I’m in the process of building a new computer system for myself. My wife will get my current machine. I’ll be taking her current machine, taking what parts I can from it and retiring it.
I’m going to need an OS for my new machine. The machine I’m giving to my wife has XP home, which I like a lot more than Win 98. The machine that is being retired has Win 98.
I’m wondering if I should buy the XP upgrade for my new machine or if I would just be better off buying the full XP package. The price difference is one hundred dollars. If I just have to put an original win 98 cd in momentarily during the install to prove I have it (and thus qualify for the upgrade) the upgrade seems to be the way to go. but if i have to completely install windows 98 on my new machine and then install xp on top of it, that seems like a real pain.
Has anyone had any experience with this?
I just installed XP on my friend’s old computer last night. We did a full install instead of an upgrade. I say go with the full formtat/install. You’ll avoid the future problem of having to dig up the Win98 cd to reinstall as well as avoid any other weirdness that could possible occur from doing an update from an old OS. Also, with the full install, you’ll be able to format your disk to NTFS which is better at file recovery and doesn’t fragment as easily as FAT32 (at least that was my understanding of it. I’m sure you could google for the differences). Be sure to post back if you run into any problems.
Isn’t it possible to do a wipe and fresh install from the XP upgrade CD, only inserting the 98 CD to prove that you have it?
If not, I’d steer clear of it and get the full version because, although it was a fairly decent OS, 98 will have accumulated a great deal of garbage over the years and there’s no point in dragging this along with you to your new machine.
NTFS also overcomes some of the limitations of Fat32 - 4GB max file size, for example - not a limitation you’d think you might run into every day, but if you’re authoring your own DVDs, you will.
XP includes a drive conversion utility to switch (one way only) from Fat32 to NTFS without losing data.
Yes, that’s the only difference between the upgrade and full - you’ll have to insert a qualifying media CD before the process will begin. Windows 95 (I think), 98, 98SE, ME and 2k all count, so if you have the old CDs hanging around and can remember not to huck them, that’s the option to go for.
Right. If you already have XP Home, just buy the upgrade. It’s the same as the full version. You will be prompted for the XP Home disc during the installation. You will NOT have to install the old version on the PC before using the upgrade version. I’ve done this twice already with no problems (when I changed my hard drives). Don’t forget to immediately install all the Windows updates like SP2, security updates, etc.
That’s right Mangetout, I forgot about that. Doing any decent audio or video project would easily hit that 4 Gig limit.
Also remember that if you get the full install, you won’t have to worry about losing the old OS cd. Through that thing in the garbage.
For the upgrade path (meaning you have an installed OS with files you want to keep, etc. moving to the new OS), you’re right, 2k is only upgradable to XP Pro.
If you’re installing XP Home fresh (a clean install) and just need qualifying media to get the install started, then as this site notes, any of Windows 95, 98, ME, NT or 2K will work.
BTW, the ‘upgrade’ CD will have no problem formatting your partition as NTFS if you want it to.
:smack: Throw that thing in the garbage.
Yes you are correct. In fact if Win98 is already on the PC the upgrade will see it on the hard disk and not require you to insert the Win98 CD at all. This is true even if you boot from the XP CD and do a reformat.
I know this because I did it last night.