Win98SE to XP

[Guest]

Hi

In the summer I'm going to see a friend in the South of France. I know
that he has a W98 machine with only one partition and everything's in
it.

Let us suppose that he buys a British PC with XP already installed
into one cathedral like partition. How should we proceed to transfer
from one machine to the other, hopefully using Acronis or Ghost 2003?

I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as
slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine.

If I had an XP upgrade disk instead of a new installation one would I
then be able to turn it into a new machine running XP.

What does anybody think. I expect Anna shall have something to say
about this.

Best wishes

Colin

 

[q_q_anonymous]

Hi

In the summer I'm going to see a friend in the South of France. I know
that he has a W98 machine with only one partition and everything's in
it.

Let us suppose that he buys a British PC with XP already installed
into one cathedral like partition. How should we proceed to transfer
from one machine to the other, hopefully using Acronis or Ghost 2003?

I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as
slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine.

If I had an XP upgrade disk instead of a new installation one would I
then be able to turn it into a new machine running XP.

What does anybody think. I expect Anna shall have something to say
about this.

Best wishes

Colin

I have ghost v8, don' recall anything so convenient. Though I guess it
was on there. You want to clone a partition. ideally skip the creating
a single file stage.

It seems Ghost 2003 can do it.
http://www.bay-wolf.com/ghostclone.htm

I can't follow you at all. which "system you're transferring to which".
which is the "new hard drive".
Reading one of the paragraphs, you sound more like an illusionist

You need to clone partitions. if you look at it in that language, it'll
make more sense.

let's look at that paragraph again. Move over david blaine

"> I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as

slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine."

THe key which you ddin't emphasise that would help decrypt your
description, is in the subject "Win98SE to XP" so that's the direction
to look at
see, you asked in the body "proceed to transfer from one machine to the
other". Now we know what you mean.

You have a "britishy" PC running XP
You have a "frenchy" PC running W98



A you could clone frenchy's w98 partition as a new partition on
british.


B you could clone frencys w98 partition onto a new hard drive that
you'll use in britain.

It seems like you intend B. But your way, you'll have to put the old
british HDD back in britishy in order to use it. And if you want french
in british, you gotta put in french instead.

here's another version of B


Check your BIOS, It might be possible to boot off the primary slave or
secondary master/slave.
So you could have both drives in british, and boot off whichever by
selecting which in the BIOS. No changing jumpers or master/slave
position on IDE cable.

use either the 'boot order/sequence' or by disabling the primary
master. forcign it to try booting off primary slave. or some other.

 

[DL]

What an earth or you planning?!
Why do you wish to revert to win98?
Install the old disk as slave and transfer/copy data, reinstall apps on
winxp
Then format slave, after ensuring all data copied.

 

[Anna]

Hi

In the summer I'm going to see a friend in the South of France. I know
that he has a W98 machine with only one partition and everything's in
it.

Let us suppose that he buys a British PC with XP already installed
into one cathedral like partition. How should we proceed to transfer
from one machine to the other, hopefully using Acronis or Ghost 2003?

I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as
slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine.

If I had an XP upgrade disk instead of a new installation one would I
then be able to turn it into a new machine running XP.

What does anybody think. I expect Anna shall have something to say
about this.

Best wishes

Colin

Colin:
As others have already commented, it's rather puzzling what your precise
objective is in this matter. It really would be helpful if you would start
over and detail exactly what you want to achieve and the reasons behind it.

Is the fact that one computer is "French" and the other is "British"
relevant in terms of whatever your objective is because of differing XP
language editions?

BTW, what's a "cathedral like partition"?
Anna

 

[DL]

large and cavernous?

Colin:
As others have already commented, it's rather puzzling what your precise
objective is in this matter. It really would be helpful if you would start
over and detail exactly what you want to achieve and the reasons behind it.

Is the fact that one computer is "French" and the other is "British"
relevant in terms of whatever your objective is because of differing XP
language editions?

BTW, what's a "cathedral like partition"?
Anna

 

[Guest]

Hi

In the summer I'm going to see a friend in the South of France. I know
that he has a W98 machine with only one partition and everything's in
it.

Let us suppose that he buys a British PC with XP already installed
into one cathedral like partition. How should we proceed to transfer
from one machine to the other, hopefully using Acronis or Ghost 2003?

I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as
slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine.

If I had an XP upgrade disk instead of a new installation one would I
then be able to turn it into a new machine running XP.

What does anybody think. I expect Anna shall have something to say
about this.

Best wishes

Colin

Sorry, I had no idea that my intention was so obscure. I hope that I
do better now.

The win98SE machine is in France and it is old and the HDD is probably
smallish and not got long to go. Let's call this the old PC.

I anticipate that my friend (Australian) will buy a British PC because
of the keyboard etc, though I don't much care if it is French. Let's
call this the new PC.

I am familiar with cloning.

I have not worked before on a transfer from Win98SE to XP without
doing a fresh install..

I was suggesting cloning the HDD from the old PC onto the new HDD in
the new PC and for that I was proposing connecting the HDD from the
new PC to the old PC as slave. This would be purely to receive the
O/S and data. Then I thought that I would carry the new PC's HDD
(sneakernet, remember that) to the new PC and install an upgrade of XP
over the Win98SE O/S.

Then install several partitions at my convenience.

" cathedral like" was what I said to Dell when I had to install theiir
replacement HDD for someone. We only had limited time and they wanted
to spend 1½ hours formatting the entire 160Gb HDD. I told them it was
like decorating a cathedral when all we wanted was a little side
chapel big enough to hold the essential O/S and device drivers. 5Gb
would have done it. I could have formatted the rest any day of the
week.

They wouldn't listen so I had to go along with them. The software we
installed represented about the space of a dozen seats in a cavernous
cathedral. All that precious time spent formatting space we didn't
need right then.

HTH.

Colin

 

[Anna]

Sorry, I had no idea that my intention was so obscure. I hope that I
do better now.

The win98SE machine is in France and it is old and the HDD is probably
smallish and not got long to go. Let's call this the old PC.

I anticipate that my friend (Australian) will buy a British PC because
of the keyboard etc, though I don't much care if it is French. Let's
call this the new PC.

I am familiar with cloning.

I have not worked before on a transfer from Win98SE to XP without
doing a fresh install..

I was suggesting cloning the HDD from the old PC onto the new HDD in
the new PC and for that I was proposing connecting the HDD from the
new PC to the old PC as slave. This would be purely to receive the
O/S and data. Then I thought that I would carry the new PC's HDD
(sneakernet, remember that) to the new PC and install an upgrade of XP
over the Win98SE O/S.

Then install several partitions at my convenience.

" cathedral like" was what I said to Dell when I had to install theiir
replacement HDD for someone. We only had limited time and they wanted
to spend 1½ hours formatting the entire 160Gb HDD. I told them it was
like decorating a cathedral when all we wanted was a little side
chapel big enough to hold the essential O/S and device drivers. 5Gb
would have done it. I could have formatted the rest any day of the
week.

They wouldn't listen so I had to go along with them. The software we
installed represented about the space of a dozen seats in a cavernous
cathedral. All that precious time spent formatting space we didn't
need right then.

HTH.

Colin

Colin:
Is there any reason why you couldn't install the "old" HD that contains the
Win98SE OS in the "new" machine and clone the contents of the old HD over to
the new HD? And then simply perform an XP Upgrade install over that Win98SE
system? Would not that process achieve your objective? But I'm sure you're
savvy enough to know this so I fear I must be missing something here.

"Cathedral-like partition". I've got to remember that!
Anna

 

[DL]

Personnally I'd simply install the old HD as slave and copy data across then
install any apps on the winxp.
After which I would format the old HD using NTFS.
Cloning I believe in your situation is a v.bad idea, not only would you have
to install winxp drivers but you would be cloning years of 'crap' and
stuffing your new PC with years og collected junk.
Not withstanding win9* would be a downgrade.
As for cloning then upgrading to winxp it defeats the object and in any case
you might only have a restore cd or maybe an OEM cd that you cannot use to
upgrade.

You NEED to rethink

 

[Guest]

Hi

In the summer I'm going to see a friend in the South of France. I know
that he has a W98 machine with only one partition and everything's in
it.

Let us suppose that he buys a British PC with XP already installed
into one cathedral like partition. How should we proceed to transfer
from one machine to the other, hopefully using Acronis or Ghost 2003?

I imagine that I should take out the new hard drive and jumper it as
slave. Connect it to the W98 system and clone it to the slave. Then
transfer the drive to the new system and jumper it as master. It
should then run as a W98 machine.

If I had an XP upgrade disk instead of a new installation one would I
then be able to turn it into a new machine running XP.

What does anybody think. I expect Anna shall have something to say
about this.

Best wishes

Colin

hi

My friend in France phoned me today. It seems that the machine in
question is a laptop running "Windows 2003". I think he means 2000.
He actually wants to keep all the dross. Because he's a friend I want
to catch it all before it falls over.

Even so there would be no downgrade, would there? The level would be
the same until the upgrade, but nothing would go down.

As for the device drivers surely that will be taken care of in the XP
upgrade exercise.

I should be happy to safely clone it all to the new HDD then do an
upgrade to XP.

With regard to Anna's message - I was just checking with you to see if
the clone followed by the upgrade is feasible. If he finishes with
the same as before but with XP and on a safe machine I think he'll be
delighted.

Colin

 

[DL]

If its new its unlikely to be win2k as that o/s was retired by MS some time
ago.

The drivers will NOT be taken care of when installing xp/win2k
If its a new laptop its entirely possible that there wont be win9* drivers
Laptops use drivers that are specific to the laptop manu.

You are planning a disaster!, either network the PC's or copy data to
another media before restoring to new pc.
Its highly likely that the laptop will only come with a restore disk, which
means you will not be able to upgrade.
When he said windows 2003 its quite possible he meant Office 2003, which may
be only a *trial* version.
Its also possible that some of the win9* apps will not run on winxp

 

[Guest]

Good heavens!

I honestly don't want to offend you since you have gone out of your
way to be helpful when I wanted help but ...

The old and wonky machine is the laptop. I think that you mean that
after transferring the cloned drive to the new machine the old drivers
won't be much good. That's something to consider. Many thanks.

If its new its unlikely to be win2k as that o/s was retired by MS some time
ago.

The drivers will NOT be taken care of when installing xp/win2k
If its a new laptop its entirely possible that there wont be win9* drivers
Laptops use drivers that are specific to the laptop manu.

You are planning a disaster!, either network the PC's or copy data to
another media before restoring to new pc.

I plan to use an external HDD that I keep for these exercises. It's
connected via USB and has its own PSU. I haven't yet checked that the
old laptop has USB.

Its highly likely that the laptop will only come with a restore disk, which
means you will not be able to upgrade.

It's the new computer that we have to consider and I'm hoping that he
will build it himself or allow me to. I'll buy an upgrade rather than
a fresh install. I hope that caters for the problem.

When he said windows 2003 its quite possible he meant Office 2003, which may
be only a *trial* version.
Its also possible that some of the win9* apps will not run on winxp

Oh dear, I don't think that this will happen. Everything that I use
is downwards compatible.

Please don't be put off by my reply. If there's a weasel in the plan
I'd rather know about it.

Best wishes

Colin

 

[DL]

no offence taken, just your plans will likely lead to a catastrophe
and I'm not sure you followed that the new laptop will allmost certainly not
come with a version of the new o/s that will allow you to upgrade any cloned
win98 installation, also laptop drivers are specific to the laptop manu and
are NOT win default drivers.

 

[DL]

PS follow part of your origonal plan
Use Acronis / Ghost to copy *data* ONLY

 

[Colin Bearfield]

The old machine is the laptop, the new machine is the desktop. It may
not come with any O/S but for our purposes suppose that it is XP.

I have not met this precise circumstance before but similar ones I
have met several times.

To cater for the possibility that XP is pre-installed, I should take
an image of the O/S and store it safely.

Attaching the new HDD to the laptop using the external HDD case, I
should then clone the HDD using Ghost having first partitioned it
several times. Now it is setup for a laptop with the old O/S on it.
True, the device drivers won't be for a desktop but that hardly
matters because the vital components don't need them.

Moving the new HDD out of the external HDD case and connecting it to
the desktop, I shall have some form of display on the monitor, the CD
drive will run the upgrade disk, and the O/S will be changed to the XP
and drivers that will run nicely on the desktop.

All the data will be intact but it will be safely backed up just in
case.

Please tell me - am I still heading for catastrophe. My friend earns
his living from computers, I can't afford catastrophe.

Colin

 

[Anna]

The old machine is the
laptop, the new machine is the desktop. It may
not come with any O/S but for our purposes suppose that it is XP.

I have not met this precise circumstance before but similar ones I
have met several times.

To cater for the possibility that XP is pre-installed, I should take
an image of the O/S and store it safely.

Attaching the new HDD to the laptop using the external HDD case, I
should then clone the HDD using Ghost having first partitioned it
several times. Now it is setup for a laptop with the old O/S on it.
True, the device drivers won't be for a desktop but that hardly
matters because the vital components don't need them.

Moving the new HDD out of the external HDD case and connecting it to
the desktop, I shall have some form of display on the monitor, the CD
drive will run the upgrade disk, and the O/S will be changed to the XP
and drivers that will run nicely on the desktop.

All the data will be intact but it will be safely backed up just in
case.

Please tell me - am I still heading for catastrophe. My friend earns
his living from computers, I can't afford catastrophe.

Colin

Colin:
I take it that since the source HD is in a laptop it's no longer feasible to
remove that HD and install it in the new desktop computer, although it could
easily be done through a simple 2 1/2" - 3 1/2" adapter. So that you're now
interested in employing a (presumably) USB external HD to effect the
transfer.

You can install *any* HD in the external enclosure. It need not be the HD
from the new desktop computer. As a matter of fact in this situation it
probably *would* be best to use a different HD rather than the new desktop's
HD. You would then clone the contents of the laptop's HD to the USBEHD,
remove the HD from its enclosure and install it in the new desktop computer.
Then clone the contents of that drive to the new computer's HD and install
an upgrade of the XP OS on that newly-cloned HD.

(I have no idea of what you mean when you state "Attaching the new HDD to
the laptop using the external HDD case, I should then clone the HDD using
Ghost having first partitioned it several times." Why are you talking about
"partitioning" here? A clone is a clone is a clone. There is no need to
partition nor format the destination HD prior to the cloning operation. I'm
reasonably sure you know that so perhaps I misunderstand what you're driving
at).

In any event, after the cloning operation to the new HD and the subsequent
XP upgrade, you will in all likelihood need to install whatever drivers are
necessary, presumably obtained from the motherboard's installation CD. But
of course you know that.

There should be no "catastrophe" awaiting you. The process is relatively
straightforward and I see no reason why it shouldn't go without a hitch. You
will, of course, have the original laptop HD still intact as well as a
cloned copy of that laptop's HD on the HD that was installed in the external
enclosure. So you would have reasonable backup security in the event things
go awry.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Anna, I do value your advice.

Colin:
I take it that since the source HD is in a laptop it's no longer feasible to
remove that HD and install it in the new desktop computer, although it could
easily be done through a simple 2 1/2" - 3 1/2" adapter. So that you're now
interested in employing a (presumably) USB external HD to effect the
transfer.

I could borrow such a gadget from a friend but the guy with the
computer in France is nervous about it. he's a good programmer but
doesn't put his hands on the hardware.

You can install *any* HD in the external enclosure. It need not be the HD
from the new desktop computer. As a matter of fact in this situation it
probably *would* be best to use a different HD rather than the new desktop's
HD. You would then clone the contents of the laptop's HD to the USBEHD,
remove the HD from its enclosure and install it in the new desktop computer.
Then clone the contents of that drive to the new computer's HD and install
an upgrade of the XP OS on that newly-cloned HD.

I could and would do this if it helps.

(I have no idea of what you mean when you state "Attaching the new HDD to
the laptop using the external HDD case, I should then clone the HDD using
Ghost having first partitioned it several times." Why are you talking about
"partitioning" here? A clone is a clone is a clone. There is no need to
partition nor format the destination HD prior to the cloning operation. I'm
reasonably sure you know that so perhaps I misunderstand what you're driving
at).

The external HDD case is what you call the enclosure. Same thing. I
am talking about partitioning at this point because of you. I have
used Acronis True Image but it gobbles up the entire target drive and
I don't want that. You have said that Ghost 2003 will partition to
another partition which is better. Just assuming it is a popular
160Gb HDD I'd make the C: partition about 20Gb and and create several
more. That's the way I like it. In this sense a clone is not aclone,
it depends on the cloning software. BootitNG also clones to a
partition.

I maintain that a HDD is like a tall narrow cupboard without shelves -
everything collects in a heap on the floor. Only with shelves
(partitions) does it become really useful. Have you ever tried cloning
a 200Gb partition? Somebody at a computer show was complaining that
he'd corruped the software. This was the same chap who claimed that
folders were just as good as partitions.

In any event, after the cloning operation to the new HD and the subsequent
XP upgrade, you will in all likelihood need to install whatever drivers are
necessary, presumably obtained from the motherboard's installation CD. But
of course you know that.

There should be no "catastrophe" awaiting you. The process is relatively
straightforward and I see no reason why it shouldn't go without a hitch. You
will, of course, have the original laptop HD still intact as well as a
cloned copy of that laptop's HD on the HD that was installed in the external
enclosure. So you would have reasonable backup security in the event things
go awry.
Anna

Thanks, Anna. I don't want to ruin this guy's livlihood. He's nervous
enough already. That's one reason why he has let the old laptop run
down and down. He wants to avoid risks to it.

very best wishes and fingers crossed.

Colin

 

[DL]

You will only be able to upgrade to winxp if you have a full retail version
of winxp.
If you have an OEM or restore disk you will not be able to do so

 

[Anna]

Thanks, Anna, I do value your advice.

Colin responds...
I could borrow such a gadget from a friend but the guy with the
computer in France is nervous about it. he's a good programmer but
doesn't put his hands on the hardware.


Colin responds...
I could and would do this if it helps.

Colin responds...
The external HDD case is what you call the enclosure. Same thing. I
am talking about partitioning at this point because of you. I have
used Acronis True Image but it gobbles up the entire target drive and
I don't want that. You have said that Ghost 2003 will partition to
another partition which is better. Just assuming it is a popular
160Gb HDD I'd make the C: partition about 20Gb and and create several
more. That's the way I like it. In this sense a clone is not aclone,
it depends on the cloning software. BootitNG also clones to a
partition.


Colin responds...

I maintain that a HDD is like a tall narrow cupboard without shelves -
everything collects in a heap on the floor. Only with shelves
(partitions) does it become really useful. Have you ever tried cloning
a 200Gb partition? Somebody at a computer show was complaining that
he'd corruped the software. This was the same chap who claimed that
folders were just as good as partitions.

Thanks, Anna. I don't want to ruin this guy's livlihood. He's nervous
enough already. That's one reason why he has let the old laptop run
down and down. He wants to avoid risks to it.

very best wishes and fingers crossed.

Colin

Colin:
Yes, I now understand your objective re partitioning the HD in the USB
external enclosure. If that's what you want to do there's no problem here.
Just make sure you create the partition that will ultimately serve as the C:
partition large enough to accommodate what you can foresee as future needs.
20 GB seems a trifle low to me but you (and your friend) are the best judges
of that.
Anna

 

[q_q_anonymous]

Thanks, Anna. I don't want to ruin this guy's livlihood. He's nervous
enough already. That's one reason why he has let the old laptop run
down and down. He wants to avoid risks to it.

very best wishes and fingers crossed.

Colin

I'd also be nervous with you at my computer, talking about
"partitioning a partition" and using mad analogies as a substitute for
clear technical explanations.

 

[q_q_anonymous]

I'd also be nervous with you at my computer, talking about
"partitioning a partition" and using mad analogies as a substitute for
clear technical explanations.

actually, you're worse than that, your phrase was "partitioning to
a partition"

You talk like somebody that doesn't know what he's talking about. I
really don't think you should be risking somebody else's data.

Why don't you tell your friend to ask somebody else that has more
experience in doing this sort of thing? It's best for both of you.