Upgrading 2k to XP on dual boot system

[Pete B]

Hi

I have a dual boot system with W98 on C:, W2k on D:. I have purchased WinXP
upgrade to upgrade the 2k to XP but leave the W98 untouched. Is it as simple
as putting the CD in while booted into W2k and selecting "upgrade", just as
one does when upgrading a single boot system or is there more to it to
ensure that the correct drive/OS is upgraded? Does it ask which drive you
want to upgrade?

I have only upgraded single boot systems before.

TIA

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi

I have a dual boot system with W98 on C:, W2k on D:. I have
purchased
WinXP upgrade to upgrade the 2k to XP but leave the W98 untouched.
Is
it as simple as putting the CD in while booted into W2k and
selecting
"upgrade", just as one does when upgrading a single boot system or
is
there more to it to ensure that the correct drive/OS is upgraded?
Does it ask which drive you want to upgrade?

I have only upgraded single boot systems before.

TIA

--
Pete

Please take my dog out twice to e-mail

---------------------------------------------------------------
The views expressed above are entirely those of the writer and
do not represent the views, policy or understanding of any
other person or official body.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, it should be just that simple. If you select upgrade, it
will upgrade the OS currently "active," so be sure to start from
within Win2K.

--

Bruce Chambers

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both at once. - RAH

 

[Michael Pardee]

It will probably work right off the bat - mine was almost
identical - but can cause specific problems down the
line. No big deal if you know about it.

When you upgrade from W2K, the Windows folder is the same
as it was under W2K (WINNT). This is where the boot.ini
file will point to when you boot to XP. If you reformat
and install XP cleanly, the Windows folder is WINDOWS.
Trying to boot XP will then fail, with a
message "...HAL.dll not found." Editing boot.ini to refer
to WINDOWS instead of WINNT at that time will fix that.

I recommend a clean install of XP, instead of just
running the install as an upgrade. It is quite a bit more
work now, but be prepared to do the work at some point.
The upgrade distorts XP conventions quite a bit to adapt
to the W2K way of doing things. Don't even think of using
the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to replace hard
drives in a formerly W2K system. Been there, done that. I
gave up after spending a day trying to get any of the
users back to normal.

Pay close attention to the drive information if you want
to run it as an upgrade. Your concern about installing to
the right location was heavy on my mind - I unplugged the
second drive to ensure I targeted the correct one. That
led to other issues when I reconnected it, but they
weren't terrible. If I had done a clean install I
wouldn't have had any problem - the installer would not
have warned about an existing OS, and I would have known
it was cool.

Mike

 

[Pete B]

It will probably work right off the bat - mine was almost
identical - but can cause specific problems down the
line. No big deal if you know about it.

When you upgrade from W2K, the Windows folder is the same
as it was under W2K (WINNT). This is where the boot.ini
file will point to when you boot to XP. If you reformat
and install XP cleanly, the Windows folder is WINDOWS.
Trying to boot XP will then fail, with a
message "...HAL.dll not found." Editing boot.ini to refer
to WINDOWS instead of WINNT at that time will fix that.

I recommend a clean install of XP, instead of just
running the install as an upgrade. It is quite a bit more
work now, but be prepared to do the work at some point.
The upgrade distorts XP conventions quite a bit to adapt
to the W2K way of doing things. Don't even think of using
the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to replace hard
drives in a formerly W2K system. Been there, done that. I
gave up after spending a day trying to get any of the
users back to normal.

Pay close attention to the drive information if you want
to run it as an upgrade. Your concern about installing to
the right location was heavy on my mind - I unplugged the
second drive to ensure I targeted the correct one. That
led to other issues when I reconnected it, but they
weren't terrible. If I had done a clean install I
wouldn't have had any problem - the installer would not
have warned about an existing OS, and I would have known
it was cool.


Mike

Thanks both for the replies, all sounds OK then. Thanks Mike for answering
another question I may have had before I needed to ask it

That would have been:

If I decide to do a complete reinstall of XP in place of 2k now or later,
what, if anything, do I need to edit in the "Boot.ini" file to ensure all
goes OK and there is no reference to the old 2k setup.