Installing XP Pro Over PS

CompUSA has a deal on XP Pro so it looks like I’ll probably take the plunge and upgrade from the crash- & lockup-prone WinME. Any problems or suggestions? Any issues I should be aware of when doing the upgrade?

Don’t upgrade. Install the full version from scratch.
Compare CompUSA prices to Viosoftware.
http://www.viosoftware.com
Vio has the full version of XP Pro for $133.
Vio is a 100% legitimate company licensed by Microsoft to sell OEM software. I’ve ordered several things from them, including XP. It comes with all the stickers, serials, keys, etc. Just doesn’t have the box or manual. Customer service is excellent. Shipping is free.
Buy a new hard drive and start with a clean slate. Pop the old hard drive into a portable drive holder and access as needed.
Can usually find a good selection of portable hard drive cases at good prices at CompGeeks:
http://www.compgeeks.com

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web design, print design, photography

Don’t upgrade. Install the full version from scratch.

And enable the firewall as soon as possible, certainly before connecting to the Internet.

Andrew

I believe that as with Photoshop – the upgrade is exactly the same as the full programme only cheaper!!
The major benefit of the clean install is that you are given the opportunity to convert your hard drive to NT partitioning as opposed to the now outdated FAT system (not sure what ME runs on – I suspect FAT).
The NT system is considered preferable to FAT.
Plus it is generally better to do a clean install with an operating system (clears all the dross out of the registry etc)
Clearly though you are going to have a problem trying to save all your settings and documents to CD, as it seems there is always something essential you forget to save!
With Hard drives now relatively cheap (

(LauraK) wrote in
news::

CompUSA has a deal on XP Pro so it looks like I’ll probably take the plunge and upgrade from the crash- & lockup-prone WinME. Any problems or suggestions? Any issues I should be aware of when doing the upgrade?

Don’t upgrade. Install the full version from scratch.
Compare CompUSA prices to Viosoftware.
http://www.viosoftware.com
Vio has the full version of XP Pro for $133.
Vio is a 100% legitimate company licensed by Microsoft to sell OEM software. I’ve ordered several things from them, including XP. It comes with all the stickers, serials, keys, etc. Just doesn’t have the box or manual. Customer service is excellent. Shipping is free. Buy a new hard drive and start with a clean slate. Pop the old hard drive into a portable drive holder and access as needed. Can usually find a good selection of portable hard drive cases at good prices at CompGeeks:
http://www.compgeeks.com

Why the clean install over the upgrade? I did some research and found some people claiming issues with FAT32 vs. NTFS. Is this why I should go for a clean install? Are there other issues?

I’ll check out the retailer.

"Andrew Morton" wrote in
news:41a46fc7$0$11039$:

Don’t upgrade. Install the full version from scratch.

And enable the firewall as soon as possible, certainly before connecting to the Internet.

Andrew

I wouldn’t use the built-in since I have (and am happy with) ZA. Any issues I need to be aware of?

"Harry Limey" wrote in
news::

I believe that as with Photoshop – the upgrade is exactly the same as the full programme only cheaper!!
The major benefit of the clean install is that you are given the opportunity to convert your hard drive to NT partitioning as opposed to the now outdated FAT system (not sure what ME runs on – I suspect FAT). The NT system is considered preferable to FAT.
Plus it is generally better to do a clean install with an operating system (clears all the dross out of the registry etc)
Clearly though you are going to have a problem trying to save all your settings and documents to CD, as it seems there is always something essential you forget to save!
With Hard drives now relatively cheap (

On 2004-11-24, 3B wrote:

"Harry Limey" wrote in
news::

I believe that as with Photoshop – the upgrade is exactly the same as the full programme only cheaper!!
The major benefit of the clean install is that you are given the opportunity to convert your hard drive to NT partitioning as opposed to the now outdated FAT system (not sure what ME runs on – I suspect FAT). The NT system is considered preferable to FAT.
Plus it is generally better to do a clean install with an operating system (clears all the dross out of the registry etc)
Clearly though you are going to have a problem trying to save all your settings and documents to CD, as it seems there is always something essential you forget to save!
With Hard drives now relatively cheap (£20 odd for a 20 gig) it might be worthwhile installing a second hard drive and setting up a dual boot with XP on the new drive? I did that myself and it was relatively painless – and having done so I then reformatted the original drive.
Harry

ME is FAT 32. I did some surfing and discovered people claiming some issues when upgrading to NTFS from FAT. That in itself is enough to make me think twice about the upgrade. Your comments regarding the registry make good sense as well.

I’ll continue to look into it a bit more, but I’ll probably follow your (and Laura K’s) advice and go for the clean install and the new hdd.
Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

Take a look at "www.aumha.com" which is a private "windows support" website. There is an item that says the FAT32 may not be formatted correctly, partition table-wise; a link to an app to correct the FAT32 end/beginning cylinder (or something like that) BEFORE changing to NTFS. Probably also applies to formatted partitions by the DOS diskettes for intalling windows.

I’ve found it doesn’t hurt to run the app as an insurance; some people say don’t "fix" if it isn’t broke but, for me, when it breaks, it is too late, especially I think that is one of the reasons why the drive letters get messed-up for some.

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 22:49:19 GMT, 3B wrote:

Why the clean install over the upgrade? I did some research and found some people claiming issues with FAT32 vs. NTFS. Is this why I should go for a clean install? Are there other issues?

There are so many issues that it would take a very long time to list them all. In fact I even saw an MS guy advise that you shouldn’t upgrade from anything other than NT and should always do a completely clean install from the WIn9x series. Amongst the issues where problems will occur are the registry, the filing system and the drivers. In other words, everything you need to run the computer properly. 🙂

—

Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

AFAIK, ZoneAlarm will be better than the built-in firewall but I have no experience of using ZA on XP SP2.

Andrew

wrote in message

On 2004-11-24, 3B wrote:

"Harry Limey" wrote in
news::

it’s all true, don’t do it. Upgrading from ME to Xp will give you grey hairs and an unhappy life!

Also avoid the previously mentioned table conversion (fat to ntfs). Once you’ve backed up all your stuff use a w98 boot disk to delete the partition(s) and load XP onto a ‘raw’ disk. It works far better that way.

B

Noo…..

Buy the upgrade, i had ME which is a load of toss and upon installing aslong as its a legal version of ME and you have the ME disk it asked me for it because it couldnt find ME on my HDD (doesnt matter if its a recovery) it lets you select install from fresh and format in NTFS or reformat in FAT32…Just make sure you reformat because you don’t need the junk from ME causing you problems

Believe me i’ve done this and it works. Make sure you backup everything and make a startup floppy disk incase you need to load ME again

Hope that helps buddy