Failed upgrade to XP

Hi
I've got a 98se machine here that i'm trying to upgrade to XP.
It goes along fine until it reaches the point where it says 'installation will complete in 1 min' - 'removing temporary files used'
It then hangs and never removes them.

upon rebooting it recognises that the installation did not complete and goes through the whole thing again.

Is there a way I can put the hdd in another machine, remove the temp files or remove the marker that says the install did not complete and trick it into booting up - if it has completed and is only having trouble removing the temp files?

Regards
Chris

 

How are you booting the machine ?

Over time and a few problems I have found the better way to boot the machine when upgrading is to boot from a power off state directly to a floppy. Then run setup from the CD. Then of course make sure that the upgrade goes into the existing Windows directory. ( I falied to do that once )

I have put 98 over 95 ( on three machines ) and then XP Pro over 98SE on this machine. I did not have any problems or loose a thing. XP Pro did a VERY good job.

BillyBob

 

Hi

I ran this upgrade from the CD. inserted it while 98SE was up and running and updated that way.

 

Hello spota,

Putting the HD into another system is a good idea, but I can't tell you what the temp files would look like. The problem may be hardware, are you sure the drive is ok?

For some ideas, this site has trouble shooting links:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpupgdissues.html

I think you would be better off in doing a clean install anyway - over time a better solution. In the site there are both upgrade and clean tutorials.

Regards - Charles

 

Tried a few different things, but now accepting defeat!

Now to get it back to booting 98 - at the moment it re-runs xp setup every boot, but it never finishes, when the hdd is viewed on another machine boot.ini only mentions XP - Am I too late?

Chris

 

I would say yes, but hang on for awhile, I'll ask someone closer to 98 to XP issues.

Regards - Charles

 

When doing it that way there are files ( many ) that are loaded and being used and will not get overwritten properly. Plus there may well be other programs loaded that interfere.

Recalling from experience and reading the above again I think you will need to reformat the HD and re-install Windows.

Or you just might get away with ( not sure ) with booting from a power off directly to a Floppy and re-run setup from the CD. I do not think you have anything ot loose by trying.

BillyBob

 

Are you using a XP Upgrade CD or a proprietary CD for another computer? Did you scan for any malware and clean up the 98SE install before trying to upgrade? Were you trying to save data that was on the drive?

If you were trying to save data on the 98SE setup by doing an upgrade install you may need to slave the drive to another and retrieve the data. If you are able to save the data then format that drive and do a fresh install of XP. Boot to the XP disk and be ready to insert the 98SE disk when it is called for.

 

hdd has already been imaged - all files are safe.
If it needs reinstalling I'll put 98SE back on.
Would reinstalling 98SE on top confuse it even more? - guess so.

I never upgrade - always clean install, but this was a 'quick' favour - typical.

Hopefully Charles's contact can come up with something.

Cheers all.

 

I think I was the contact. If you have the data backed up try a clean install of XP. Attempting to reinstall 98SE over the top may just create more of a mess. I find that running Kill Disk or DBAN first gives better results when installing XP on a drive that had a previous OS on it. You would need to run FDISK and format the drive after using either program.

 

So no way to go back to 98SE - that's gonna make me unpopular with a certain somebody....

Chris

 

If you format the drive then 98SE may install again. Is 98 on a CD or recovery partiton?

 

If the drive is imaged, as you said, "hdd has already been imaged - all files are safe.
If it needs reinstalling I'll put 98SE back on.
"

Then restoring the image will completely wipe out the contents of the partition being used and replace it with the image.

Or are you using the word "image" loosly?

An image from an application like Ghost, to Drive Image, or True Image from Acronis will completely replace the contents of the partition.