98 to XP upgrade walkthrough

[jace b]

Does anyone know of a walkthrough posted on the web for the 98 to XP upgrade. I want to do it by the book, but I ain't got no book!

Thanks,
j

[mBoxLuvr]

dont upgrade if it all possible.
install fresh.
its a hellish ride when remnants of 98 dont get along with XP.
this is the same crap with Windows 2000 (from 98).
but from 2000 to XP has been sweet for most of our 3D/DV workstations. at home I have the luxury of trying any variation thus where I got my experience from.
I also have friends that work in the IT industry that dont like the upgrade route.
good luck and say good ridance to 98!

[jace b]

Thats what I hear Mbox and it makes since. I have questions, however, about what to uninstall prior to a clean load of XP and I am concerned about losing session and audio files on my audio drive if I do a clean install. Any thoughts? Thanks

[macphgw]

If your audio drive contains your session as well as audio file and is a separate driver from your system drive, you shouldn't have a problem with losing those files. Just don't delete anything on the audio drive and don't format it.

[jace b]

thank you for the help

jace

[Carcaridon]

Hello.
I would suggest backing up everything on your audio drive as well. I've installed WinXP Pro many times, and for some reason, I've never had it recognize the second drive without formatting it first. Maybe it's me, but it always seems to happen that way.

[jace b]

Thanks for the advice guys (gals?).

Regretably my stupidity knows no bounds. I installed "fresh". However 98 is still on my machine. Point in fact it's the only OS my USB modem is compatible with so it's just as well.

Seemingly XP installed on my "D"drive, which is my audio drive. Is that kosher? I will now download the 5.3 PT LE software and see if i can boot ProTools in XP. I'm not clear on this partitioning stuff and why 98 is stil;l usable on my machine.

Forgive the ignorance guys and thanks again for your help...

jace

[Paul Curtiz]

Hi Jace,

What happens with the upgrade is that at some point it asks if you want XP to REPLACE 98 or if you want XP AND 98 (it's not phrased like that but you get the meaning). You must have clicked the wrong button, and XP has installed a dual boot system.
I know it's boring but you have to READ WHAT'S ON THE MONITOR (been there myself [img]images/icons/blush.gif[/img] ) !

Having XP on the same drive as your audio is probably bad news.
I've never uninstalled Windows so you experts please correct me, but your safest bet would be to backup whatever 98 data you have (I mean whatever documents, mail, etc...), delete XP from your audio drive, reformat your system drive and do a fresh install of XP.
If your XP install is an upgrade only version (one that will only launch from within Win98), first do a clean minimal install of 98 and then launch an XP install : just be careful when it asks if you want a dual boot or a single system.

Make sure you have a Win98 boot floppy. If not, create one from within 98 before doing anything. This will allow you to format drives and re-install 98 should something happen.
Otherwise, there is no way back, as your XP "upgrade" install won't work from DOS.

Another good idea is to make a copy of your working 98 setup to a new folder on your audio drive using something like Norton Ghost. Install Ghost on your audio drive, and/or make a backup copy on floppy or CD. Ghost makes sort of a clone "image" of your working system and can restore this image (warning : there might be a more recent version but my version only works from DOS - hence the win98 boot disk). This "image" is not an OS in itself, so it won't interfere with whatever working OS you install. It is just 1 single file containing your complete win98, apps, setups, etc...)
In case of a major crash, you simply reformat your system drive, launch Ghost under DOS, and simply restore your working OS to your system drive from the "image" in the folder you created on your audio drive. This will allow you to get back to a full working system within 20 minutes.
I haven't investigated to find a version that would allow me to do this with XP, I don't even know if my current version allows it. Luckily, so far, my "fresh install" of XP hasn't caused me any trouble.

As for your modem, go check if an Xp driver is available on the net.

Also, when you do the fresh Win98 install prior to the XP install, don't bother installing all drivers for printer, modem, etc. In my experience, it'll only mess up/confuse the XP install - what I mean is it the more 98 info your XP upgrade finds, the more remnants of 98 will be left underneath your XP install.
XP will ask for these drivers or find them by itself (for instance, my 98 install required my HP printer CD, XP didn't need it because it is more recent and most of these drivers have apparently been updated within XP).
My point is : if you've got one of these "upgrade only" installs, make sure it is as fresh/clean as possible, because it really seems that "ghosts" of 98 keep hanging in there otherwise.
I'm no computer technician, but this is what I experienced. Again, if anyone knowledgeable on this could expand or correct me, please do !

If you really need to have a dual boot Win98/XP system, you should first create a separate partition on your system drive ; so after partitioning and dual boot install, instead of
C: system drive
and
D: audio drive

you would have

- physical system drive containing
partition C: Win98 / partition D: XP
- audio drive containing
E: Audio & data

This can be done using for instance Partition Magic, from within Win98.
Be careful NOT to convert your second partition to NTFS (Win XP upgrade install will suggest this. There are pros and cons to using NTFS instead of FAT32 but I found FAT32 to work just fine). The problem is that Win98 and Win98 Dos won't see your NTFS partition which could be a problem.
Just be real careful with partitioning, it is a swampy "voodoo" area if you don't know what you're doing. Do a search or ask for advice to the experts on this DUC if you want to play it safe.

The advice given above to backup your audio drive might seem superfluous, but you can't play it too safe ! DO it.
Finally, if you want to get rid of irritating MS stuff under XP such as "error reporting to MS" or "automatic download of upgrades", go check out www.annoyances.org , a really good website with tips for how to get your XP version as clean as possible. It took me 15 minutes to get things the way I like 'em.

I've done the dual boot thing for a while, and I ended up never using 98 again. I did exactly what I described (except I did convert my XP partition to NTFS - ahh, the never ending "optimization" lure [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] ), and it worked just fine, up one day where all of a sudden my win XP partition became an "unmountable boot drive" and would not start anymore. I can't help but thinking the partitioning and dual boot didn't help. Just a gut feeling.

Your ultimate best bet is still to get hold of a regular fresh XP install, which is what I did (if only for my peace of mind), as once you're used to XP, there's no looking back !

I hope all this somehow clarifies a few things and helps you, again I am but a measly user and no techno wiz so all this might be confusing.
Good luck. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[jace b]

Paul,

Thanks a million for the detailed information. I will be giving it all a shot later today. I'm trying to figure out how to download 5.3PTLE before i decimate 98... but it will be gone ASAP!

Thanks again I am grateful for your time.

Jace [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]