Upgrading WIN Me to WIN 2000Professional

The truth is that you can upgrade from ME to 2K but in all likelyhood many of your programs will no longer run.

The problem is that Microsoft went soft on the conversion of the registries between the two OS's for upgrading. They're quite different.

You should be able to upgrade into a different root - say c:\Win2000, leaving the c:\windows directory intact and non of your other data will be erased.

...but... if the data relies on being accessed through a program - for example Outlook'smail files, then all bets are off as to whether you'll be able to get that data again.

Personally if I were in your position, I'd go for a dual boot install to see if Win2K can get to he data you're talking about.

And ideally you'd use something like "Partition Magic" to create a second partition to install Win2K into. I believe you CAN do it into the same partition but it can be fraught with problems.

The best thing you can do, however, is do a backup of your important data first.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Tim.

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I NEED ASSISTANCE !
i have a pre installed copy of me on a new laptop and i own a copy of WINDows 2000 PRoffesional i need help in upgrading and hopefully keeping my programs etc .

Can anyone help me ,

As a rule of thumb you should backup any important data before doing the upgrade,you will need to reinstall the programs of the applications that you have installed and that would include the software
Make sure that you have all W2K Pro device drivers,they to will have to be reloaded
By upgrading or a clean install your files will be over written and then there is a 50/50 chance of losing the applications you currently have loaded on your machine.

I have upgraded quite a few machines to Win 2k an found that it does a verry poor job with Windows 98 and the like. So I would not recomend upgrading it either. However if you must. Make sure you remove every program possible before installing Win 2k. If you don't do this the programs may show up as being on your system but not be usable or uninstallable. The same goes for your hardware. I found that if you don't delete the Video driver in particular, you will be left with a Win 2k install that runs slow and is not as stable.

Use a second partition if possible. Win 2k sets up dual boot like a champ.