Installing XP on computer running Me

[needhelp]

Hi guys, I have a computer at present running Windows Me but I want to install XP.I was wondering if I can install XP over Win me or do I have to format my hard drive first and start from scratch. If so will all my hardware, Scanner, printer, CD burner and camera etc run in XP okay. I actually put the XP CD in my CD ROM drive and it prompted me to install XP but I wasnt sure if I could just install it directly over Me. I have the full version of XP so it would be no problem to start from scratch other than having to reinstall all the other stuff on my puter at the moment.

[HAL9000]

You're better off starting from scratch. I know of several people (Including myself) that have unsuccessfully tried to upgrade from ME. Upgrades from Win2K seem to work fine though.

[Confused]

Microsoft has a download (37M) to check your system. It flagged my printer (HP712C) and Nortons as not being compatable, along with some other minor things. Sorry I cain't find the link at MS, maybe someone else will chime in with the link.
Chas

[trulad]

Hi: My Win.XP disc gives me the option of checking for incompatible drivers and programs and downloading replacements before it installs. It also gives you the option of new install or upgrading to keep your files & settings. It says new install wipes out all files but I don't know if it leaves any trash behind. Re-formatt & clean install seem the best to me.
Trudy

[Confused]

Here is the link to check upgrade path and compatiblity. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/default.asp
chas

[Alfie]

It is strongly advised to get the latest drivers for all devices that are meant to work in XP,even if you upgrade,the drivers for ME may not work in XP.
A clean install is advised and use the NTFS file system.
Although,I could finally upgrade(after some major hassles)ME to XP,I still needed new drivers for devices in XP.
Fortuneatly,I had alredy downloaded these to a seperate partition,so it wasn't a biggy.
XP ran fine for 1 week on Fat 32 file system,but one day on boot message came up Can't load WindowsXP couldn't find NTLDR,tried mbr repair,no go,gave up formatted and switched to NTFS file system.
Discovered after the fact,This is a known issue with XP,what is neccessary to do,is first repair MBR with Windows98 or ME bootdisk and then repair with XP MBR,so we see that XP can read FAT32 okay,but as Microsoft points out XP runs best on NTFS.

[scottb99]

I've installed XP on 6 machines so far, 3 clean installs some FAT32 some NTFS, and 3 upgrades. All 3 clean installs operate flawlessly, the 3 upgrades had to all be done over with clean install due to one problem or another, if that helps you make up your mind.

[Orcmonkey]

Please! Do a clean install! I tried to go over Me originally too, but it just caused too many problems. I did a clean install with NTFS, and everything ran faster, with no conflicts.

Good Luck!

[bi_khung]

If most of your hardware and software are up-to-date... I am not sure if you want to upgrade cause you'll have to spend lots of time downloading the new software..... good luck

[RJ]

A clean install is always the best, especially in this case where you want to upgarde from a 9x based OS to a NT based OS. Driver remnants could cause problems, since WinXP uses different drivers than WinME.
When I once tested WinXP I upgraded from Win98SE to XP. Although I haven't had a single crash within two weeks I'll to a clean install when I finally upgrade to XP for normal use and not only to test it.

RJ

[Guardian]

I'll agree with most everyone that a clean install is the probably the best way to go with any OS installation, but...

I was running WinME just fine and decided to upgrade to WinXP. No particular reason other than I've always got to have the latest and greatest! I'm also lazy or as I prefer, like to get back to work quickly so I just upgraded WinXP over my WinME install. I also didn't take the time to read the compatibility file which I ran but it was just too long! So, you're expecting me to say my install was a disaster? Not so...

My upgrade took about 1 hour, I had to uninstall and reinstall BlackIce Defender and eventually I got rid of it entirely, I had to uninstall Norton Anti-Virus 2001 which I then installed Norton Internet Security which replaced both the anti-virus and the built-in firewall. Initially my Logitech Traveler PC Camera wouldn't work or at least it would hang, but I uninstalled a bunch of old software and for some reason the camera came back to life on it's own.

I've since been running my PC with WinXP everyday, all day, without any problems. I play games, download and edit pictures, sync my Casio E-125, copy files to my CF Card via my CF Card reader, scan pictures, print pictures, use a wireless keyboard and MS-IntelliMouse Cordless without any problems.

My homebuilt system specs are:
EPOX 8KTHA3 Motherboard
AMD 1.33Ghz T-Bird
512MB SDRAM (no-name)
VisionTek GeForce3 Ti 200 video card
SB Live! X-Gamer sound card
Linksys 10/100 PCI network card
Promise Ultra 100 Controller Card
AOpen 56X CD-ROM
No Name DVD Player
Toshiba CD-RW 16/40/10
Zip-100
Floppy drive
Western Digital 60GB harddrive
All the above stuffed in to a Blizzard 360 Case from FrozenCPU (http://www.frozencpu.com)

USB - HP 990CSE printer, Casio E-125 cradle, Canon Canoscan 656U scanner, Memorex CF card reader, MS-IntelliMouse cordless, Logitech iTouch cordless keyboard, Logitech Traveler PC camera, Belkin USB 4-port hub.
19" Monitor (no-name)

Everything works like a charm! Since I've have WinXP installed, I have leisurely taken the time to update most of my hardware drivers which I already had downloaded. I like WinXP, it's fast and very stable. Someday I'll do a new, clean install but for me it was no problem doing it over WinME.

[RayH]

I'm going with dual boot. Too much "more will be revealed!" I know what works in W98SE! So I keep the whole thing, just in case!