upgrading a computer from 98 ->xp and 2k -> xp

[MrDudeMan]

i am doing work for a person and she needs xp installed on her laptop which has windows 98 and her PC which has 2k. if i just install the OS, will all of the programs still work and will it cause anything to be unusable?

if i install it on the laptop, will everything previously on the laptop still function properly in windows xp and will everything on the PC in windows 2000 still work in xp? i cant afford to lose any of her information and i need to know if i should format or not

i know formatting is a way better option, but she really doesnt want that because she doesnt wanna install her 1000000 little programs again..i dont blame her (and i dont want to do it either)

what do you guys think?

 

[owensdj]

MrDudeMan, it's always better to do a fresh operating system install rather than an upgrade, if you care anything about the stability of the system. I know it's a lot of trouble reinstalling and reconfiguring a lot of applications, but it's worth it in the long run.

You can still keep her data even if you wipe out the FAT32 partition(s) and then install XP fresh. You'll have to come up with a way to save her data files until after you get XP installed. If her laptop has a CD burner, you can use that. If it has a network card, you could copy the data to another computer.

 

[johnlog]

In spite of one person saying to not upgrade over your older Windows 98 is not true. I have upgraded from Win ME to Win XP over ME. I have one of the most stable XP Pro's one could ask for. Of course my Win ME was running perfectly. If your older version of Windows does not run correctly then the upgrade over the older version could be problematic.

That is MY experience. I am not going by hear-say as some do. All my programs continue to run perfectly with no problems. Some older 16-bit Windows programs may have to run in compatibility mode but most will run in XP as is.

Some older programs may have to be updated to run better in XP but most updates are free then you should not have to run the updated programs in compatibility mode.

For a laptop computer they usually have special programs for it to sleep. Normal Windows does not include some of those proprietary programs a laptop may need to run as before. I think most of that is built into XP but you may have to manually select those special laptop items.

 

[MrDudeMan]

thanks so far guys....but my real question is, if i install xp over it, will all the data be perfectly intact? may not work in xp, but it wont be lost, right?


thanks!

 

[Derango]

Correct, although I would definitly reccomend doing a format/reinstall to clear out all of the old junk that win9x/ME leaves behind. Just make sure you do a backup first

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

yeah, I'd just backup all of the user data and documents and stuff and do a fresh, clean install of XP on both machines... It's ALWAYS the best way to go, as somebody else said I upgraded from Win2k to WinXP once; it REALLY messed everything up... Could have just been me