Windows XP

You mean "upgrade". I would not upgrade from 9x to xp at all.

I would backup, perform a clean install, and restore data.

Is there any reason why the 9x machines have to be upgraded and not simply replaced with a clean install?

I never upgrade a win9x pc to XP. It can be done, but no 9x machine is ever in great shape. There are always existing issues. Some may be obvious and other not, but these issues will be magnified upon upgrade.

With that in mind, DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO GET THE PC IN GOOD SHAPE. Scandisk, defrag, check the windows XP Hardware compatability list. Check the current drivers and applications for windows XP updates or patches. The HCL is important as some of your old hardware may stop working. If it's a network card it makes fixing anything hard when there is no internet. Same with the drivers. Get all the XP drivers before the upgrade! Upgrade any needed hardware too.

Then after all that....decide against the upgrade and then backup and do a fresh install.

Good Luck,

razz

i would update the bios to the latest level. i would see if it said anything about xp support. i would check out all my cards, sound, video, modem, nic and see if any issues with xp and get the latest xp drivers and burn em on a cd. if no drivers found i would consider removing the card until had a stable xp box. i would uninstall any cd burning software and be prepared to purchase updates for that and multimedia games and applications. the trick is to discover and remove (uninstall) all the devices and programs that will not play well with xp. there are lots. you will not discover them all and fixing them after the update may be difficult if not impossible. that is why imho folks are advocating a clean install. some applications you can run in compatibility mode.
anyway, then i would consider if i really wanted to upgrade or maybe just add in another hd for xp and dual boot the system so i could play all my old games and use my old cd burning software thru win98 whenever i needed to. then i would stick in the xp setup cd and run from the command line: winnt32.exe /checkupgradeonly which will run the 'upgrade readiness analyzer'.

In my opinion, the first and most important consideration is whether you have adequate hardware resources to run XP. If not, you'd be better served with 98 or 2000 pro.

My recommended minimums to achieve reasonable performance for XP:

800MHz CPU
256MB RAM
20GB 5400rpm HDD

Dalton

By "migrate" I assume that you plan to move users from Windows 95 and 98 to XP.

The first thing to do is check for drivers for ALL peripherals that you plan to keep. Printers, Scanners, etc.
My rule of thumb, is if the device manufacture does not offer a XP driver for download, assume that the hardware will have only "basic" functions supported. For scanners and multi-function printers, assume that you will need to replace them.
Even some older monitors will give you problems with XP.

Next, most of the software on a W95 system will NOT "easily" function on a XP box. Plan on getting new software for these users.

I have not tried using the files and settings transfer wizard on a W95 system. It works just fine for a W98 system.
Run the wizard on the users system and prepare the system for migration.
Network the new XP system and their old system and run the wizard on the XP box to complete the transfer.

Next is training. You will have an easier time with some users if you set their menus to use Windows Classic View.

Chas