the appearance of this interface
(including making it look a LOT like and act like, except not as sluggish,
Windows 2000 Professional), and it will have a longer "supported" life than
the previously released Operating Systems.
I believe your main problem is not the Operating System, but the previous
Operating System that was on your machine that you obviously upgraded
instead of performaing a clean install from. Windows ME - IMO - is the
worst operating system ever created by Microsoft. It seems to have been out
in order to appease people while Windows XP was in production and contains
many of the features of Windows XP without any of the testing that finally
went into the final XP product. Even Microsoft seemed to ignore Windows ME
at the release events for Windows XP, focusing on comparing Windows XP with
Windows 95/98 and Windows 2000, but not even touching on Windows ME. To me,
that said more than anything else... Windows ME is the step-child of the
Microsoft Operating System world. You should get rid of any evidence you
ever had it.
If you like, we can walk you through a clean install of Windows XP instead
of the clean installation of Windows 2000 you are going to have to perform
to get what you are asking for. Not only that, we can likely then show you
how to tweak Windows XP in ways that make it look and feel like you want
(seem to want Windows 2000) and still maintain better performance and
stability (and assurance) than you could ever achieve with its younger
sibling (Windows 2000.)
If you just want this advice to stop, then you should know that the only way
to get Windows 2000 installed on your computer now (in the way you are
asking - with no other OS presence) is to format and install the Windows
2000 Operating system and then install all of your applications from scratch
as well. You can, of course, back up your own personal files and possibly
even settings for some applications through copies and the likes, but
because of the way most applications install (into various directories, with
DLL files and the likes, and into various points in the registry - some
user-profile specific), just copying an application these days is not
enough - these are not Macintosh computers/operating systems after all
(where copying the application actually does work in most cases.)
In order to do this, you should back up your files/folder/etc to your
favorite and most trusted external medium (network drive, CD, DVD, Zip
drive, USB thumb drives, external hard drive, another physical hard drive on
the system, optical media, etc.) Then you should organize all of the
applications will be reinstalling after you format your computer - get their
media and cd/serial keys together and ready to go. Then, after making sure
you have gone through your current setup and satisfied yourself that you
have all the installation media you need, you will then proceed to set yopur
computer to boot from the operating system of your choice's CD. Boot from
it, delete the partition on the first hard drive in your system you will be
installing on, create a new partition and then install your OS. Once
installed, it is suggested you get some sort of firewall going before ever
connecting to the Internet - some of the worms out there are pretty persiste
nt and will infect you within minutes of connecting if you atre not
patched/protected in some way. Once protected, connect to the Internet and
go to
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and download/install all critical
updates.
From that point, you will just have to install all of your applications and
setup your look/feel... Copy your files back and enjoy your cleanly
installed computer..
BTW - as one last ditch effort to get you to do the procedure above with
Windows XP instead of Windows 2000, you can do a clean install with the
Upgrade Media for Windows XP.. You merely have to have the installation
media for a previous and upgradable OS (like Windows ME/Windows 2000)
available when you boot from and start the installation of Windows XP from
the CD. It will ask for this during the setup. I still think this would be
your best course of action combined with some tweaking to make it look and
feel more like Windows 2000 but with superior features.
