aaaaagh Win 98 to XP upgrade problem !!

Hi folks.........just looking for some assistance from the pros

During the upgrade from Win 98 to XP Pro everything goes well through "Installing Devices ", Installing Network" until it gets to this point........... "Completing Installation "

This is when the installation program jumps to another screen which says it's "Checking File System ". The program then starts checking but before it completes the check ~ 55% the program causes the computer to reboot and the cycle starts over again and again.

I'm then obliged to "Uninstall" and come here begging for assistance............

Computer is a Pentium II.

Appreciate any assistance........I'm sure others must have gone through similar experiences.

Thanks

Andy

 

I'd try yanking out all unecessary hardware before performing the upgrade (ie, modem and/or network card, game controller, sound card, etc.), leaving just your video card, CD-ROm, floppy and hard drive and try again.

If that works, put each piece of hardware back one at a time, rebooting after each piece...

 

Win 98 to XP upgrade !!!

Thanks for the advice...........at my hardware knowledge level the thought of ripping out pieces of the computer scares the living begees out of me...........

I was hoping for a software solutions.........

Perhaps continuing to run Win 98 might not be a bad thing until my courage level increases.

Thanks again.

Andy

 

Sounds like maybe some problems with the drive or possibly with files on the drive.

While you still have 98 loaded, boot to DOS (as in reboot, F8 for options, start in DOS) and run
scandisk /surface /nosave /autofix

Then boot to safe mode, remove all temp files, temporary internet files, any files in C:\ that have a name of filennnn.chk where nnnn is any number so file0001.chk or file9213.chk or whatever. Then empty your recycle bin and defrag the thing.

If all that works AND if 98 has been running smoothly, try the install again. If not, strongly consider a fresh load of XP rather than upgrading which may well drag existing problems from 98 to XP.

Or as you said, just stick with 98 for a while longer. In any case, your PC will run better after the cleanup.

 

Is this a clean install, or are you upgrading over the Win9x stuff?

Do you have the latest BIOS for this machine?

 

This was an attempt to upgrade to XP with Win 98 still installed.

Do I have the latest BIOS installed ..........mmmm nope, don't believe I know what that means...........maybe I should change my user level to <novice

Are BIOS upgrades available from Microsoft ??

Andy

 

BIOS updates are available from the maker of your motherboard.

 

Question.

Were you attempting to upgrade from 98 to XP to fix problems ?

If so that very seldom will work properly. The previous OS must be as error free as humanly possible.

Much against the advice of other I put XP Pro overtop of 98SE and things could not have been better.

The only thing I did before upgrading was to set the Video back to a Standard 640x480 VGA setup and restart 98SE twice before attempting the upgrade. Video is a quite common problem when upgrading.

I even wound up after the XP install finished with a 1024x768 32bit color video. Which I had a heck of a time convincing XP that I did not want. But after finding and upgrading Video drivers I won.

BillyBob

 

BIOS upgrades are available from your computer or motherboard manufacturer.

As for upgrades, it is advisable to perform clean installs and disable things like AV software prior to upgrades, unless you feel comfortable with the previous OS, and it's in the same family (NT, 2000, XP, etc)

http://www.ultratech-llc.com/BrainWave/TechDocs/OSBasics.html

 

Another side of the story.

From the link that Logik007 pointed to.

As for stability, 2000/XP is far, far more stable than
anything Windows 9x/ME has to offer. Windows users who
embrace 2000/XP will stop having to put up with flaky
systems that require rebooting several times a day or
week. Uptime can finally be counted in months, and not
hours. At the same time, the NT family of OSes are
less tolerant of marginal hardware or timing issues
due to overclocking than Win9x.

To me that is a total batch of pure outright nonsense with which I 100% disagree. Or another side to the story. Your call.

The original 98 was problematic. SP1 helped but not that much.

98SE was ( and still is on two machines ) a very solid and very dependable OS. One has been there for about three years and has not had a serious crash yet.

A couple of problems when I got of messing around and/or improper installs of software. Problems which also appear in XP.

ME was indeed in a world all of its own. I won't even discuss it.

I have XP Pro on here now and it IS NOT a darn bit more stable than 98SE. I had SE on here for two years before and only had ONE real crash. And I created that. Not Windows.

I do not agree with the mention of uptime either. The only time I had to restart SE was when I was making changes. Unless I got careless and ran two incompatable pieces of software at the same time. Again not a Windows problem.

Oh BTW. That **** does not work in XP either. But that is a 3rd party software problem NOT WINDOWS. I fixed the problem by getting rid of one that I never liked anyway.

I have the same problem with XP that I had with SE. Left on over night might create problems.

For some unknown reason XP does not make the restore points as it is supposed to. SE never failed to make the reg backups.

And just llike SE I still have to restart XP in order to play Links LS 2003 without hangups. Why I do not know. And Links 2003 is Microsoft software.

And just like SE I have had a couple of lockups that requires me to hit the rest button. In either OS the cause remains unknown.

One area where XP exceeds SE is in Disk space usage. 2.6gig against 1.2gig for SE. And both running the same software.

And if XP were to go bonkers on me it would stand a very good chance of not being reinstalled. I still have my 98SE HD ready to plug back in and I would be on my way in 10 minutes.

May I ask why ?

I put XP Pro over 98SE which had been running 98% error free for almost two years. But, I had all hardware upgraded to XP compatable first. And XP ran immediately like it had always been here.

I had to get used to a few different things but over all it ran VERY well.

And before you ask, I will answer.

I upgraded to XP because I am more or less forced to by Software and Hardware venders. Both of which seem to be dropping support for 98 faster than MS. I never used MS support anyway. So that part did not matter.

Plus I was getting bored and needed something new to fight with.

BillyBob

 

I think you answered your own question...

Look at the problems you have with XP not creating Restore points and locking up, etc. These are not normal XP issues.

There are 4 major categories of situations that I have seen where XP or 2000 have issues:

• Bad/Marginal Hardware
• Lots on 3rd party junk or "helpful" utilities
• Over tweaking of services
• In-place upgrades over Win9x (especially WinME)

I've done several dozen XP installs now, and clean installs are flawless. OEM installs, fall into the "Lots of Junk" category. Dell and HP are causing their own problems by adding all that **** to a default install, but that's what they're lovely recovery CDs are for.

2000 and XP are light-years ahead of the stability of Win9x, especially under load. And they don't require tons of 3rd party software, or frequent reinstalls to keep them up to speed, either.

 

You are free to disagree.

 

BillyBob wrote:

Just out of curiosity, what's the longest anyone here has left XP running before needing to reboot?

To toastmaster99 you get the BIOS upgrade off your mainboard maker's site, as the others said. Then you need to make a bootable floppy disk by putting one in your floppy drive. Go to My Computer and right click on the 3 1/2 inch floppy icon and choose format. When you're in the format menu choose Copy System Files. That will copy system files needed to make the diskette bootable to that.

Then you unzip the BIOS download to the diskette. It'll have the flashing program an EXE file and the new BIOS itself which is a BIN file. In this case we'll call them FLASH.EXE and NEWBIOS.BIN to avoid confusion.

If your computer has an Award BIOS it might have this thing called BIOS guardian enabled, which must be disabled from within your BIOS before it can be flashed.

OK you reboot your machine with the floppy in your A:\ drive and let the machine boot on that. Once your at the prompt, type FLASH.EXE and follow it's onscreen instructions, you then pick NEWBIOS.BIN and it'll flash your BIOS. Just pray to God that you have the right version and your power doesn't go out while you're flashing or you'll be SOL.

 

I've done 125 days before.

I rebooted to change drivers or install some patches.

 

Here is one problem that may be user created and not Windows..

If the machine is not shut down or restarted at least ONCE per day Windows does not get a chance to check itself out and do the duties that it is supposed. I am not real sure about XP but in 98 I believe that is the only time the registry gets checked out.

Plus when shut down ( not a restart ) any excess baggage in RAM gets cleared out. A restart may not allow time enough for RAM to clear completely possibley creating more problems.

I have had users complain about 98 not making the reg backups that it is supposed to.

Question= Do you shutdown or at least restart at least once a day.

Answer =NO.

Remark=Well then do not blame Windows for something it is not to blame for. That is a user created problem.

I have yet to see 98SE fail to make the reg backup. ( as long as I do shut down or at least restart once a day. )

I have yet to see XP make a Restore Point on its own. That is why I rely on GoBack to have any at all. And it does a **** good job too. ( as long as BillyBob The User don't forget to make sure it is loaded or not disabled )

As to leaving a machine on 24/7 I myself do not think that to be a good idea. I believe it would shorten the life of fans, ( I have 5 in this unit ) HDs etc. that are always spinning. And also the Power supply.

Heat build up would be another item on my list against leaving on 24/7. Especially if I were to be away from home for several hours. Any fan can quit at any time.

I am glad you had good luck. I put XP in clean Twice and had MANY more problems than I have by putting it in overtop of SE.

Plus by putting it overtop I saved myself many hours of reinstalling software. It picked up and ran every program except one. That one was an ancient DOS one which I had audio problems in SE with anyway. So that was no surprise.

What would you have to say to the fact that this 80gig HD is a COPY of a 40gig HD ( using WD software ) that started out with Win95 and this HD is now XP Pro and has not be formated or cleaned off in anyway ?

Now. I am not saying that my way is the better way. But I am saying that I disagree with various sites or users that imply that it can not or should not be done. It can be done and done successfuly.

Plus as I wrote in my previous reply. This is the other side of the story.

Would I suggest putting XP over ME ? NO. XP is indeed superior to ME.

I did but ME over 98 ONCE. That lasted three days and an uninstall was done. I had nothing but driver problems which I did not have before and have not had since.

BillyBob

 

The only real negative is the electricity bill.

Beyond that, your machine will suffer more stress being turned on and off that it will staying on, assuming you have sufficient cooling.

I have anywhere from 7 to 10 machines running 24x7 without issue -- been doing it for over 6 years now. The degree to which the lifespan of equipment is shortened is negligible.

My Home Network

I never said that it could not be done. I highly recommend that it *not* be done, because your chance of experiencing problems is much higher than if you perform a clean install.

Some people suggest that you *always* perform a clean install. I've had pretty good success upgrading within the same OS family (e.g. NT, 2000, XP, 2003 -OR- Win9x/ME)

I can almost guarantee that you'll have issues if you upgrade from WinME to anything in the NT family, unless it's clean.

And the time spent in reinstalling software is usually less annoying than the time spent troubleshooting little issues that shouldn't be occuring.

As always, YMMV...

 

OK I now see where you may have to do things differently. You do not have the average home setup. I can see where you might need to leave machines on as they may be being used as servers. If so then they do need to be left on.

Seing the words ISP Networks makes your situation much clearer to me. And it also helps me to better understand your thinking.

I did not mean to imply that you did. And I just dis-agree ( from my experience ) that more problems are created from an overtop install. Either one is nothing other than a gamble that it goes right anyway.

And I have not had any probelms putting XP ( NT based I believe ) over 98.

To that we are in FULL agreement. I myself would not even recommend ME is the first place.

I can not honestly say either yes or no to that. Have not had problems to mess with. The one program I did have was strictly the program itself. NOTHING to do with Windows. It was an OLD DOS 6.22 program. And really never behaved properly in anything above 95 on ANY machine. But I did get it to work on my Wifes. machine which has 98SE on it. But I had to manually edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat to get it to work right. That is a little tougher to do in XP. But I understand that it can be done by using a different set of config and autoexec files.

BTW. As to System Restore. If you will look around on this BB I believe you will find that others are also having probelms with it and some are clean installs.

I am not sure if it were you or someone else that said it. But the condition of the previous OS and/or how the original install goes does have a lot to do with how things go.

If you are upgrading to fix probelms forget it. They will more than likely carry right over.

But anyhow. Whether we have agreed or disagreed, cussed or discussed the subject. Readers sure should have both sides of the overall story. And make a decision that suits them best.

That is all I was really after. And that is what I got.

Gotta go soak my infected foot and take my medicine.

Catch y'all later
BillyBob

 

Well said.

 

If find that some 3rd party products which purport to be helpful (SystemWorks anyone?) can interfere with native 2000 and XP functionality.

The less utilities one adds to the mix, the smoother things tend to go.

Fair enough.

 

Another FULL agreement

I dumped Norton SYstemWorks ONE DAY after I installed it in XP. In the 98 machines it seems to be OK.

And that is written from a VERY LONG time supporter of Symantec Products.

Also that is one software that I took the machine off line and did uninstall completely before upgrading to XP. Maybe that is what helped to keep down problems. Along with spending 2-3 days cleaning out trash.

BillyBob