Sanity check - WinXp --> Win 8 upgrade

[davelpg]

Purchased the $40 Win8 upgrade and it is now on my WinXp netbook. Learned I cannot make bootable media w/XP, but this doesn't seem to be a show stopper.

What I would like to do is purchase a SSD, then clone my existing HDD that has WinXP installed (along with the Win8 upgrade stuff), to the new SSD then run the Win8 install from the SSD.

Make sense? Am I missing something?

TIA

 

[ViRGE]

That makes sense. Just keep in mind that the XP -> Win8 upgrade is effectively a clean install; it keeps your personal files and that's it.

 

[davelpg]

Thanks for the reply ViRGE.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Couldn't you just do a clean install and migrate your files yourself, or doesn't the upgrade allow that? Without the bother of cloning your XP to the new SSD.

 

[ViRGE]

Couldn't you just do a clean install and migrate your files yourself, or doesn't the upgrade allow that? Without the bother of cloning your XP to the new SSD.

With the registry trick he could definitely pull that off.

 

[lakedude]

Does your Netbook meet W8 min-sys-req?

 

[davelpg]

Does your Netbook meet W8 min-sys-req?

I believe it does, Upgrade Assistant listed no h/w issues and I know that all the apps need to be reinstalled. It also has 1368 x 768 resolution, not common on a netbook.

 

[Carson Dyle]

With the registry trick he could definitely pull that off.

What requires the 'registry trick'? Is it the activation?

 

[ViRGE]

What requires the 'registry trick'? Is it the activation?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2279344&highlight=

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE

Change "MediaBootInstall" from "1" to "0"

 

[Carson Dyle]

Does that trick permit the online validation to work, or does it completely bypass it?

In another thread I asked whether when using non-upgrade media for a clean install, the upgrade product key would work, and someone said 'yes'. Would that installation scenario also require this trick in order to validate?

 

[ViRGE]

Does that trick permit the online validation to work, or does it completely bypass it?

It allows online validation to work. Basically a single key controls whether Windows thinks it's an upgrade install or a clean install.

In another thread I asked whether when using non-upgrade media for a clean install, the upgrade product key would work, and someone said 'yes'. Would that installation scenario also require this trick in order to validate?

Upgrade media and clean install media are functionally identical. Whether you need to use the registry trick or not depends solely on whether you're doing an upgrade or a clean install with an upgrade key.

 

[davelpg]

OK, the new SSD (Crucial M4 128GB) should be arriving today, so I'll probably get started on the Win8 upgrade tonight. New question/s (see alignment below) came up.

I plug in (via USB) the brand new SSD to netbook that is running WinXP. Have SATA/USB cable.

I run cloning s/w - Acronis or Clonezilla or other. Clone HDD to SSD. HDD offset currently = 1024

After cloning, should have bootable WinXP on SSD

Remove HDD and install SSD in netbook.

Boot SSD then run Win8 upgrade.

What about alignment on the SSD? Anything else to worry about?

TIA

 

[davelpg]

Spent the weekend with the new SSD and cloning WinXP to it. Used Acronis TI 2010 and it worked - was able to boot WinXp on the SSD. So far, so good.

Then I noticed the alignment wasn't correct, so I got Gparted and followed the instructions to get to a 2048 offset. End result was an unbootable SSD. Then tried Clonezilla to get WinXP from HDD to SSD. 8 hours later (yes 8) I was again left with an unbootable SSD.

Tried Acronis again and now have a bootable WinXp SSD but still with alignment problem.

My goal is to upgrade the SSD from WinXp to Win8 (purchased the $40 upgrade), but I'd rather have an aligned SSD to start the upgrade.

Now a question comes to mind. Does anyone know if the SSD gets aligned during the Win8 upgrade process? If yes, that would be (real ) nice. Anyone know **for sure**?

TIA

 

[davelpg]

I can say *for sure* that the WinXP --> Win8 upgrade process on a SSD does NOT align the SSD, despite being told by Microsoft support that it does.

After the upgrade I was able to find a (free) utility that aligned the SSD.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/products.html <-- Home Edition is free and it worked for me.