upgrading to XP

[Mark Loth]

I have two machines, one with 98SE and the other with ME.
I am looking to upgrade some hardware on one, and upgrade
to XP Home on both. I've already confirmed system
requirements and operating system upgradability. Question
is, if I ever have to format the hard drive and do a clean
install, can a retail-purchased version of XP Home
(upgrade) do this? I thought something I had read said it
would, as long as it was a retail purchase versus a
cheaper OEM type version. Thanks for any insight.

 

[purplehaz]

Yes the retail upgrade xp cd will do a clean install and/or a upgrade
install.
Oem cds only do clean installs.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You will need to get two licensed copies of XP. The retail license is only
for ONE PC. Microsoft does sell additional licenses for XP Home, but you
have to them directly from them.

Y.

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

You will need to get two licensed copies of XP. The retail license
is only for ONE PC. Microsoft does sell additional licenses for XP
Home, but you have to them directly from them.

In fact you will probably get one cheaper by going to a discount vendor and
buying another copy....

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I have two machines, one with 98SE and the other with ME.
I am looking to upgrade some hardware on one, and upgrade
to XP Home on both. I've already confirmed system
requirements and operating system upgradability. Question
is, if I ever have to format the hard drive and do a clean
install, can a retail-purchased version of XP Home
(upgrade) do this? I thought something I had read said it
would, as long as it was a retail purchase versus a
cheaper OEM type version. Thanks for any insight.

First of all, just in case you don't understand this, be aware
that you need *two* copies of XP--one for each machine.

Yes, you can do a clean installation with the upgrade version as
long as you have an installation CD of previous qualifying
version to show it. The requirement to use an upgrade version is
to *own* a previous qualifying version's installation CD (not an
OEM restore 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.

 

[Mark Loth]

-----Original Message-----
In


First of all, just in case you don't understand this, be aware
that you need *two* copies of XP--one for each machine.

Yes, you can do a clean installation with the upgrade version as
long as you have an installation CD of previous qualifying
version to show it. The requirement to use an upgrade version is
to *own* a previous qualifying version's installation CD (not an
OEM restore 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.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

.
Thanks for the help. Yes, I fully intend to purchase one

copy for each machine. However, it sounds like I need
one "upgrade" and one "full" version since the ME machine
only has a restore CD and would not facilitate a clean
install if so needed. Can I purchase the "full" version
and upgrade the ME machine, or will I have to format and
start fresh?

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Thanks for the help.

You're welcome.

Yes, I fully intend to purchase one
copy for each machine.

Good.


However, it sounds like I need
one "upgrade" and one "full" version since the ME machine
only has a restore CD and would not facilitate a clean
install if so needed. Can I purchase the "full" version
and upgrade the ME machine, or will I have to format and
start fresh?

Yes, the full version will do either an upgrade or a clean
installation. However be sure that you buy a real *retail* full
version, not the considerably cheaper OEM version, which many
people confuse with the full version. The OEM version will *not*
do an upgrade.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have two machines, one with 98SE and the other with ME.
I am looking to upgrade some hardware on one, and upgrade
to XP Home on both. I've already confirmed system
requirements and operating system upgradability. Question
is, if I ever have to format the hard drive and do a clean
install, can a retail-purchased version of XP Home
(upgrade) do this? I thought something I had read said it
would, as long as it was a retail purchase versus a
cheaper OEM type version.

A retail CD of the previous system will do fine as evidence of a
qualifying system if you show the CD to the XP install program during
setup.

You need to make a distinction between the 'qualifying product', in the
shape of the previous OS as installed, and the CD taken as evidence of
your having this product at the time of a clean install. That is where
a lot of OEM supplied CDs do not work, because they do not contain
normal files, but some image of the initial installed system, to be
restored, even though the product, when restored, does qualify.

In such a case, the approach for a clean install with an upgrade CD has
to be to Run the CD from the restored old system. Enter Install,
change Upgrade to New Install, then when it asks you to confirm where,
you can hit ESC and get the chance to select the current partition,
delete it, and create a new RAW one, going on to format it as part of
the setup

By that time the eligibility will have been satisfied because it was a
qualifying system it ran from.