Windows XP upgrade question

wageslave

wageslave

CAGiversary!
Me and my girlfriend are going to upgrade my computer from Win 98 SE to Win XP Pro this weekend. Does anybody know if I am going to have to reformat or Fdisk my HD, or will we just be able to overwrite Win 98? I know fresh installs are the best, but it's just a surf / email / mp3 machine so I don't want to blow everything away if I don't have to. I want XP pro so that I can VPN into my computer at work.
 
pretty sure the answer is your files will be fine if you buy the upgrade edition... dont quote me on this since I always use killdisk to wipe my drive clean b4 i install windows. Worst case scenario, install xp on a new partition and u can have both OS's?
 
I would heavily recommend against not reformatting, even though I belive you have to anyways. You will have many program issues and you will have to reinstall many of them anyways. You can also just back up your data, either on CDs or on another HD.
 
Hmmm... I do have a 2 gig partition. Maybe I could move my personal files there and just wipe the main partition.
 
[quote name='wageslave']Hmmm... I do have a 2 gig partition. Maybe I could move my personal files there and just wipe the main partition.[/QUOTE]


my windows xp media center edition takes up about 4 gigs.... I assume xp pro/home would take up about that? Maybe you can just delete your 2 gig partition and make a 4 gig one to just have windows xp on. That way you wont lose a single file... again, im not certain on this, but thats what I would try to do.
 
[quote name='BasketCase1080']my windows xp media center edition takes up about 4 gigs.... I assume xp pro/home would take up about that? Maybe you can just delete your 2 gig partition and make a 4 gig one to just have windows xp on. That way you wont lose a single file... again, im not certain on this, but thats what I would try to do.[/QUOTE]

I think I have 18 gigs on one partition and 2 on the other. I can put XP on the 18 gig partition after I wipe it and just have my MP3s and Pics on the 2 gig partition. I suppose I can burn Cds but I don't want to take the time, plus my burner doesn't always cooperate (one reason I want XP).
 
I think on the upgrade you can run the updater...it should move all your files. Then you can use the system utilities to convert your install to the from FAT32 to NTFS.

I ran the upgrade instead of the full install and it worked fine for me. But yes, a fresh install is usually less prone to errors from legacy software and drivers.
 
Update:

I have XP installed now. Tried to upgrade but after I booted the first time and ran windows update it fucked up and would boot any more. I Deleted the partition, did a fresh install from scratch, downloaded all updates, and no problems since.
 
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