I thought ME was a 98 OS?

I went to a computer store the other day to purchase a full version of Home XP. The guy working there offered the upgrade, because he said that ME was a 2000 OS, but I told him that I thought it was a 98 OS. Whatever, I bought the upgrade because it does work with ME. My question is...if I do the XP upgrade on an ME OS, then I will have to go with FAT32 right? Thanks for any help and advice.

 

HI!
Yes, ME is a 2000 OS. You can leave your file system Fat 32 and convert to the safer NTFs later.
First...make sure your computer is READY for the upgrade here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

 

Pardon me for asking, but when in the process do I convert the file system to NTFS? When I actually put in the XP upgrade CD? Thanks once again.

 

Can you list what equipment you have in your system? Because if it's at all possible you really should back up all your data (say to DVD's or a 2nd hard drive), repartition and reformat your boot drive, and do a clean install of WinXP -- IF you have your Windows ME CD to verify your eligibility to use the "upgrade" version of XP.

Many sad Windows users can testify that doing an upgrade install from one version of Windows to another really isn't a good idea at all, and I'd guess that an upgrade from WinME is likely to be especially troublesome. You can legally do a full, clean install of Windows XP even with an "upgrade" version as long as you have your old Windows ME CD. (Actually, you could use an old Windows 98 CD too -- it doesn't have to be a WinME or Win2000 CD.)

Early in the installation process the setup routine will say it couldn't find any previous version of Windows installed on your system and will ask you to insert your old Windows CD (ME in your case) to prove you are eligible to use the "upgrade" (read "cheaper, but otherwise just the same") version of WinXP. Once it checks your old Win ME CD it will continue with the full installation of WinXP and you will avoid all the headaches and disasters that will surely come if you try to convert your ME installation to an XP one.

I believe that setup will ask how you wish to partition your hard drive and which file system you want to use immediately following the check of your old Windows CD as described above. While you can install XP on FAT32 you may as well use the NTFS file system as it's considered to be superior to FAT32.

If you want more info I suggest you search the forums here for "full install" and "upgrade install". Or maybe someone else can provide a link to a fuller discussion of the reasons and procedure for doing a full installation vs. an "upgrade", even with an "Upgrade" version of Windows.

 

Yeah I have no ME disk, because the OS came already installed with the HP that I bought. I do have the recovery disks though. So you think I should get the full version anyways huh?

 

"Early in the installation process the setup routine will say it couldn't find any previous version of Windows installed on your system..."

When I wrote that above I should have prefaced it with:

"I'm going to assume you have your Win ME CD at hand and will reformat your hard drive to wipe it clean before beginning to install WinXP." If you decide to leave WinME installed and actually attempt to "upgrade" ME to XP you won't be required to insert your old WinME CD as the WinXP setup routine will see that you already have an older version of Windows installed and it will just proceed with the "upgrade" (actually it will almost certainly be a "downgrade" and the result will be a huge mess -- if not immediately, then within a few days or weeks).

 

Well, do you have an old Win98 or Win 2000 disk? Those will work just as well as an ME disk for the purposes of verification. You might also try contacting HP to see if they can still provide you with an official Microsoft CD of WinME. Doubtful though that they'll still have those available and if they do they may well charge $15 or $20 for it (though that still might be cheaper than exchanging your upgrade version of XP and paying for the full version).

You can try inserting your system recovery disk to see if that will serve as validation during the XP install but I'm almost certain that won't work. Can't say for sure as I've never tried it myself. Maybe someone else here can post about that if they know for certain.

Otherwise, if the choice is between saving some money and attempting to "upgrade" from ME to XP vs. spending more money for the "full" version of XP I'd definitely recommend you spend the extra money for the full version that doesn't require you to insert your old CD before installing XP. The money you'd save in trying to change an ME install to an XP install using the upgrade procedure (instead of doing a full install with the "upgrade" version) won't be adequate consolation once the error messages and problems start piling up!

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. All this is for my sister and her husband who are too tight to just buy a new friggin' computer. I just told her all of this, but she wants me to contact Microsoft. They'll say what you guys are saying. I just told her to not open the upgrade box, so she can get her money back.

 

One more thing your sister and her husband should be told is that they will likely need new drivers for a lot of their computer hardware when they install (or "upgrade" to) WinXP. That shouldn't be a problem though as long as they prepare by going to the HP site and looking for driver downloads (maybe under a customer service or support link). They should write down (or note and print out) the exact model numbers of their graphics card (or graphics chips integrated into the motherboard), sound card, modem etc and download the WinXP drivers from the HP site for those items (or from the manufacturers' sites if they have additional hardware that didn't come with the system). That shouldn't cost them anything as hardware driver downloads are generally free. Just a bit of a hassle if they're not used to downloading drivers and storing them so they can be found easily and burned onto a CD before they reformat their hard drive for the WinXP installation.

Probably easiest to create a folder (maybe named "XP drivers") and then create separate sub-folders for each piece of hardware as the driver file names may not indicate clearly what hardware a given driver is for. Download/save the new WinXP driver into the appropriate sub-folders on their current hard drive and once they have downloaded them all they can burn them to one (or more -- good idea to have a duplicate copy) CD's so they won't lose them once they wipe the hard drive clean before installing WinXP.

Hope it works out well for them and they're able to go the "clean install" route as trying to upgrade ME to XP really isn't a good idea.

 

You can always borrow a friends original MS OS CD ( from 98 onwards, according to the outside of the box), and do a clean upgrade. This suggestion is not meant to condone piracy, but as the PC came with the OS installed and no CD's you are left with very little choice if you want to do a clean install. Bazza

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The upgrade should be no problems. As for the drivers, there are very few drivers available on HP's site, due to most machines built from 2000 on are pretty much compatible with XP, due to XP started using standard parts from 98 on.

Only problem I can see, is the end user, when all is said and done. I would say that with the machine being older, updating the OS may not make them see the potential as it would getting a new machine.

You can put a V8 in a car, but if the car does not have the capacity for it, you have wasted your effort. I.E. not all machines without the proper upgrades will work great with XP, due to limited size hard drives, low memory (ie 128mb, even 96 mb).