Upgrading to Windows XP

[tmspry]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean and
operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of Windows XP
Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to upgrade
from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an install of the
Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in the DVD drive and the
upgrade recognize it from there without doing a full install of ME? I know
I have done this with upgrading Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would work
for an operating system upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

Thanks,
tmspry

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean
and operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of
Windows XP Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to
upgrade from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an
install of the Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in
the DVD drive and the upgrade recognize it from there without doing
a full install of ME? I know I have done this with upgrading
Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would work for an operating system
upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

Thanks,
tmspry

I believe you can just boot from your XP disc, and when prompted for a
qualifying upgrade product, insert the ME disc. You shouldn't need to
install ME first.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean and
operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of Windows XP
Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to upgrade
from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an install of the
Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in the DVD drive and the
upgrade recognize it from there without doing a full install of ME? I know
I have done this with upgrading Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would work
for an operating system upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

The requirement to use an upgrade version is to *own* a previous
qualifying version's installation CD (with an OEM restore CD, see
below), 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 when
prompted to do so, and follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite
normally and quite legitimately.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean and

operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of Windows XP
Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to upgrade
from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an install of the
Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in the DVD drive and the
upgrade recognize it from there without doing a full install of ME? I know
I have done this with upgrading Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would work
for an operating system upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

Thanks,
tmspry

You won't need to install ME first, just boot the XP Upgrade CD and it
will prompt you for previous OS CD (in your case, ME), pop that in,
it's will do it's check, and continue.

I would recommend slipstreaming SP3 into your upgrade CD so that when
you do a fresh install you'll be at SP3 level from the get go. You can
use the free program NLite to do it.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean and
operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of Windows XP
Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to upgrade
from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an install of the
Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in the DVD drive and the
upgrade recognize it from there without doing a full install of ME? I know
I have done this with upgrading Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would work
for an operating system upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

Thanks,
tmspry

It's possible to perform a clean installation of WinXP using the
Upgrade CD, provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier
OS. Your WinME CD will likely serve for this purpose.

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.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

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killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Lil' Dave]

My brother has just acquired a Dell PC that needs to be wiped clean and
operating system installed. He purchased an upgrade version of Windows XP
Home Edition.

My question -- I have a version of Windows ME that I can use to upgrade
from. When I install the upgrade, do I first have to do an install of the
Windows ME or is it possible to have the ME disk in the DVD drive and the
upgrade recognize it from there without doing a full install of ME? I
know
I have done this with upgrading Photoshop, but wasn't sure if it would
work
for an operating system upgrade.

Any advice about upgrading would be appreciated. I have never done an
upgrade before but I have done a system install many times.

Thanks,
tmspry

Like previous retail MS OS windows upgrades, you only need the qualifying
installation media for install of that previous OS. During the initial part
of the XP installation, you only need to remove the XP install CD and
insert the qualifying ME installation CD when prompted for qualifying
product. Don't concern yourself about reinsertion of the XP install media.
You will be prompted to reinsert that when its done checking the qualifying
product. You do not need to install the previous OS.

An OEM restoration CD of ME is not a qualifying product in that specific
installation scenario.