WinXP OEM to Vista

[RScotti]

I know I am early on this but it is bothering me.
I have a Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on a HP Pavilion A1440N computer and want to upgrade
to Vista Home Premium when it comes out but have two questions:

1-When I upgrade how do I get updates for my OEM drivers? I tried the Vista Upgrade Advisor and it
said I had to get some of the drivers from the manufacture but where they are OEM the manufacture
doesn't have them I am referring to mainly my video card NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE and
Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection.

2- Where I have an OEM version can I purchase the upgrade or do I need the full version?
I want to do a clean install and won't have the OEM on my drive.
I don't have a CD but I do have a Recovery Partition but don't know if Windows can confirm the
upgrade requirements?

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[AJR]

RScotti - at this stage do not panic - wait for the finalized requirements
for the home editions of Vista. I obtained updated Vista drivers from the
NVIDIA site.

 

[Travis King]

Also, the upgrade advisor is only in beta, and trust me, it's not very
accurate yet. Also, according to NVIDIA's website, they already have
drivers for that specific video card you mentioned for Vista, so you'll be
fine and you should be able to run all the experiences of Vista, including
Aero Glass.

 

[RScotti]

2- Where I have an OEM version can I purchase the upgrade or do I need

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[Dave B.]

See inline

What about my second question?

Upgrade will work, however, see below

The install requires either an installed O/S or an original CD to confirm
eligability, a recovery partition will not work.

 

[RScotti]

Thanks Dave you saved me about $100.00.
From whet I seen in the Vista N/G's I will have to wait to about July or August since Vista seems to
still need work and will need time to fix it since MS isn't likely to have a Beta 3

See inline



Upgrade will work, however, see below


The install requires either an installed O/S or an original CD to confirm
eligability, a recovery partition will not work.

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The newsgroups are extremely unreliable when it comes to making judgments
about where the product will stand at rtm. All the posters are 150 builds
behind where the product is today, much less where it will be on launch day.
All you are reading about amounts to how bad Vista was when build 5384
released months ago.

 

[Donald L McDaniel]

See inline



Upgrade will work, however, see below


The install requires either an installed O/S or an original CD to confirm
eligability, a recovery partition will not work.

However, many "recovery partitions" include software which will allow
you to create an OEM disk, which may or may not work.

See your manufacturer's documentation.

NOTE, however, that not ALL "OEM" disks will work to use a Microsoft
Upgrade disk.

The OEM disk MUST have an \i386 folder. It MUST also be directly
bootable into the XP installer file. If it boots into a third-party
installation file, it more than probably won't work.

So, IF your OEM disk is a so-called "FULL" or "Generic" OEM disk, it
should work (I've never had one fail before).

Don't count on the third-party OEM disks (such as so-called "restore"
disks) to work, however.

==

Donald L. McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread.
==========================================================

 

[RScotti]

Thanks, I didn't know that but there is one person Chad Harris who seems to be up to date and from
his links that he provides it looks like I said.

The newsgroups are extremely unreliable when it comes to making judgments
about where the product will stand at rtm. All the posters are 150 builds
behind where the product is today, much less where it will be on launch day.
All you are reading about amounts to how bad Vista was when build 5384
released months ago.

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[RScotti]

However, many "recovery partitions" include software which will allow

you to create an OEM disk, which may or may not work.
See your manufacturer's documentation.

I looked at the files on the 1st disk of the Recovery Partition and not sure what files are needed
to make that disk. There are a lot of Win51 files but are only about 15 bites each. The is a I386
file with 1.55 GB and a Preload with 925 MB?

Do you know what to look for?

NOTE, however, that not ALL "OEM" disks will work to use a Microsoft
Upgrade disk.

The OEM disk MUST have an \i386 folder. It MUST also be directly
bootable into the XP installer file. If it boots into a third-party
installation file, it more than probably won't work.

So, IF your OEM disk is a so-called "FULL" or "Generic" OEM disk, it
should work (I've never had one fail before).

Don't count on the third-party OEM disks (such as so-called "restore"
disks) to work, however.

==

Donald L. McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread.
==========================================================

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Chad and I take different sides of the "Is the glass half full or is the
glass half empty?" debate.

All I can add is that the tone and content of the Beta chats (TechBeta chats
with the individual product teams from MS) is that the push right now is for
quality, quality, quality; not fix it, fix it, fix it. They apparently
genuinely believe that the issues we read about in here have now long been
fixed. I hope so. They say that this newsgroup is like a trip back in time
for the MSFT folks who browse it from time to time. They also say that the
active bug list has been in the hundreds for some time now, not the
thousands it was at the time 5384 released. None of those bugs are
showstoppers by their definition but they all are apprehensive that
something completely unforeseen will rear its ugly head. If I remember
right the author of The Mythical Man-Month stated that IBM's OS 360 never
achieved better than 1000 active bugs at any one time. The point came when
one fix would just cause another bug.

 

[RScotti]

Hi Colin,

Well if your right I won't have to wait 6 months to buy it like one of his authors said in:
http://www.longhornblogs.com/robert/archive/2006/07/31/Windows_Vista_Needs_a_Beta_3.aspx

Chad and I take different sides of the "Is the glass half full or is the
glass half empty?" debate.

All I can add is that the tone and content of the Beta chats (TechBeta chats
with the individual product teams from MS) is that the push right now is for
quality, quality, quality; not fix it, fix it, fix it. They apparently
genuinely believe that the issues we read about in here have now long been
fixed. I hope so. They say that this newsgroup is like a trip back in time
for the MSFT folks who browse it from time to time. They also say that the
active bug list has been in the hundreds for some time now, not the
thousands it was at the time 5384 released. None of those bugs are
showstoppers by their definition but they all are apprehensive that
something completely unforeseen will rear its ugly head. If I remember
right the author of The Mythical Man-Month stated that IBM's OS 360 never
achieved better than 1000 active bugs at any one time. The point came when
one fix would just cause another bug.

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti