Switching from 98SE - pros and cons

I just spent the weekend loading XP after formatting c: (mainly wanted to clear the pile of junk caused by kids downloading everything available. Xp should give much more control over this.

Warning - check your hardware first. I found that the internal modem didn't work so I used an old external one with no problem. Also couldn't get the second monitor to work - card was Diamond stealth s220 - it seems there are no drivers available for XP. May have to buy a new card. Also, some software will need fixes (eg CD copier). Also Norton antivirus.

Otherwise XP looks good at this early stage, but the final cost may be higher for me with new videw card.

Ross

 

BB - I sincerely hope you remain our resident Luddite.

Someone needs to make reasoned arguments when we "new & improved" fanatics get on a tear.

Cal E - how about covering all your bases with the new system. It should have a nice, large Hd so you can format /w 2 partitions, install 98 on C: and then install XP on D: (or whatever). Just make sure you get a real XP install CD with the new PC.

Once you have both loaded, you can certainly find out if all your stuff wil work under XP and if not, run the old stuff under 98 or scrub XP off and run 98.

 

Thanks Newt. I will do my best. As I get the impression that you do see what I am getting at.

To anyone who wishing to upgrade to XP I suggest getting;

XP Upgrade Advisor

And running it. It may not be 100% accurate but seems close.

I ran it last night and got no surprises.

My Existing Norton Software is a NO-NO for XP. Actually same should be un-installed ( or at least disabled before upgrading any OS anyway.

MY scanner and Video Cam and Printer need new drivers and re-installation. ( no surprise there ).

A few other pieces of software will need to be re-installed. ( no surprise there ) And a couple of other * MIGHT NOT * work.

But no hardware such as Vidoe, audio showed any problem.

It did also STRONGLY state the NetBeui WOULD NOT be upgrade. This might be of importance to anyone having a LAN. ( which I do )

BillyBob

 

IF your company is happy with 98SE i'd say more power to you There's no need to upgrade if your current setup is working fine.

Hoewever, if your looking for a more powerful OS then XP would be a better choice than 2000. Though you may find better hardware support for 2k, your still an OS behind, and XP brings the best of both words for 98 and 2000 in terms of user support and networking powers.

I would be wary of the DOS emulator though. Though it supposedly works with the "majority" of DOS programs, I have had my trouble with it. I do not know how your DB's are written, but they sound very important to your success with your comp. I would again, test this out on XP before going through with it all.

I agree with the majority of what is said for both sides. Billybob gave me a lot of help when I was upgrading, and saved me a lot of grief I'd do some sort of partitioning, or test XP on another computer, or SOMETHING before going through with the entire installation process. Remember, take it slow, there is no rush

 

Very important point in this case.

BillyBob

 

I, too, am taking the plunge and replacing my Win98 SE 400 Mhz Dell with a Win XP Home 2.26 GHz, 1 GB RAM Dell.

And I'm really counting on Aloha Bob's PC Relocator 4.0 to help me make the transition by transfering not only all my applications and files but all of my Windows, networking and DSL settings and preferences as well.

I've spoken to several people who say PC Relocator works extremely well. I sure hope they're right because I've got a rather complex system to transfer over to the new XP machine: an 8 GB tape drive, DSL modem and settings, phoneline home network, two printers (one of them USB-based), plus a finely-tuned Windows environment that lets me retain 96% resources upon boot-up.

Anyway, my two biggest worries are that 1) my home network and DSL settings won't transfer over and I'll have to reconstruct them from scratch; and 2) I won't be able to customize XP itself to achieve the lean mean Windows environment that I like.

(As an example, on my old machine, I've disabled fastfind, removed almost all startup programs from the initial boot, and configured my swapfile, etc., to get the most performance from the unit. Will I be able to do the same on my new XP system?)

Anyway, as soon as I get the new machine and put PC Relocator to work, I'll let you know how it goes.

Is there a topic in this forum on how to customize WinXP home to your heart's desire? Or a page of "tricks & tips" somewhere?

Thanks for any pointers you can offer.


David

 

dkline

Food for thought only.

It may be just my own personal opinion but seeing as how you would be working with two ENTIRELY different machines and OS I think your best best would be to start fresh.

More than likely the old setting are not going to work anyway.

A concern of mine would be that going from SE to XP Are all of the programs compatable with XP ? If not you could be in real deep water without a life preserver.

And don't foregt that any problems that * MAY * exist will be carried to the new.

(As an example, on my old machine, I've disabled fastfind, removed almost all startup programs from the initial boot, and configured my swapfile, etc., to get the most performance from the unit.

That is why I am sticking with 98 FE. I can run it MY WAY.

Will I be able to do the same on my new XP system?)

That I can not answer.

My Bottom line

START FRESH

BillyBob

 

I share your concerns, BillyBob.

But I've tried to minimize them by running MSFT's "XP upgrade advisor" and have determined that only a couple of my software apps and hardware devices may not be compatible. So in preparation for the transfer, I've downloaded new drivers for the hardware, and uninstalled the incompatible software apps.

Given that, I have only two choices:

1) Try to reinstall on the new machine all my current software -- which I cannot do since I don't have all the original disks and much of my software is downloaded or upgraded via the net.

2) Attempt a PC Relocator transfer, which people I trust insist really works surprisingly well. Of course, if it doesn't -- and the new machine ends up a ghoulish goulash of mixed up software and devices -- then PC Relocator has an instant "reverse" switch that restores the new machine to the exact same condition Dell shipped it to me in.

Given my real choices here, Door No. 2 seems like the best bet, doesn't it? At least worth a try?

As for my Internet DSL and home networking settings, I'll try the transfer since I am 100% clueless about doing it myself. But if that doesn't work, then I have two options:

1) Try a fresh install & configuration of my network and DSL, which may not be as hard as I fear, if what people say about XP's device recognition & configuration capabilities.

2) I have an XP and networking expert on call as a consultant if I need him.

Anyway, again -- your concerns are valid, BillyBob. But I'd like to hear what you think of the above, and whether or not given my situation and preparation, using PC Relocator is worth a try.


David

 

I've downloaded new drivers for the hardware, and uninstalled the incompatible software apps

Now there is a sensible start.

1) Try to reinstall on the new machine all my current software -- which I cannot do since I don't have all the original disks and much of my software is downloaded or upgraded via the net.

That is something to think about also.

Unless PC Relocator transfer DOES NOT destory the old. I have no idea how it works. Some things of the type sort of dublicate and others move things. I would be very leary of the latter type.

Going from one HD to another on the same machine and the same OS is one thing. But going between two distinctly different machines and OS may be a different story.

The Network, DSL & such will more than like need to be redone anyway. And with help available it should not be that much of a problem.

So anyway it appears that you have enough knowledge now so that you can do what you think is best. And you seem to be fully aware of things that can happen.

Just from what you have said it appears that you have the SE machine working YOUR WAY. If it were me I would not even THINK about even any possiblity of damaging it.

I myself would get XP on the new machine and build on it.

But the bottom line is now that you have to make the final decision. And a DAM TOUGH one I must add

I do wish you good luck with whichever way you go. Because I know that you are not jumping in blind.

BillyBob

 

dkline - I think you will find that XP-pro (and maybe home but never used it) will fine-tune nicely. Differently than 98 for sure but you should be able to get the system pretty lean & mean and working as you want it.

Some things that caused problems with 9x systems are not a problem with XP and don't need to be messed with. Others certainly do.

And XP will deal nicely with NetBeui - but you gotta know where to find it since it is not one of the networking choices you are presented.

There are some good "Tip" sites out there and the XP & 2K archives here contain some great ideas as well.

 

Well, it's reassuring to know that XP allows customization, Newt. By the way, what's NetBeui?

And BillyBob, the main thing that reassures me about Aloha Bob's PC Relocator is that it's not a ghosting or copying program, but an application that dynamically analyzes both old and new machine and then only transfers appropriate files, apps and settings into a new, merged registry and set of directories.

For example, PC Relocator would not allow me to transfer my current video card or sound card drivers and settings to the new machine because it would detect the presence of new and different hardware. It also only transfers apps if there are no newer versions of those same apps on the new machine.

A ghosting or copying program would merely replicate my current hard drive and all it contains on the new machine. Which means that when all was done I'd have nothing more than a very expensive paperweight, since the new PC wouldn't even boot with incompatible drivers and hardware.

But this is an "intelligent" program -- or let's just say it's smart enough not to do anything really really dumb. At least that's what all the reviews I've read say about PC Relocator.

In a week or so, of course, I'll be giving it a try and I'll let you all know what happens. If PC relocator is as good as its supporters claim, then what a boon it'll be to folks who buy new PCs, right?

Anyway, read the FAQ on how PC Relocator works. You may find it interesting:

http://www.alohabob.com/faqgen.asp?item=pcr40

 

I am curious a s all heck now

I just took a quick ( very quick ) look at PC Relocator and unless I misread or mis inturptied it requires a version of Windows to be up and running along with the Network setup and running.

So it is my understanding that you would need toi have XP ( or at least something higher than SE ) installed on the new ( target ) PC before the program would work and transfer anything else.

Did I read wrong ??? I could have as I did read quick. Gotta get thing ready for trip.

I will do my best to check here in the AM. And any day thereafter if I can get on the Net.

BillyBob

 

Has anybody noticed the mileage this post is getting ?

Over 1200 views.

 

Yes, you need Windows up and running on both machines -- and the target PC has to have a version of Windows that's either the same as or newer than the one on the source PC.

Is that a problem?

I mean, most people who buy new PCs have the same or newer versions of windows on those new PCs. It's certainly the case with me, where the new unit being shipped from Dell will have WinXP pre-installed (I'm using Win98 SE right now on my old PC).

It may also be possible to overwrite the new Windows version on the new machine if, for example, you wanted to transfer your entire Win98 setup from old to new machine. But I'm interested in upgrading to the new OS, which is why I'm posting in this topic.

 

NetBeui is an older network protocol that Microsoft invented. Won't cross a router. Works by broadcast (it's sorta stupid). But setup is automatic and if you have 2 PCs attached to a hub and put them in the same workgroup with different computer names, you got connection.

Lots of folks had problems trying to network PCs at home using TCP/IP if they were also connecting to the internet which requires TCP/IP. Can be tough to get the settings so the whole thing works right.

Often they would use NetBeui for their local LAN which worked nicely and didn't bang heads with their internet connection(s).

Up until XP, it was one of the protocol options you got when setting up networking. With XP, it doesn't show up as a protocol option but you can dig it out and it will work fine.

 

PC TRansfer Successful!

Well, just to follow up, I used AlohaBob's PC Relocator 4.0 yesterday to transfer all my programs, files and settings from a Win98 machine to my new XP machine containing different video cards and other hardware.

It was a complete success! Now my new PC looks almost exactly like my familiar old Win98 machine, except that it's got a 2.26 GHz processor and 1 GB of DDR SDRAM rather than the 400 MHz processor and 128 MB RAM I used to have.

I am sooooo impressed with AlohaBob's PC Relocator! As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's not a copying or "ghosting" program but an application that intelligently analyses old and new machines and then merges their registries in a way that leaves you with the best of both.

Happy experiences with software are hard to come by, so I feel very fortunate, indeed.

 

thanks for the reply and the successful change! i might take a glance at the relocator software now

 

bad post. tried to delete but couldn't. sorry.

 

I am in the process of networking my new Dell with a NIC configuration for TCP/IP. PC Relocator will not do any TCP/IP transfers. There is feature with XP that will transfer files from PC to PC without configuring a LAN. XP filters unsafe and outdated files with the file protection feature so transfering files should not be a problem in that regard whether it is with XP or PC Relocator.

As stated by Newt, there can be problems with TCP/IP. My problem was the modem was in half duplex and was just transmitting and not receiving. Using DOS XP I entered "CMD" in run mode for a DOS session and ran IPCONFIG, IPCONFIG/RENEW and IPCONFIG/REPLACE. Unable to change or replace IP address.

The instalation was setup for dynamic addressing, and I was receiving a message:" error renewing interface local area connector..." indicating address was not dynamic. Isolated the problem to NIC and reseated the card in a different slot as well as tweaking. The installation did not go very smoothly. Good luck!

 

I'm not sure why you say PC Relocator won't do TCP/IP transfers, KenKeith I transfered all my apps, files, and settings from an old Win98 to a new XP machine using PC Relocator via TCP/IP. Are we talking about two different things here?