WIN98SE to XP

[floppybootstomp]

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I intend to upgrade from WIN98 to XP. I have a WIN2K CD so I assume I'll be OK to use that CD to verify the upgrade.

At the moment I have a single 30Gb IBM HDD on my KT7 RAID IDE3, divided into 25Gb for Windows and 5Gb for Linux Mandrake 8. I have a helluva lotta stuff and files on the HDD and all is running smoothly. (I do have most of it backed up on CD's but I'm thinking of the time involved here :))

Because of that, I'd like to upgrade, rather than go for a clean install.

So my questions are: Will the upgrade work OK?

And: If I do upgrade, will the new OS use the FAT32 file system or automatically upgrade to NTFS?

And if it does retain the FAT 32 system, will it really make any noticeable difference against using NTFS?

Just testing the waters chaps, a bit nervous, know what I mean?

Anybody can help - TIA :D

[tim]

I believe that the upgrade routes will have been tested very very extensively. MS want everybody to upgrade the old 98/ME machines and do it with out major incident! So that should be ok, there are wizards to help it along and options to transfer the settings of the previous system over to the new XP installation.

You will be given the choice of changing to NTFS during the upgrade process, going with NTFS would be beneficial. FAT/FAT32 is old technology that needs to be buried along with 95/98/ME.
The result of conversion from FAT32 to NTFS on top of the upgrade will cause severe fragmentation! Use Diskeeper 7 to sort the mess out when you have finished (it's on the 'various' CDs I sent you).

IMPORTANT :

You must completely uninstall anything that is not XP compatible before the upgrade, especially things that work at low level such as Anti-Virus software, Firewalls and Ad blockers. Failure to do this may result in an upgraded system that will not boot!

Now to the fly in the ointment : I have no idea what will happen to the dual boot part of the system. XP may take over and booting into Linux will be lost! It may well be intelligent enough to keep the dual boot so that XP and Linux are able to be run. I just don't know! I suspect that the XP setup will not like LILO or PQBOOT very much (not MS products are they!).

Good luck!

PS Did you get both parcels?

[TheHeretic]

keep in mind that the NTFS file systeem is not compatible 100% of the time with Linux. [least not to my best recollection of it]

If I be wrong than someone please correct my error.


TheHeretic

[muckshifter]

Any Windows upgrade version can be clean installed by anyone who already has a disk for a qualifying version of windows. Early in the installation process, setup will ask you to insert a disk to prove ownership of a qualifying product.

:hat:

[floppybootstomp]

Tim: You really should drive that truck a little more carefully. When you flew past my house yesterday and hit that pot-hole in the road, two parcels flew clean off and onto my front lawn ;) (did you not get my PM?).

As for the upgrade, BootMagic 6 & Partition Magic 6 are handling my boot up sequence and disk partitioning. I have the several partitions needed for Linux within my 5Gb partition, formatted as ext2 file system. I suppose the question is whether XP will recognise and retain PM/BM 6?

I think I'll go with the NTFS file system and delete the proggies such as Fix-It Utilities 4; Zone Alarm Pro & Ad-Aware then re-install them.

I think maybe it's a case of 'suck it and see' although if it comes down to it, I could always format c: but I don't really want to.

Perhaps also it's worth upgrading to BM/PM 7.0 before the install, maybe that's compatible with XP.

Last night I upgraded this machine from WIN2K (using FAT32) to XP and it went mostly without a hitch: Gigabyte 586S2 Socket 7 MB; AMD K6-2 350 @ 366; 192MB no-name 133 RAM; SB16 PCI; Voodoo 3 2000 PCI; Fujitsu 4.2Gb 5400 HDD.

As WIN2K was already running as FAT32, I presume that's why I didn't get the prompt to change to NTFS during upgrade. Only two snags I had were 1) It didn't like any Logitech Software, and 2) It wouldn't recognise my internal 56K V90 PCI Modem.

I deleted all Logitech software prior to upgrade, then downloaded the XP compatible software and the mouse now works OK with XP.

As for the modem, I had to install the driver for the standard 56K modem that's on the XP CD from device manager. That's working OK as well (I'm on it right now).

What has been frustrating as hell is that the wife type person decided to varnish the living room floor and I haven't been able to access my Abit machine for the last few days :cryol: And everything's covered in sawdust :cryol: :cryol:

I should be able to access it from tomorrow though, so I'll let you all know how I get on. Mucks, Tim, The Heretic, thanks very much for your input, if nothing else, this is going to be interesting... :hat:

[muckshifter]

Welcome to the "Club" Flops, it certainly is a bonus to have a "play" machine that can be used for such purposes. :D

Now I'm more interested in the living room floor, a pickie would be nice. :hat:

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by muckshifter


Now I'm more interested in the living room floor, a pickie would be nice. :hat:

Hmm, I don't have a digital camera, got no films for either Polaroid camera, aha! Just found me's a 35mm and a roll of film.

Thoughtfully, the other half finished one half of the room first, so all the furniture, and me back on my Abit machine are in this half :)

First coat of varnish down on 2nd half of room, 2 more coats to go, I'll take a coupla pics and post 'em later in the week. Might even post a pic of my 'puter setup :)

Now I'm back on this machine (after taking about an hour to remove every last trace of sawdust) I'm going to fit my new cooler first before the OS change. I'm going to have to take the motherboard out (groan). Oh well :)

[tim]

It just didn't say how many parcels you got. You got all 12 CDs, that's good.

PCI modems are a real pain in the arse 'cos they are at best 'controllerless' and at worst 'software only'.
This in turn means that you need OS specific drivers to use a PCI modem.

The older ISA modems had all the works on the card so you only had to talk to the COM port that it had mapped on to, no actual drivers were needed as all OS's have COM port drivers built-in.

I still swear by my USR Flash V.90 ISA modem, one of the best damn modems ever made and the sole reason I got a mobo with an ISA slot!

Anyway, I digress. You will find Partition Magic 7 Pro on the 'various' CDs I sent you. As I said before I don't know about the interaction between XP and your boot manager.

As always, make sure you have a good backup :eyes: and a few of these :beer:

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks Tim. I'm back! Cooler install went OK :) Can't believe the difference. From 51C with the Silverado (under load) to 37C with this Alpha. Bloomin' heck! :D

The rig I was talking about above was my 'messin' about' setup, this one, my main one, ma babeee, :) has a 3Com 56K external message modem on COM1, so shouldn't be any probs there I hope. I'll install PM/BM 7.0, start backing up and uninstalling stuff and report in in a coupla days or so.

Fingers crossed! :confused:

Oh, and a few of these as well >>>> :beer: :beer: :beer: