What is the easiest way to upgrade hard drive?

[Guest]

I have a laptop that originaly ran on Win 98. I upgraded to XP Pro, with
upgrade cd. I would like to replace the original 12Gb drive with a 40Gb
drive, but the upgrade CD won't install XP unless there is a previous
operating system on the drive.
should I :
1. use the original win 98 system disks to install 98 on the new drive then
run the xp upgrade?
2. use the back up utility, to copy the XP install from the old drive, then
restore to the new drive?
3. something else entirely?
The old drive will be reformatted and used as a removeable storage device.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| I have a laptop that originaly ran on Win 98. I upgraded to XP Pro, with
| upgrade cd. I would like to replace the original 12Gb drive with a 40Gb
| drive, but the upgrade CD won't install XP unless there is a previous
| operating system on the drive.
| should I :
| 1. use the original win 98 system disks to install 98 on the new drive then
| run the xp upgrade?
| 2. use the back up utility, to copy the XP install from the old drive, then
| restore to the new drive?
| 3. something else entirely?
| The old drive will be reformatted and used as a removeable storage device.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a laptop that originaly ran on Win 98. I upgraded to XP Pro,
with upgrade cd. I would like to replace the original 12Gb drive with
a 40Gb drive, but the upgrade CD won't install XP unless there is a
previous operating system on the drive.
should I :
1. use the original win 98 system disks to install 98 on the new
drive then run the xp upgrade?
2. use the back up utility, to copy the XP install from the old
drive, then restore to the new drive?
3. something else entirely?
The old drive will be reformatted and used as a removeable storage
device.

Here's the thing.

Personally - I dislike upgrade installs. I much prefer the clean
installations, and if you have qualifying media (your old Windows 98 CD) -
then you can perform a clean install straight from your Upgrade version of
Windows XP.

However - if everything you have is working properly for you and you just
want more space - I suggest getting some imaging application (Symantec Ghost
maybe) and imaging your hard drive onto an external device and then
restoring it to the new drive.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I have a laptop that originaly ran on Win 98. I upgraded to XP Pro, with
upgrade cd. I would like to replace the original 12Gb drive with a 40Gb
drive, but the upgrade CD won't install XP unless there is a previous
operating system on the drive.
should I :
1. use the original win 98 system disks to install 98 on the new drive then
run the xp upgrade?
2. use the back up utility, to copy the XP install from the old drive, then
restore to the new drive?
3. something else entirely?
The old drive will be reformatted and used as a removeable storage device.

It depends on whether you want a fresh install or keep the
existing installation. In the latter case, check
http://winhlp.com/WxMove.htm for information.

A fresh install shouldn't be much of a problem either.

I don't know whether you can prove your ownership of a
qualifying previous operating system by inserting the original
media, rather than having it installed. Perhaps somebody else
can chime in and tell us.

By the way, I never do fresh installs. I always upgrade. My
current installation has been upgraded since Windows 3.0 and is,
of course, regularly shifted to new hardware.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

What if I can't find the original system restore disk (the one with the
operating system W98)?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

What if I can't find the original system restore disk (the one with
the operating system W98)?

Then you are out of luck.
(You can also be out of luck in this situation *if* the CD is a "system
restore" and not a true installation CD - although that is far less likely
in the Windows 98 era..)