Win XP Pro to Home Premium "Upgrade"

[Guest]

I have a PC that I have had for several years. It runs a copy of XP Pro SP2
and is "Vista" ready in terms of HDD, RAM, Processor and Graphics card.

I was ready to go out and get a copy of Home Premium Upgrade, as it has the
features I want, and just read I would have to do a clean install. This is
essentially a reformat of HDD and start from scratch, right? That's wacky. I
want to UPGRADE.

I don't want the extra expense of getting Vista Ultimate as it has bells and
whistles I dont want, but that seems to be the only way I can UPGRADE and get
Media Player/DVD Burning functionality built-in....

....AM I reading this right? An UPGRADE from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium is
really a rebuid of my PC??????

Rgds

 

[Frankster]

You are 100 percent right on every count. You're gonna have to deal with it.

-Frank

 

[pete]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx

You could try actually deleting the XP pro installation and files under
Documents and settings as well as all of the XP boot files
If there was almost nothing left of XP pro Vista just might install properly
into the "old" XP Pro
directory...............................................Seeing as Vista
needs to boot from the CD anyways.
peter

 

[Guest]

Ah, but now I read in March 2007 Australian PC USer Magazine that a "Clean"
install is done from WITHIN the Windows XP Desktop, in an INSTALL WINDOWS
SETUP OPTIONS box that includes Upgrade as an Option. So I dont actually have
to reformat my HDD at the beginning (dos) and boot into the DVDrive. It's
done from a setup window when I am already in Windows XP....???

...but it goes on to say "Note that if you're performing a true clean
install, having booted from the DVD, at this point you should click the Drive
Options link and then click to Format..." IF YOU'RE PERFORMING A TRUE
CLEAN INSTALL ????? You can fudge that????

And what is Microsofts rationalle in having Media Player/DVD Burning in
Vista Premium and NOT being able to get that as an upgrade from XP Pro??

Rgds n tks

 

[Chris]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx


You could try actually deleting the XP pro installation and files under
Documents and settings as well as all of the XP boot files
If there was almost nothing left of XP pro Vista just might install
properly into the "old" XP Pro
directory...............................................Seeing as Vista
needs to boot from the CD anyways.
peter

I am not sure what you are suggesting, but it sounds dangerous or wrong.

He will just have to do a backup of some sort of all of his data and
then do a clean install.

 

[Chris]

Ah, but now I read in March 2007 Australian PC USer Magazine that a "Clean"
install is done from WITHIN the Windows XP Desktop, in an INSTALL WINDOWS
SETUP OPTIONS box that includes Upgrade as an Option. So I dont actually have
to reformat my HDD at the beginning (dos) and boot into the DVDrive. It's
done from a setup window when I am already in Windows XP....???

..but it goes on to say "Note that if you're performing a true clean
install, having booted from the DVD, at this point you should click the Drive
Options link and then click to Format..." IF YOU'RE PERFORMING A TRUE
CLEAN INSTALL ????? You can fudge that????

And what is Microsofts rationalle in having Media Player/DVD Burning in
Vista Premium and NOT being able to get that as an upgrade from XP Pro??

Rgds n tks

Home Premium is a downgrade from XP Professional. You have to run setup
from within XP, and you will have to do a clean install. Vista will
create a Windows.old folder that will (probably) have all of your data
files. But you still need to do a backup.

 

[Frankster]

You can "see" what you "want to see". But the bottom line is that you will
not be doing an "in-place" upgrade from XP Pro to Vista Home<anything>.
Period.

-Frank

 

[Guest]

tks Chris. Appreciate your answer. Still, as a new O/S that all I really need
it for is Internet, MS Office and CD/DVD playing/burning, Vista Home Premium
seems to be an ideal "downgrade' for me, but one I cant get!! I gotta go the
Ultimate....

Or maybe I am just reading things wrong.....IF I BUY the UPGRADE VISTA HOME
PREMIUM I CAN, FROM within WINDOWS XP, run a CLEAN INSTALL - right? IF so,
that seems OK...I just dont want to have to reformatt myself manually from
DOS as a start....not that competent!!

Rod

 

[Frankster]

A clean Vista install, even with a format, is never from DOS anymore. The
format (if any) is built into the installation. It's been this way since
Windows NT! The last time I think you could format in DOS was Windows
95/98.

-Frank

 

[Lang Murphy]

What on earth are you talking about? No one should have to delete any part
of XP prior to upgrading to Vista. Bad advise, imho.

Lang

 

[Lang Murphy]

Well... this may be where a lot of folks get thrown off the path.

A Vista install run from within the existing OS is an "upgrade."

A Vista install run from booting from the Vista DVD is a "clean install."

Confusion results from the fact that -all- Vista installs are, compared to
previous Win OS installs, "clean." Even when doing an "Upgrade," Vista, to
put it in layman's terms, pushes your stuff off to the side, installs
itself, then pulls back your stuff, meaning apps and docs and whatever.

You don't have to reformat unless you want to. That would only be in a Vista
"Clean" install in which you booted from the Vista DVD and WANT to reformat
your drive for a "really clean" install. It's not hard, if that's your
worry. Back up, back up, back up. Nuff said.

My best advice to you is: due diligence means investigating all issues,
e.g., hardware drivers for your legacy hw, PRIOR to upgrading to Vista. If
one doesn't "do" due diligence prior to installing Vista, then one has no
one else to blame when one's <insert HW device or SW app here> doesn't work
in Vista. I'm running Vista on a "work" PC here. (Used to have it running on
two boxes but had to free one up for other work chores). I like Vista. But
I'm not installing it on either of my personal PC's just yet because they
both require HW upgrades to do what I want them to do in Vista. (One needs a
new video card to get Aero and one needs a new TV tuner card.) Point being,
don't throw a hissy fit if you dive into Vista uninformed and it causes
issues with your existing HW/SW.

Lang

 

[Dweebs]

Well my Vista install over my original XP installation resulted in a
non-recoverable system crash. I ended up having to re-install XP, reinstall
SP1, then reinstall Vista on a reformatted disk. Found out later I could've
installed a trial Vista (vista without the CD Key) and loaded Vista from
within itself, but that's another story, it still means installing
opertating systems (or non-operating systems!) twice.

Regds
Dweebs

 

[Tom]

The last time I think you could format in DOS was Windows 95/98.

-Frank

Windows ME (worst OS ever made by MS)

 

[Tom]

I have a PC that I have had for several years. It runs a copy of XP Pro SP2
and is "Vista" ready in terms of HDD, RAM, Processor and Graphics card.

I was ready to go out and get a copy of Home Premium Upgrade, as it has
the
features I want, and just read I would have to do a clean install. This
is
essentially a reformat of HDD and start from scratch, right? That's wacky.
I
want to UPGRADE.

I don't want the extra expense of getting Vista Ultimate as it has bells
and
whistles I dont want, but that seems to be the only way I can UPGRADE and
get
Media Player/DVD Burning functionality built-in....

...AM I reading this right? An UPGRADE from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium
is
really a rebuid of my PC??????

Rgds

Personally, if your PC is that old, you are probably running some apps and
programs that may not/or won't work in Vista, so an upgrade (if you wanted
it) could be a mess when finished. If you want Vista that badly, your best
method would be to do a clean install then load your previous apps to see if
they would work. If you download and use the Vista Upgrade Advisor (which I
think is suspect in devious marketing tactics), it will list programs that
may have issues in Vista.

I did exactly what you want, and overall, it took some time to get thing
reinstalled, but I had to do a few upgrades of programs from the versions I
had in XP Pro. All in all this took around 6 hours tops over a few days. You
could do it in one sitting if you want. I had to get a newer release of Nero
specifically for Vista as one example. To add about the remark regarding
the Upgrade Advisor, when I ran it on XP Pro, I had Encarta Student 2006 on
the system, it said it was incompatible with Vista. I was ready to get the
next release this summer. I decided to install it, and it works perfectly.

Now, if you decide to do a clean install, I found there are profile (like I
had in Firefox) and setting that get stored in the Windows.old file that you
can copy over into the same profiles installed on Vista, this saved me a lot
of time too.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

tks Chris. Appreciate your answer. Still, as a new O/S that all I really
need
it for is Internet, MS Office and CD/DVD playing/burning, Vista Home
Premium
seems to be an ideal "downgrade' for me, but one I cant get!! I gotta go
the
Ultimate....

Then it sounds like you didn't really need XP Pro, XP Home would have
sufficed. There are features in XP Pro that are missing from Vista Home
Premium, thus the need to do a clean install rather than an in-place
upgrade.

Or maybe I am just reading things wrong.....IF I BUY the UPGRADE VISTA
HOME
PREMIUM I CAN, FROM within WINDOWS XP, run a CLEAN INSTALL - right? IF so,
that seems OK...I just dont want to have to reformatt myself manually from
DOS as a start....not that competent!!

Yes, that is correct. It will walk you through the process so no need to
worries. Once the install is complete your old XP install will be in a
folder called Windows.old. Once you are sure you have all data restored in
your Vista install and want to keep that, you can delete the Windows.old
folder.

 

[Guest]

I am in a similar situation to Rod, and was holding off on getting Vista Home
Premium untill i could get an answer on this very same question. Just to
clarify, you CAN boot the Vista upgrade from within XP pro without doing a
"clean" install? Is there some instructions anywhere that outline the
process of upgrading from within your current OS which, as stated on Vista
Website, requires a "clean install". What are the consequences of doing
this kind of install. Will all my old data and programs be lost?

 

[Lang Murphy]

Yeah, one more reason to do a clean install...

Lang