[kevsta112003]

I'm going to be getting Vista soon and I just had a few questions.

I was wondering if there is a difference between "Upgrading" to vista or just uninstalling XP and installing vista. I'm getting Vista Ultimate but as you can see I know little about the difference between these options and if Windows Vista Ultimate even contains both options.

So my other noobs questions are...

If I were to "upgrade" to vista from XP, would my files/drivers/installed programs all pretty much remain the same?

If I were to uninstall XP and then install vista I assume I'd have to backup important files as they wouldn't be there after I install vista.. correct?

Thanks

 

[Damage82]

I'd say, back-up files, then do a clean install. Thats what I did

 

[IcedEarth]

1.You cannot upgrade to Vista unless you get the Upgrade package as far as i am aware (to do this you need to have a copy of XP installed on your machine already) this is like an OEM purchase, that is why it is so cheap.

However if you buy retail i recommend just wiping XP off and putting Vista on, yes you would have to back up your important files.

As far as i am aware, the 'upgrade' version still requires a full reformat and wipe of the HDD, it is just you need XP to access the install option in the first place.

 

[ericeod]

I bought the upgrade for Vista Home Premium for $70 because I am a student. When you put in the Disk, it detects XP, restarts and begins loading a fresh copy of Vista. I've since switched back to XP Pro until Vista SP1 is released. But I wish I had gotten the non-upgraded version because now I want to go back to a RAID, but I have to wipe the drives, load XP Pro on the RAID, then Reload Vista!

 

[cinajohn]

If possible, I would recomend a clean install. As a general rule I think most of us prefer doing it this way across the board, for example, we uninstall an old driver before we install new one, right? and this is an entire OS.

Also, I had a messy time just "upgrading" from Vista x32 to Vista x64. It actually left me with 2 OS's and even after removing the x32 manually, the OS was never stable. I formated and installed x64 from scratch.

Not sure what equiptment you are running but ,im my case, Vista did an amazing job installing relevant and up to date drivers on its own, right from the installer.

I am a noob as well, but this is one thing I have direct experience with. And this way you will never have to think "what if".

 

[kevsta112003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IcedEarth However if you buy retail i recommend just wiping XP off and putting Vista on, yes you would have to back up your important files. As far as i am aware, the 'upgrade' version still requires a full reformat and wipe of the HDD, it is just you need XP to access the install option in the first place.

Thanks for the info.

I don't know much about installing/uninstalling OS's and reformating hard drives, so my next question is...

How do you uninstall XP? (lol)
and then, is reformating hard drives done when you create partitions and stuff? or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

 

[sniperscope]

I recommend resizing your XP partition using a program like partition magic, making it smaller, then create a new partition for vista. This new partition acts like a new hard drive. You can then install vista on that and have both XP and Vista installled. This is what I did (I bought OEM Vista software, 64 bit).

However this is a little tricky, but does have the advantage of you being able to go on XP whenever you can't do something in/get sick of vista. This was a wise decision for me because my printer drivers dont work for vista, so if i wana print something I just boot back into XP and print.

But if u wana get rid of xp, just format over the drive XP is on in the vista install, theres no such thing as "uninstalling" XP lol.

 

[kevsta112003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sniperscope I recommend resizing your XP partition using a program like partition magic, making it smaller, then create a new partition for vista. This new partition acts like a new hard drive. You can then install vista on that and have both XP and Vista installled. This is what I did (I bought OEM Vista software, 64 bit). However this is a little tricky, but does have the advantage of you being able to go on XP whenever you can't do something in/get sick of vista. This was a wise decision for me because my printer drivers dont work for vista, so if i wana print something I just boot back into XP and print. But if u wana get rid of xp, just format over the drive XP is on in the vista install, theres no such thing as "uninstalling" XP lol.

Thanks for the info, I don't know if I'll have both installed as that seems a bit out of my league in terms of confusingness.

So other than (it seems) that I don't really have to do anything regarding my Vista installation beforehand b/c the part where I reformat will be during installation of vista?

 

[sniperscope]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevsta112003 Thanks for the info, I don't know if I'll have both installed as that seems a bit out of my league in terms of confusingness. So other than (it seems) that I don't really have to do anything regarding my Vista installation beforehand b/c the part where I reformat will be during installation of vista?

Yeah, when you put the cd in and set to boot from the CD, it will load the installer into ur pc's ram, then start the installer. if you've ever installed XP you'll notice that the Vista installer is SOO much nicer and more user-friendly than Xp's horrid blue screen installation.

Anyway, it will ask you for the CD code, licensing stuff, then after that give you a list of available hard drive volumes for you to install vista on. If you've got just one HD there should just be one there, and that would be your XP. When you select to install on it, Vista should format that volume (which overwrites any data i.e. all of your xp install) and installs a fresh copy of Vista on that volume. It will reboot a few times then voila, you're running vista! Any problems/questions please continue asking here.

 

[kevsta112003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sniperscope Yeah, when you put the cd in and set to boot from the CD, it will load the installer into ur pc's ram, then start the installer. if you've ever installed XP you'll notice that the Vista installer is SOO much nicer and more user-friendly than Xp's horrid blue screen installation. Anyway, it will ask you for the CD code, licensing stuff, then after that give you a list of available hard drive volumes for you to install vista on. If you've got just one HD there should just be one there, and that would be your XP. When you select to install on it, Vista should format that volume (which overwrites any data i.e. all of your xp install) and installs a fresh copy of Vista on that volume. It will reboot a few times then voila, you're running vista! Any problems/questions please continue asking here.

Thanks, ya summed up everything i needed to know.

 

[sniperscope]

oh and one thing to note, is when the pc reboots during vista install, don't boot back into the CD because that will start the installer up again (if u do accidentally no biggie, just reboot without proceeding any further without the installer). when it reboots, just let it boot from your hard drive and let vista complete the install itself. This was something I wasn't sure about when it was happening to me.