Upgrade to XP Professional from Windows 98SE

[Guest]

I have a newer machine that has Windows 98SE installed on it. I have a 2.2
Gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 processor, a 170 Gig HD capacity and 1 gig of RAM.

I am going to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, and was wondering if the
is a way to do a clean install? I do have the Windows 98SE CD.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a newer machine that has Windows 98SE installed on it. I
have a 2.2 Gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 processor, a 170 Gig HD capacity
and 1 gig of RAM.

I am going to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, and was wondering
if the is a way to do a clean install? I do have the Windows 98SE
CD.

You will get mixed opinions on this.

Personally - I think that if you have the time to do it, the know-how (or
want to learn), you have all the installation media/product keys to install
your software how you want it and you have good backups of all your personal
data (documents, spreadsheets, emails, contacts, favorites, etc...) - you
might be slightly better off doing a clean install.

Windows XP does a pretty decent job of upgrading - so that route is *not*
closed to you. It would save you some time and effort - but the end result
(which will probably work fine) may not include the backups and might carry
along any problems you have been experiencing anyway - if any.

The choice is yours, really. If you do choose to clean install - know you
will need the installation media (CDs, DVDs, executable files) and product
keys (serial numbers - if needed) for any program now installed that you
wish to install again. You should also get a list of hardware from the
current machine using something like Belarc Advisor
(http://www.belarc.com)... It would likely give you many of the product keys
you might need as well (but will not give you the installation media.) Once
you have a list of hardware - you should visit the manufacturer's web site
for each of the hardware vendors and download the latest driver for Windows
XP for that particular piece of hardware and save it on external media for
the installation.

Come back and let the newsgroup know what you decide to do - we may have
more advice to help you once you choose your method of upgrade...

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a newer machine that has Windows 98SE installed on it. I have a 2.2
Gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 processor, a 170 Gig HD capacity and 1 gig of RAM.

I am going to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, and was wondering if the
is a way to do a clean install? I do have the Windows 98SE CD.

It's quite 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.

Some people will always recommend that you always perform a clean
installation, rather than upgrade over an earlier OS. For the most
part, I feel that these people, while well-meaning, are living in the
past, and are basing their recommendations on their experiences with
older operating systems. An in-place upgrade can certainly be a time
safer. WinXP is designed to install and upgrade the existing operating
system while simultaneously preserving your applications and data, and
translating as many personalized settings as possible. The process is
designed to be, and normally is, quite painless. That said, things can
go wrong, in a small number of cases. If your data is at all important
to you, back it up before proceeding.


Before starting, however, have you verified that all of your PC's
hardware components are capable of supporting WinXP? This information
will be found at the PC's manufacturer's web site, and on Microsoft's
Windows Catalog: (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx)

You should also take a few minutes to ensure that there are
WinXP-specific device drivers available for all of the machine's
components. There may not be, if the PC was specifically designed for
Win98/Me. Also bear in mind that PCs designed for, sold and run fine
with Win9x/Me very often do not meet WinXP's much more stringent
hardware quality requirements. This is particularly true of many early
models in Compaq's consumer-class Presario product line or HP's
consumer-class Pavilion product line. WinXP, like WinNT and Win2K
before it, is quite sensitive to borderline defective or substandard
hardware (particularly motherboards, RAM and hard drives) that will
still support Win9x.

HOW TO Prepare to Upgrade Win98 or WinMe
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316639

Upgrading to Windows XP
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Ken Blake]

I have a newer machine that has Windows 98SE installed on it. I have a 2.2
Gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 processor, a 170 Gig HD capacity and 1 gig of RAM.

I am going to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, and was wondering if the
is a way to do a clean install? I do have the Windows 98SE CD.

Yes.

Despite what many people think, you *can* do a clean installation with an
Windows XP Upgrade CD, if you own a previous qualifying version.
The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying
version's installation 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.



However, I recommend that you do an upgrade rather than a clean
installation. Unlike with previous Windows upgrades, where the results were
often inferior, the upgrade to XP replaces almost everything. and normally
works very well. And it's much easier and faster.



Moreover if the upgrade results in problems, you can always change your mind
and do a clean installation, and you've lost very little.



Just make sure you are prepared for the clean installation if you have to do
it (have backups of whatever you need) and then try the upgrade.