4 ms·

It's like taking every upgrade I've ever done with Windows and condensing it down to 9:49 (omit the various reinstalls)

warfangle 16y ago
I never used the upgrade option. I'd always get a new hard drive with my upgrade (to get OEM price) and install clean, usually using the original hard drive as a slave. The next cycle that hard drive would become an archive on the new slave. I have backed up files from 1996 on my home desktop.
- moe 16y ago
  Didn't everyone do it that way? I tried the upgrade-option exactly once. I can't remember whether it preserved my background color. But I do remember that all sorts of drivers got screwed, software installs would fail with obscure error messages, and it generally was nothing but problems until I finally wiped and re-installed.
  - flomo 16y ago
    I upgraded from NT4 -> 2000 -> XP without any major issues. AFAICT it was mostly just a file replacement process. The DOSWin to NT upgrade path always seemed pretty flaky though. The demonstration cheated a bit by using a vanilla VMWare config; an actual PC would be loaded with crappy vendor drivers and startup software which complicated any upgrade.
    - warfangle 16y ago
      Upgrading from the NT line to further along the NT line wasn't much of a problem IIRC. Upgrading from '95 to '98 to 2000 probably would be, if you'd actually used the machine. Registry rot from years of use would hinder this process. The idea of a well-used registry from Win95 being still used in a 2000 or XP machine makes me shiver in horror.
- megaframe 16y ago
  I always did the upgrades once to see how they worked out but I would usually just go fresh install shortly after. (It's what I do now with Ubuntu upgrades). With the exception of Windows XP, and only because I had one of those disks that would only do an upgrade. There might have been a way around that at the time but a fresh 98 install with XP on top was clean enough for the one or two times I did it.

I never used the upgrade option. I'd always get a new hard drive with my upgrade (to get OEM price) and install clean, usually using the original hard drive as a slave. The next cycle that hard drive would become an archive on the new slave. I have backed up files from 1996 on my home desktop.

moe 16y ago
Didn't everyone do it that way? I tried the upgrade-option exactly once. I can't remember whether it preserved my background color. But I do remember that all sorts of drivers got screwed, software installs would fail with obscure error messages, and it generally was nothing but problems until I finally wiped and re-installed.
- flomo 16y ago
  I upgraded from NT4 -> 2000 -> XP without any major issues. AFAICT it was mostly just a file replacement process. The DOSWin to NT upgrade path always seemed pretty flaky though. The demonstration cheated a bit by using a vanilla VMWare config; an actual PC would be loaded with crappy vendor drivers and startup software which complicated any upgrade.
  - warfangle 16y ago
    Upgrading from the NT line to further along the NT line wasn't much of a problem IIRC. Upgrading from '95 to '98 to 2000 probably would be, if you'd actually used the machine. Registry rot from years of use would hinder this process. The idea of a well-used registry from Win95 being still used in a 2000 or XP machine makes me shiver in horror.
megaframe 16y ago
I always did the upgrades once to see how they worked out but I would usually just go fresh install shortly after. (It's what I do now with Ubuntu upgrades). With the exception of Windows XP, and only because I had one of those disks that would only do an upgrade. There might have been a way around that at the time but a fresh 98 install with XP on top was clean enough for the one or two times I did it.