upgrading Me to XP Pro compatibitiy questions

[Guest]

Have HP Pav 7920 sold as XP ready.
Unit came with Me, I installed Office 2000 (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access,
Powerpoint), Acrobat 5.0, Calyx Point, and various credit and mortgage lender
interfaces. Removed McAfee and later Norton in favor of CA seecurity programs.

ME support terminiated.

Want to upgrade to XP Pro and preserve existing data bases in Point and
Access plus files in My Doc etc.

Question #1. Can I upgrade from Me to XP Pro with detroying my files?

Question # 2. Will Office 2000 work on XP Pro or do I have to upgrade to
Office 2003 Pro?

Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions, (e-mail address removed)

 

[JS]

Any upgrade run the risk of something going wrong, so make a backup of any
important files.
Office 2000 should work as it was the major office package as XP was being
developed and later released. I'm using Office XP (office 2002) without any
problems.

JS

 

[R. McCarty]

Run the Windows XP Upgrade Advisor. It will note applications
or hardware that might present issues to XP. HP Pavilions have
a track record of incompatible ACPI compliant BIOS. It may be
advisable to update the BIOS flash code before upgrading. Most
times an upgrade will be fine as long as you prep the machine. I
would run AdAware/Spybot and a Chkdsk before starting. As a
precaution, I'd use an Imaging program such as Acronis True Image
to make your current setup 100% protected. If the upgrade falls
down you can recover the Image and proceed from there.

MS XP Upgrade Advisor page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/advisor.mspx

 

[Tom]

Office XP was releeased in early summer 2001, so calling it Office 2002 is a
misnomer. Individual suites, e.g. Word, Excel, etc that were purchased then,
were called by their respective names with 2002 added after them. Office XP
is not Office 2002, nor is there such an Office bundle ever made by MS.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Have HP Pav 7920 sold as XP ready.
Unit came with Me, I installed Office 2000 (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access,
Powerpoint), Acrobat 5.0, Calyx Point, and various credit and mortgage lender
interfaces. Removed McAfee and later Norton in favor of CA seecurity programs.

ME support terminiated.

Want to upgrade to XP Pro and preserve existing data bases in Point and
Access plus files in My Doc etc.

Question #1. Can I upgrade from Me to XP Pro with detroying my files?

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.

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

Question # 2. Will Office 2000 work on XP Pro or do I have to upgrade to
Office 2003 Pro?

Office2K will work just fine on WinXP. If it still meets your needs,
there's no reason to upgrade to a newer version of Office.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

Thank you...
Unfortunately I am marginally computer literate...how do I update BIOS flash
code?

I have CA (Computer Associates?) security suite and suspect that will handle
AdAware/Spybot step and think I have found Chkdsk function.

On Imaging...Acronis you went over my head...what is it..?

My real options are buy/upgrade hardware to HP 5150 or Dell Precision 390
with XP Pro and Office 2003 installed and then try to transfer my files,
settings and links at $1400-1600 or upgade current HP Pav software at $800.
The loss of support on Me caused the loss of HP Pav's CD writer (System can
not find the drive).

Both options are a nightmare for near novice computer type and if upgrading
fails costing far more, $2000+ plus cost of having some one come in a recover
may data.

Comments?

 

[Guest]

Thank you...shortly after MS stopped supporting Me my HP Pav lost contact
with the CD Writer drive...error message CD unsupported. so I can not "back
up my data and it would be about 15 CD's even if I could access the CD Write
drive.
I am hoping upgrading to XP Pro will find/re-connect the Cd writer drive.

Computer Store Sales type are saying "no problem" and trying to sell me
Flash drives, USB drives, etc. The knowledgeable type are saying yes but...
I am not the trusting type...

 

[R. McCarty]

BIOS is the equivalent of a Starter motor for an auto. When you
power on, the BIOS ( CMOS ) is what gets the PC started. It
controls the hardware and after a Self-test hands off control to
the Operating System you have installed. Flashing involves running
a utility to update the code inside the chip. It provides fixes or
updates to the previous code to fix problems or improve the PC's
performance.

Acronis True Imaging is a program that you run that takes a full
disk and creates a exact/compressed copy it. This output (.tib)
can be used to fully restore a PC to it's state when the image is
taken. A very useful tool to protect both your data and the PC
state ( XP & Programs ). Imaging has one downfall, if you use
it and do not have your personal data separated the recovery
will result in loss of personal data back to the date the image was
created. ( Complicated topic ). Images should always be burned
to Optical media and stored off the computer. Hard Drives have
no "permanency" to them, they can and do fail.

Unless your current system doesn't meet your requirements you
should upgrade it. However, I would take some measure to get
the current system either Imaged or backed up before upgrading.

Most small Computer Shops will perform this type of work for
you. If they do not ask if your data is backed up - find another
shop to deal with. AVOID, as Malke says the "Big Store USA"
type of Computer Service centers.

 

[JS]

I know it was not sold as Office 2002, but a number of people refer to it as
such.
Also if you install Office XP and the check the Help/About it will as in the
case of MS Access indicate 2002 and not XP.

JS

 

[Guest]

Thanks...I think I have it...

BIOS is the equivalent of a Starter motor for an auto. When you
power on, the BIOS ( CMOS ) is what gets the PC started. It
controls the hardware and after a Self-test hands off control to
the Operating System you have installed. Flashing involves running
a utility to update the code inside the chip. It provides fixes or
updates to the previous code to fix problems or improve the PC's
performance.

Acronis True Imaging is a program that you run that takes a full
disk and creates a exact/compressed copy it. This output (.tib)
can be used to fully restore a PC to it's state when the image is
taken. A very useful tool to protect both your data and the PC
state ( XP & Programs ). Imaging has one downfall, if you use
it and do not have your personal data separated the recovery
will result in loss of personal data back to the date the image was
created. ( Complicated topic ). Images should always be burned
to Optical media and stored off the computer. Hard Drives have
no "permanency" to them, they can and do fail.

Unless your current system doesn't meet your requirements you
should upgrade it. However, I would take some measure to get
the current system either Imaged or backed up before upgrading.

Most small Computer Shops will perform this type of work for
you. If they do not ask if your data is backed up - find another
shop to deal with. AVOID, as Malke says the "Big Store USA"
type of Computer Service centers.