Help Upgrading winMe to XP

**Max** · February 4th, 2005, 04:20 PM

I am trying to upgrade winMe to XP home.

the upgrade report comes back with some blocking Issues.

Other Operating system found. It will not upgrade with more then one OS on the computer.
So this is what I know about this. At some point someone tried to upgrade this computer before to winXP, but it did not work. when I saw this computer the bootup screen had 3 options to boot from.. 1 was winXp, 2 was win XP and 3 was win ME.
I fixed the boot.ini so it only had the winMe entry in it.

So how do I get it to think that the computer only has one OS on it?

The computer is an old gateway Perfomance 800, 800mhz, 128mb.
This is for a older guy my dad knows. he wants to try to keep has old data if he can.

thanks ,
Max

**Zonie** · February 5th, 2005, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by Max

I am trying to upgrade winMe to XP home.

the upgrade report comes back with some blocking Issues.

Other Operating system found. It will not upgrade with more then one OS on the computer.
So this is what I know about this. At some point someone tried to upgrade this computer before to winXP, but it did not work. when I saw this computer the bootup screen had 3 options to boot from.. 1 was winXp, 2 was win XP and 3 was win ME.
I fixed the boot.ini so it only had the winMe entry in it.

So how do I get it to think that the computer only has one OS on it?

The computer is an old gateway Perfomance 800, 800mhz, 128mb.
This is for a older guy my dad knows. he wants to try to keep has old data if he can.

thanks ,
Max

Since ME has a lot of problems, I would suggest backing the data up, format the hard drive and install the XP new. Upgrading from ME has caused a lot of problems in my experience.

**confus-ed** · February 5th, 2005, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by Zonie

I would suggest backing the data up, format the hard drive and install the XP new. Upgrading from ME has caused a lot of problems in my experience.

Definately

You may have to take a little more time to fish out any data & have a bit more re-installation time too, but in the long run this is absolutely the best policy..

If you can avoid it, never ever 'upgrade' as o/s ! (there's lots of techno waffle why not, most especially if you change the underlying file structure too -ME would generally use FAT, XP 'wants' to use NTFS) - clean install is 'best-ist' !

**Max** · February 5th, 2005, 09:07 AM

Yes this is my thinking too.
But the guy does not want to do that. I have been trying to change his mind.

But what do you need to do so the install thinks the computer has only one OS on it. So it will let you do the install?

**confus-ed** · February 5th, 2005, 09:51 AM

You could perhaps just tell him you can't do it if you'd like him convinced ?

- you might be better & a touch more forthright (in this case truthful!) if you point out this -NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP & this - The Convert.exe Tool Uses 512-Byte Clusters
& the fact that you can't specify the cluster size during setup (normally its 4k & there's not a ready way to undo it later) & this may produce a performance hit in many systems of up to 25% !!!!! There's also many issues with transfering/creating permissions correctly (& thats even if you decide to use XP with FAT instead of NTFS {which you can choose via setup}) & even though I realise I'm not trying to convince you

-its just plain stupid !!!! (well it is if you appreciate fully the downsides

) - why don't you offer to ghost his original stuff ? (if you have capability -then he can always go back if that's what he's worried about ? Usually it is ..)

Else I'm thinking probably the easiest answer is to try & run a repair install on the 'botched' xp install & let setup sort it out if it can (but I can't be certain it will - as we don't know what mucked it up last time !

)

**Platypus** · February 5th, 2005, 09:59 AM

128M is not good for XP either - 256M is recognised as a desirable minimum for worthwhile results.

**confus-ed** · February 5th, 2005, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by Platypus

128M is not good for XP either - 256M is recognised as a desirable minimum for worthwhile results.

I'm glad someones awake !

.. (that bit pass-ed me by !) - indeed

Billy however doesn't quite put matters like that & I think I'm gathering the nature of this customer (as no doubt he's been reading up !) - but I agree wholeheartedly - xp 'loves memory performance wise' (the more you give it the 'sweeter' it is ) & unless he wants it running sloooow he's gonna need some more imho too !

Windows XP Home Edition System Requirements

..128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)..