Win 98 SE upgrade Win XP ?

I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice would
be much appreciated.


--
RobF



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"Rob" wrote in message
.. .
I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
would
be much appreciated.



I've done *numerous* installations over the past few years and strongly
advise *not* to upgrade
win98 to XP.

Though upgrades can work...a clean install has a considerably better chance
of
giving you a 100% trouble-free system

I'd backup your data and perform a clean install...
or better still...
install XP on a seperate partition and dual boot.


*also* be sure your machine has hardware that can run XP

Just as an example: XP will certainly run on a 600mhz cpu with 256 megs or
ram

but you need about double those specs to run it well

Rob wrote:

I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for
XP, but don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading.
More advice would be much appreciated.

If you like windows 98, if you know how it works, if you are
comfortable with it, but if your present installation is old and has
developed instabilities or problems, then simply buy a new hard drive
and perform a new installation of 98 onto it. I personally believe
that XP was a snow job and MS doesn't deserve your patronage and
business and that you can send Micro$loth a message by continuing to
use Win-98 - in essence a situation where MS is competing WITH ITSELF
since it's an illegal monopoly with no credible external competition.

If in the end you choose to go with XP, then (against the mindset of
many in this group) you could borrow a copy from work or school for
evaluation.

Regardless of how you obtain XP, again I'd recommend that you buy a
new hard drive and install XP on the new drive - then attach your
existing win-98 drive as a slave to retrieve any personal files and
copy them to the new XP drive.

If your existing drive is more than 3 years old, you would benefit
from the reliability and better performance of a new drive, the
installation of a new OS (98 or XP) is "cleaner", and you still have
your existing drive with all your personal files in an "unmolested"
state.

"Rob" wrote in message
.. .

I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
would
be much appreciated.

Tell us first what you want to do that Win98 will
not let you do (e.g. connect newest hi-fi sound cards),
then show how this would be cheaper overall than a new
PC with XP or Vista preinstalled.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

1. If your question is whether to Upgrade from 98 to XP, or to Clean install
XP, the answer is to Clean install XP.

2. If your question is whether or not to migrate from 98 to XP, regardless
of the method used, then it's a question of your needs. There is the
question of 98's demise, lack of support, growing inability to find
compatible hardware/software, inability to use certain websites, versus the
fact that your old apps may not function well on XP, and whether your
current hardware will satisfactorily support XP. If your hardware supports
XP, and you have reasons both for keeping 98 and for running XP, then
multi-boot.

--

Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Rob" wrote in message
.. .
I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
would
be much appreciated.


--
RobF



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"philo" wrote in message
...
|
| "Rob" wrote in message
| .. .
| I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
| don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
| would
| be much appreciated.
|
|
|
| I've done *numerous* installations over the past few years and strongly
| advise *not* to upgrade
| win98 to XP.
|
| Though upgrades can work...a clean install has a considerably better
chance
| of
| giving you a 100% trouble-free system
|
| I'd backup your data and perform a clean install...
| or better still...
| install XP on a seperate partition and dual boot.
|
|
| *also* be sure your machine has hardware that can run XP
|
| Just as an example: XP will certainly run on a 600mhz cpu with 256 megs or
| ram
|
| but you need about double those specs to run it well


Thanks, Philo. I confused matters by using word "upgrade". I didn't mean by
that, install over win 98, but rather, whether to get XP at all, i.e., is
98SE after all more stable and more of other desireables?

RobF



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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Don Phillipson" wrote in message
...
| "Rob" wrote in message
| .. .
|
| I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
| don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
| would
| be much appreciated.
|
| Tell us first what you want to do that Win98 will
| not let you do (e.g. connect newest hi-fi sound cards),
| then show how this would be cheaper overall than a new
| PC with XP or Vista preinstalled.
|
| --
| Don Phillipson
| Carlsbad Springs
| (Ottawa, Canada)

Thanks, Don. I think that present OS's stability, even after the
reformat/reinstall of several months ago, may not be as good as that of XP;
and that XP may have some diagnostic & recovery & other tools that could
make 'puter time less irksome and more interesting. So I grope for reasons
to expect better things from The Maker.

RobF



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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Many thanks to all responders. Good info and advice from all.

Rob


"Rob" wrote in message
.. .
| I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
| don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
would
| be much appreciated.
|
|
| --
| RobF
|
|
|
| --
| Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
|



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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Thanks, Philo. I confused matters by using word "upgrade". I didn't mean
by
that, install over win 98, but rather, whether to get XP at all, i.e., is
98SE after all more stable and more of other desireables?



OK

If you still have a win98 full version cd you can purchase the XP upgrade CD
and
perform a clean install. (or use a full version XP cd of course)

Yes...XP is a considerably better operating system than win98...
I've been using it for years and it just plain does not crash
(though occasionally an application may crash...it's easy to start it over
without a reboot)

That said...XP uses more resources than win98...

If your machine has a cpu under 800 mhz and under 256megs of RAM
you may want to go with win2k .
If you do go with XP on a "lower" end machine...
there are a number of tweaks to improve performance

Gary S. Terhune wrote:
1. If your question is whether to Upgrade from 98 to XP, or to Clean
install
XP, the answer is to Clean install XP.

2. If your question is whether or not to migrate from 98 to XP, regardless
of the method used, then it's a question of your needs. There is the
question of 98's demise, lack of support, growing inability to find
compatible hardware/software, inability to use certain websites, versus
the

Which websites are those?? (Just curious)

fact that your old apps may not function well on XP, and whether your
current hardware will satisfactorily support XP. If your hardware supports
XP, and you have reasons both for keeping 98 and for running XP, then
multi-boot.

--

Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Rob" wrote in message
.. .
I read (here, I think) various opinions about whether to go for XP, but
don't recall if there was a consensus against upgrading. More advice
would
be much appreciated.


--
RobF



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com