Windows ME to Windows 2000 Pro

[Moms]

I have had Windows ME for a couple of years now and have
had nothing but headaches. Would like to install Windows
2000 Pro OS, but do not want to reinstall other software
nor loose access to files. Is 2000 Pro considered an
upgrade to ME? What do I need to do to make the switch?
Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Win2K is certainly the better OS, by far. But it's not
technically possible to perform an upgrade from WinMe to Win2K.
You'll have to back up your data and start with a clean hard drive.

Windows Me to Windows 2000 Upgrade Is Not Supported
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;272627.

Before proceeding, though, you'd better take a few minutes to
ensure that there are Win2K device drivers available for your PC's
specific components. There may not be, if the PC was specifically
designed for WinMe. Have you made sure the PC is capable of
supporting Win2K? This information will be found at the PC's
manufacturer's web site, and on Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility
List (http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp). Also bear in mind
that computers designed for, and sold with, WinMe very often fail to
meet Win2K's much more stringent hardware quality requirements.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Jonathan Maltz [MS-MVP]]

An upgrade from Me to 2000 is unsupported because Me was released after 2000

I've heard that Windows 2000 works quite poorly after the upgrade, if it's
successful at all

--
--Jonathan Maltz [Microsoft MVP - Windows Server]
http://www.imbored.biz - A Windows Server 2003 visual, step-by-step
tutorial site
Only reply by newsgroup. If I see an email I didn't ask for, it will be
deleted without reading.

 

[Dan Seur]

Don't even try to do an ME-->W2k upgrade. It's suicidal.

Copy all your "mustn't lose" files from the C: (ME partition)
to some other partition so they'll be safe.

Then format the C: partition. NB: for W2k to be happy for
any length of time its partition should be 4-5GB.

Then install W2k to the newly formatted partition. This will
be a clean install.

Then install your applications, and tell them where their
data is.

Another NB: W2k mainboard and device drivers are unique;
make sure you update them during or immediately after the
install. You may have to download them from various
manufacturers' websites (if they're too recent to be
included in the very large W2k collection on the CD),
and it would be a very good idea to do that while you still
have ME able to get to the internet. Put them on that other
partition too, in an easy-to-find place; you may have to
tell W2k where they are.

Once you've got W2k up and running, you'll be very pleased
you made this decision. A wise investment! Good luck.

 

[George Hester]

Tried taking a Gateway Laptop that was shipped with Windows ME and install Windows 2000 Professional. The video was restriced to 16 colors and the Windows 2000 CD did not have the compatible Windows 2000 display drivers. The touchpad was also inoperable. The sound card was also not functioning. Since to get the hardware up to the requirements of Windows 2000 would basically require a whole brand new computer, I gave up on that idea.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Didn't Gateway offer Win2K drivers for that particular model? And
if not Gateway, did you try the various component's manufacturers?


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


Tried taking a Gateway Laptop that was shipped with Windows ME and
install Windows 2000 Professional. The video was restriced to 16
colors and the Windows 2000 CD did not have the compatible Windows
2000 display drivers. The touchpad was also inoperable. The sound
card was also not functioning. Since to get the hardware up to the
requirements of Windows 2000 would basically require a whole brand new
computer, I gave up on that idea.

 

[XS11E]

Greetings --

Win2K is certainly the better OS, by far. But it's not
technically possible to perform an upgrade from WinMe to Win2K.
You'll have to back up your data and start with a clean hard drive.

Windows Me to Windows 2000 Upgrade Is Not Supported
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;272627.

True it's unsupported but you CAN upgrade, I believe. It requires
deletion or renaming of only one file in the Windows folder and I'm
darned if I can recall the name of that file? Anyone?

I understand that file is what tells any Windows installer what version
of Windows is on the machine, renaming it allows weird things such as
installing Win95 on WinME machines, etc.

 

[Guest]

If you were successful in upgradeing from ME to 2000 pro I could use your help

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Since Windows ME was released AFTER Win2000 was relesed, there is no upgrade
path from ME to 2000. Some people do it anyway, usually with very mixed
results.

If you want a stable, rock solid installation of Win2000 then install it
from scratch. Never upgrade from Win9x - there are far too many compromises
involved.

If you were successful in upgradeing from ME to 2000 pro I could use your

help

 

[Guest]

Well then I have a question for you Bruce.....I have an HP pavilion that came with ME, I recently installed 2000 pro on it, I decided to do the upgrade so as not to lose my files. The only issues I came across were updating drivers, thankfully we have 2 computers connected to the internet so I was able to gain access to any drivers that were needed that were not already on hand. Went to HP and got what I needed and all is fine. It has been roughly 2 weeks and no problems as yet. Was this a fluke or am I setting myself up for unforseen problems later? Now, did same thing on in-laws compaq and the only issues are the keyboard easy access buttons are not working and when online the pictures all show as little red x's (they were in a hurry to get it back or I would have seen that little issue before they got it). Other than that there has been no problems in over a week. I have been attempting to find a way for the keyboard buttons to work although so far nothing. Any ideas would be great.
Thanks
Care

----- Bruce Chambers wrote: -----

Greetings --

Win2K is certainly the better OS, by far. But it's not
technically possible to perform an upgrade from WinMe to Win2K.
You'll have to back up your data and start with a clean hard drive.

Windows Me to Windows 2000 Upgrade Is Not Supported
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;272627.

Before proceeding, though, you'd better take a few minutes to
ensure that there are Win2K device drivers available for your PC's
specific components. There may not be, if the PC was specifically
designed for WinMe. Have you made sure the PC is capable of
supporting Win2K? This information will be found at the PC's
manufacturer's web site, and on Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility
List (http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp). Also bear in mind
that computers designed for, and sold with, WinMe very often fail to
meet Win2K's much more stringent hardware quality requirements.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Gauging by many the messages posted in this group, "upgrades" from WinME to
Win2000 are likely to generate unusual and intriguing problems that are
difficult if not impossible to resolve. There are two reasons:

a) WinME belongs to the Win9x class of operating systems (based on DOS),
which is radically different from Win2000 (based on the WinNT engine). Any
upgrade from one to the other has to make lots of compromises.

b) When Microsoft released Win2000, no work had been performed on creating
an upgrade path from WinME.

Given the choice, I would never upgrade Win98 to Win2000, even if the
upgrade was supported. I like my operating systems to be rock-solid. An
unsupported upgrade would be totally out of the question.

You might have some interesting times ahead.

Well then I have a question for you Bruce.....I have an HP pavilion that

came with ME, I recently installed 2000 pro on it, I decided to do the
upgrade so as not to lose my files. The only issues I came across were
updating drivers, thankfully we have 2 computers connected to the internet
so I was able to gain access to any drivers that were needed that were not
already on hand. Went to HP and got what I needed and all is fine. It has
been roughly 2 weeks and no problems as yet. Was this a fluke or am I
setting myself up for unforseen problems later? Now, did same thing on
in-laws compaq and the only issues are the keyboard easy access buttons are
not working and when online the pictures all show as little red x's (they
were in a hurry to get it back or I would have seen that little issue before
they got it). Other than that there has been no problems in over a week. I
have been attempting to find a way for the keyboard buttons to work although
so far nothing. Any ideas would be great.