Full install from XP Upgrade?

[boneburner]

I have win95 and want to upgrade to XP Home. IGNORING the pc power issue, will my win95 CD enable me to do a full hard drive format and install of XP with the UPGRADE box instead of the full version? (the box states that win98 is the oldest version supported for upgrade). I have no interest in keeping ANY of my old win95 stuff. Any pointers you Master geeks can clue this neophyte geek into will be more than appreciated!

[Budfred]

No, simple answer.

Complex answer: the box is telling the truth. You can certainly reformat and install XP if your computer can handle it, but you will need a full version, not the upgrade. However, if you buy an OEM version of XP Home, it costs about the same as a Retail Upgrade version. Check out www.newegg.com for perspective. The OEM version is not supported by MS, but I find their support to be irrelevant anyway.

[boneburner]

Not at all meaning to be rude or insouciant, but have you tried what I suggested? I have read a number of posts in other forums intimating that people were successful installing XP using the upgrade CD and a win95 CD. Perhaps MS realized that this was occuring and made changes to block it?

[Budfred]

Nope haven't tried it myself. I did a full install on my sister's computer with the OEM version, so I have done that. Even if you can do it, which seems unlikely given MS's aggressive stance with XP, you are probably better off installing a full install rather than an upgrade since the upgrades tend to have more problems. That may be less true with XP since you can have it do the full install once it detects the Windoze to upgrade from....


Edit:

On the other hand, MS has goofed before with this stuff since it distributed the upgrade for 95 as the full program, so you could buy the upgrade instead of the full.....

[boneburner]

I completely agree that MS support is less than useless, and an OEM version would be just fine by me. Only two things give me pause prior to purchasing the full version: 1. I don't need any hardware(required purchase to get low price). 2. I am curious to know if it works. YES, yes, I know about the deceased feline problem ;)

[Paul Komski]

Owning Windows95 does not allow one to be eligible for an upgrade version. Owning at least Win98/ME are required to obtain the discount for XP Home.

Either an upgrade version or a non-upgrade (so called full) version can be used to "upgrade" an existing version of windows or one can choose to do a clean installation (which most people seem to recommend). A clean installation can either totally replace the existing OS or be installed as a second OS (or dual-boot). Going the route of a clean install requires that you do not select the default option of choosing to upgrade (as recommended by microsoft) as the install begins.

All that presupposes that your system requirements are adequate for supporting WindowsXP.

When installing from the XP CD, most of the formatting etc can be done from the options displayed during the installation. If you want a dual boot scenario then it is preferable to install this on a separate partition, which you will need to create using other software, since the WinXP disk management does not allow one to resize existing partitions without deleting them first.

It is preferable (or at least easier) to install from an existing version of windows since the OS is up and running and the install CD should work just fine. If you format your HDD beforehand, you are likely to need the four boot floppies to install from if the CD doesn't autorun, without an OS on the machine, when the install CD is inserted. You won't be able to run the install from a Win98/ME startup floppy.

Having said all that - the simple answer to your question is YES you should be able to do a full install from the upgrade version of XP Home, BUT you will need to prove ownership of Win98 or ME in order to do so. Since neither are installed on your pc you will probably be prompted to insert a Win98/ME CD and then enter its CD key to prove ownership of 98 or ME before the install will proceed.

NB An upgrade version is not the same as upgrading windows. An upgrade version is cheaper because you already have an eligible OS. Upgrading an OS or clean installing can be done with either a full or upgrade version.

[Reid]

PC Pitstop's XP Readiness Test (http://www.pcpitstop.com/xpready/default.asp) should tell you if your hardware is capable of running XP.

I have seen a lot of posts on Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) of people claiming to have used a Windows 95 disk as a qualifying product when doing a clean install of XP, but I have no experience with that.

[boneburner]

As stated earlier, I have heard of this being done in other forums, and even in this one, but these accounts have aged a bit and I am wondering if anyone has more concrete data for me. All the negatives in this thread are more of the 'not supposed to work' nature and I am more interested in personal experience with this. I do, however, greatly apppreciate all the input thus far.

[Budfred]

About the hardware required for the OEM: MS requires that it be an essential piece of hardware, but one vendor that I bought a copy of WinME from was willing to sell it with the purchase of an 18 cent thumb screw. I happened to need something a bit more pricey than that, but that was all that was required. I have noticed some vendors that don't require anything and most seem to go with simple things like cables...

[Reid]

Does your current system meet the hardware requirements for Windows XP? Upgradability is a moot point if the system is not up to it (but then you would have a reason to make a hardware purchase too.)

I know you said to ignore the PC power issue, but if you have a P166, 32M memory, and a 1 gig hard drive, you can forget about XP.

[Jason1971]

Having said all that - the simple answer to your question is YES you should be able to do a full install from the upgrade version of XP Home, BUT you will need to prove ownership of Win98 or ME in order to do so. Since neither are installed on your pc you will probably be prompted to insert a Win98/ME CD and then enter its CD key to prove ownership of 98 or ME before the install will proceed.

Yes Paul Komski is right. I've got the upgrade ver. of XP-Home and I did a full install (full version) without any problems.

First I formatted my hard drive. Then as I was installing XP I was asked to insert my Win98se disk for verification that I did qualify for a full install. This process took no more than a minute....

Jason