Hard drive upgrades

A few questions over an upgrade path for a friend's PC over the next
year...each step being months apart:

1) Move Windows 98 systems to larger/faster hard drive...clone (not image)
the old drive to the new hard drive and leave the old hard drive in the PC,
with data and power disconnected. To be cautious, I can make an image to a
few CDs and keep that out of the house.

2) Move to Windows XP. In this case, I am thinking about trying the upgrade
rather than a clean install (no major programs beyond the OS and Office 2000
SP3, and the adware/virus/firewall programs). How much success have people
had doing upgrades vs. clean installs? Can the drive be converted to NTFS as
part of the upgrade? I can not remember.
As for the old drive, after erasing it, I am thinking that this would be a
good place for an image (not a clone/copy) of the new hard drive. Can an
image of a NTFS drive be put on a FAT32 drive? Is there any advantage making
the backup (FAT32) drive an NTFS drive? After doing this, the data and power
cables would get unplugged again on the backup/old drive. Excepting for act
of nature or theft, that old drive should be safe as a backup. Imaging to
disks with a CD-RW seems like it's a lot of work when the drive gets that
big, but...

A backup of just the data would still be done on external media (like CD-RW)
regardless of the above, and far more often.

"Scott" wrote in message
news:J34ye.22024$ro.2648@fed1read02...
A few questions over an upgrade path for a friend's PC over the next
year...each step being months apart:

1) Move Windows 98 systems to larger/faster hard drive...clone (not image) the
old drive to the new hard drive and leave the old hard drive in the PC, with
data and power disconnected. To be cautious, I can make an image to a few CDs
and keep that out of the house.

Shouldn't be a problem as long as the new HD is the same size or larger and the
partition/s (volume/s) are of eqaul size or larger than the old drive.

2) Move to Windows XP. In this case, I am thinking about trying the upgrade
rather than a clean install (no major programs beyond the OS and Office 2000
SP3, and the adware/virus/firewall programs).

Eligibility:
Upgrading from Previous Versions of Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...ing/matrix.asp

Never mind the XP Pro mentioning, the requirements for Home and Pro are
basically the same.
System Requirements:
Windows XP Professional System Requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...on/sysreqs.asp

And to further the process, your hardware/software may not be up to date for XP.
You can check by using the upgrade advisor download indirectly he
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...heckcompat.asp

or here directly
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...ng/advisor.asp

However I would suggest, if you have a friend with an XP CD you can run the
advisor from it, the download is approx. 32MB.

or check here by typing in the hardware you want to check:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...ing/compat.asp

How much success have people
had doing upgrades vs. clean installs?

I'll let others comment, I've only fresh installed.

Can the drive be converted to NTFS as
part of the upgrade? I can not remember.

Yes, for info see:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

and/or search the net for many other sites explaining it.

As for the old drive, after erasing it, I am thinking that this would be a
good place for an image (not a clone/copy) of the new hard drive. Can an image
of a NTFS drive be put on a FAT32 drive?

Depending on the software you use, yes. I use Norton Ghost 2003 over a network,
I believe Acronis True Image will as well.

Is there any advantage making
the backup (FAT32) drive an NTFS drive?

None I'm aware of.

After doing this, the data and power
cables would get unplugged again on the backup/old drive. Excepting for act of
nature or theft, that old drive should be safe as a backup. Imaging to disks
with a CD-RW seems like it's a lot of work when the drive gets that big,
but...

A backup of just the data would still be done on external media (like CD-RW)
regardless of the above, and far more often.

--

Brian A. Sesko
{ MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Scott wrote:
A few questions over an upgrade path for a friend's PC over the next
year...each step being months apart:

1) Move Windows 98 systems to larger/faster hard drive...clone (not image)
the old drive to the new hard drive and leave the old hard drive in the PC,
with data and power disconnected. To be cautious, I can make an image to a
few CDs and keep that out of the house.

2) Move to Windows XP. In this case, I am thinking about trying the upgrade
rather than a clean install (no major programs beyond the OS and Office 2000
SP3, and the adware/virus/firewall programs). How much success have people
had doing upgrades vs. clean installs? Can the drive be converted to NTFS as
part of the upgrade? I can not remember.
As for the old drive, after erasing it, I am thinking that this would be a
good place for an image (not a clone/copy) of the new hard drive. Can an
image of a NTFS drive be put on a FAT32 drive? Is there any advantage making
the backup (FAT32) drive an NTFS drive? After doing this, the data and power
cables would get unplugged again on the backup/old drive. Excepting for act
of nature or theft, that old drive should be safe as a backup. Imaging to
disks with a CD-RW seems like it's a lot of work when the drive gets that
big, but...

A backup of just the data would still be done on external media (like CD-RW)
regardless of the above, and far more often.


Seems that your reasoning is faulty.
What IS the main reason of this project?
If it is "security", read backup of some daily work, then it has nothing
to do with what OS you use.
Again, if it is security of the file system then you need NTFS over FAT,
but then you lose 98.
If it is speed, then the hardware over which 98 sprints, XP hardly limps.
So decide what are your preferences and go from there.
And don't create "mongrels"!!!

HTH

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.