"UPGRADE OS" as CLEAN Install ???

[MegalosSkylaki]

Here's the deal.

GF's SONY is all mesed up after three years without a reinstall.

Have the SONY Original RECOVERY DISKs for WIN ME and the junk SW SONY added to it. Assume Drivers for the Computer are in there too(on disk).

Now I could just back up--already done---- and then do a Reinstall of the OS and the junky SW and the drivers.

But if I wanted to go to XP, using the cheaper UPGRADE Version, am I stuck just overwriting the existing all-messed-up OS?

Or can I start with the Upgrade XP disk, then F-Disk the HDD, and wait to be asked to insert the old ME OS disks? Would this give me a CLEAN INSTALL --even though I am using Upgrade XP on top of Original ME disks? ? ?

Can it be done this way? Sort of Backwards? ?

ThanX,
MegalosSkylaki
Your Freind in the Big Apple

[Detritus]

What model Sony Laptop?

My PCG-F580 needs a BIOS flash (according to Sony's website) before I upgrade to Win XP from Win 98SE. If you check out their website it may offer some insight as to what you will need to do to upgrade your OS, they will also have updated drivers for you to download.

Sorry I misread the question, but my response is still valid, I am not sure if you can do an XP upgrade that way.



ps my 1000th post

[MegalosSkylaki]

SONY PCV-J150 with Win MEand a Duron 800 CPU and 512 MB of PNY CL=2 SDR SDRAM

Basically I'm talking about a "clean instal" using the Upgrade rather than Full version of XPHome.

I understand --but may be wrong --that "Upgrade" versions are pretty much the same as "Full" versions --but just require that a previous version with a COA be onboard first.

[EvilRick]

Nothing needs to be installed. You just have to have the media.

During the install, it will ask for a qualifying product to resume.

[bearpaws5]

In my experience with MS ... The upgrade discs are virtually identical to the full-version discs (save for the lines of code necessitating proof of previous version ownership.)

I've mixed upgrade discs with older version discs in the past to accomplish a "clean" install. Things may have changed, though.

[Gilthanaz]

I don't know if this will help you any or not, but I formatted my win98 machine and did a clean install of win2k using a win2k upgrade disk. When setup looks for a previously installed version of windows, it looks for the file win.com. All I had to do was create a file named win.com and stick it in a C:/windows directory on my cleanly formatted hard drive and then i could do a clean install from the upgrade disk. Setup doesnt care whats in the win.com file, as long as the name exists in the right directory.

[originel]

also the xp upgrade and regular installer gives the option to overwrite and format a partition, so you don't need to fdisk before installing because it's built into the installer, this way you don't have to worry about a qualifying product (i don't know how well it would recognize the sony recovery cd).

[wheelie007]

EvilRick is correct, winxp upgrade will ask for the winME CD to see if it is a qualifying product but it will not install anything from it. It will be a xclean install.

[Gilthanaz]

As a follow up to my previous post, I remembered that it only applies to win9x.

[MegalosSkylaki]

And especially Detritius who honored us with his Thousandth Reply on this Thread !

DOOOG