Travel Technology - Upgrading - W2K to XP Pro

It's time to do a fresh install on my system. W2K has run very nicely for 2 years since the last install, and I now have an XP Pro + SP2 installation CD in my hot little hands.

I would really appreciate some tips and tricks with migrating, the order of installation of new programs - firewall and antivirus first!! - etc etc.

My initial thought was to upgrade first, see if the hardware all still works, then do a fresh install - but XP Pro needs to be a fresh install.

Thanks!

Fresh install is the only way for me.

After saving your critical data elsewhere, "scratch" the disk (I run fdisk to repartition), format, install XP, install Office, apply SP2, update via microsoft.com (several times will be required to get fully updated), and then enjoy. Note, this will take several hours on most machines.

Results: Speed, purity, speed, and speed.

Get familiar with your hardware (sound card, graphics card, keyboard, etc.) because each of those may have software to help them work better. For instance, your computer may crash all the time if graphics card software isn't installed. Fortunately, all the drivers you need are free on the Internet.

The #1 most important piece of advice I can give you, especially if this is a laptop, is to make sure you have the driver for your Internet (a.k.a. NIC, Ethernet) port. If all else fails and you can't get on the Internet, you'll spend hours trying to get your stuff fixed.

Manufacturers' installation CDs are usually helpful if Windows can't recognize a device by itself.

IIRC, the XP installation CD has a utility that will check for hardware compatibility issues before you start the installation process.

Speaking as an IT executive, I also recommend a fresh install. That is is the only way we "upgrade" any Win2k machines in my company (though most get "upgraded" by being replaced at end of depreciation period).

There is a thread from December/January with a number of good suggestions I received when asking about upgrading from Win98 to XP. Since search is currently down, you will need to scan for it, but it should be in this forum and had entries in December and January.

Here's a link to the thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=379075) by TRRed. :)

FewMiles
Moderator

Folks, appreciate the tips.

IIRC, the XP installation CD has a utility that will check for hardware compatibility issues before you start the installation process.

I got a very impersonal message that this utility doesn't work when W2K is installed. Great.

NIC advice particularly useful, although the wireless card less than 12 months old, so should PnP happily. I hope!!

Also upgraded to 768Mb which should keep things sweet.

Does Win2K offer data migration tools like XP?

I used that the other day for a friend (Fresh install is the only way to go, you will THANK yourself down the line) and use the settings and documents transfer wizard.

It worked really nice. I just ran the wizard, saved the data to a CD rom, and then did the fresh install. (fdisked the drive first) and reinstalled the data. Everything was right were it should be, down to the desktop settings.

mostly unattended too

I like to run Ghost on a machine prior to wiping it. I save the image on another machine just in case I later find that I missed moving something. As others have noted, wiping and freshly installing is really the only way to go here.

My initial thought was to upgrade first, see if the hardware all still works, then do a fresh install - but XP Pro needs to be a fresh install.

Thanks!


Although I agree with the general recommendation that a clean install is preferred, however you should be able to install XP Pro as an upgrade ... I believe it's an option on the installer.

I actually did an upgrade last week to play around and no problems so far. I did only go to SP1 tho... since SP2 gave me problems when it came out and I'm still wary about installing SP2

All of my professional peers swear by SP2.

And my fam does too since it does a great job of popup blocking! :)

Fresh install is the only way for me.

Results: Speed, purity, speed, and speed.

Took about 1.5 hours total to:

Delete partition, format, install XP
Windows update - 13.7 Mb
Norton Anti-Virus + Firewall
MS Office + SP3, restore Outlook .pst
Copy files back from DVD

What didn't work

The wireless card - needed driver (Netcomm)
Login to the WAP - XP requires the full Network Key, W2K only needed the password. Solved that by login on to WAP with the cable, and cutting/pasting the Network Key
The Creative webcam (USB) - needed driver

What I forgot to save:

My passwords file - D'Oh!! - but I can recreate...

Windows XP is a sheer joy to use, and I've never had such a fuss-free installation. Thanks again for your suggestions and advice.

And man - it flies!!

Duuuudde,,
get RID of Norton AV, that will slow the system immensly.
Pickup the latest AVG anti virus for free, or maybe panda.

IMHO