Upgrading from Win 98SE to XP Pro

I would opt for a dual boot scenario.
You will likely need to add a hard drive to do so.
This is the easiest way to upgrade and reduce problems however.
Since XP will be loaded onto it's own seperate partition, there will be few W98 lacacies to deal with. This also gives you the option of booting into 98 if you are having problems with an app. in XP.
There have been several Q&A postings of users having problems with upgrading an existing W98 system to XP.

I performed a clean install myself.

Before you begin the upgrade, use the compatability tests at either Microsoft or www.pcpitstop.com
This will give you an idea of any hardware or software that may have compatability issues.

Go to all of your hardware mfgs web sites and download any drivers posted for XP. the same for your software apps. Roxio / Adaptec in particular have a specific sequence to install an XP compatability patch.

After you install XP, immeadiately go on-line and perform a Windows update. Get all of the critical, and driver updates, and whatever others you desire.

Best wishes.

The upgrade is smooth if you run the XP compatability test before hand. The only difficulties will be getting all your favorite programs back and running with XP. By this I mean the small programs used to optimize either use or performance. The XP wizard will continually tell you this program has not been tested on XP and ask you if you wish to continue installing. Other then that the upgrade was a breeze. Goodluck and hope you enjoy. As for the dual boot aspect of the previous answer you don'tneed another hard drive if you have a decent size hard drive now. The win 98 files will be removed after upgrade.

well one thing to make sure is that you have all your driver disks with you, ive been called numerous times to go fix printers and lately almost every call im doing, THEY UPGRADED, from what ive been seeing, 98 to XP. I mean its easy to fix cuz XPhas alot of built in drivers, but thats not the point, end users dont know that, so it looks like a problem which means lots of calls, etc, etc. another thing is, the built in drivers sometimes lack capabilities and features that manufacturer drivers offer. so do a quick check on all your hardware support sites, to see what they have to say about XP and the way it handles drivers. For example, the built in HP drivers, almost all of them, dont offer bidirection communication, which means in a few months i might be getting a call cuz the user didnt get a message saying she is out of ink, and she is wondering why she didnt have any warnings, but thats just with printers, im sure there is problems with other external or internal device that you may support, hope this gave you a heads up.

The upgrade/installation itself was painless. The lesson I learned was to avoid surprises by first checking that your peripherals and add-on hardware has drivers that are _certified_ by Microsoft to work with XP. I have/had trouble with the two unsigned drivers that I want to use: Attached to my Dell 4100 desktop I have a Xerox WorkCenter 2130f--I have to reinstall the unsigned driver every week or so because it just quits working. Also, the driver for my Zip drive isn't signed, and although it works when connected to the parallel port I can't run the printer thru it any more. So I bought a Siig Parallel Port card with an unsigned driver, but it causes the system to lcompletely ock up so I can't use the card. Software issue: I have trouble with Norton Anti-Virus 2002--every couple weeks it stops loading for unknown reasons and has to be uninstalled and then reinstalled. There's nothing on their web site specifically about XP incompatibility or troubleshooting.

The upgrade/installation itself was painless. The lesson I learned was to avoid surprises by first checking that your peripherals and add-on hardware has drivers that are _certified_ by Microsoft to work with XP. I have/had trouble with the two unsigned drivers that I want to use: Attached to my Dell 4100 desktop I have a Xerox WorkCenter 2130f--I have to reinstall the unsigned driver every week or so because it just quits working. Also, the driver for my Zip drive isn't signed, and although it works when connected to the parallel port I can't run the printer thru it any more. So I bought a Siig Parallel Port card with an unsigned driver, but it causes the system to lcompletely lock up so I can't use the card. Software issue: I have trouble with Norton Anti-Virus 2002--every couple weeks it stops loading for unknown reasons and has to be uninstalled and then reinstalled. There's nothing on their web site specifically about XP incompatibility or troubleshooting.

Upgrading from 98SE to XP Pro, I had a lot of problems on the network, especially when talking to the NT Server box. NOrton anti-virus had a few teething issues and needed a patch, which XP took me straight to the link. However, watch the modem drivers especially, as you will need internet access to register XP and a lot of the modern modems are not support yet, else you need a driver from their website. Even more fun if you can't access the internet in the first place. My experience after installing XP was 'why did I bother buying this in the first place it's too much hassle'. If you are happy with what you have, don't change it!

Dual boot. Spend $75 and buy a new HD to install XP to. It is very easy to do and you will still be able to run you legacy apps in 98 if need be. I ran into too many issues with 98 tweaks and internet downloads doing the upgrade. Take the safe path and dual boot. It's the best of both worlds.

The XP Pro upgrade clobbered the contents of my Win98SE My Documents folder. Apparently this is a known bug which occurs if you take up Win XP's offer to set up new user accounts during the upgrade process (i.e. users who were not previously definedunder Win 98SE). Presumably therefore this can be avoided by leaving the set up of new users until after Win XP upgrade completes.

comment to 1 and 7 you don't need another hard drive just a partition. Most hard drives now a days are plenty large enought to have both OS and tons of room for storage.

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