Windows Vista Should I buy Windows Vista when it gets released?

From the posts and articles I have read everyone suggests doing a clean install of Vista even from the upgrade version.

I currently have Windows XP MCE. Information says that if you buy the upgrade and do a clean install that it will ask you for your XP disk, however, all I have is the system disks from Sony and since I can't even run SFC with that I assume that will not work when asking for original XP disk.

The OS is on the disk, where I have no idea because you can't find it and it is on a hidden partition on the hard drive. So, how can I make a copy of just my OS on a disk so that I could do a clean install instead of an upgrade?

 

A very relevent & important question with almost all the hardware vendors preinstalling Win XP on computers san any media. Can the recovery cd be used in place of original cd? I think not.

Any ideas?

 

First, sfc can be done w/o an OS disc if there is a i386 folder on the C drive: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-24.html

I think there is a way to create an OS disc from the i386 folder - never had to it.

The other option is to contact MS and with your serial number, they will supply you with the OS discs - with MCE its DVD. For how much, I don't know.

Belarc http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html displays the OS's serial # under Software Licenses.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Joyce,

As you are planning, or hoping to plan a clean Vista install, you could think about what I plan to do, it may suit you.
I currently have XP on 'C' partition as is usual. I prepared a new partition adjacent to 'C' by shrinking it and shrinking the next partition up as well. I have been running the Vista RC1 from this new partition,'E', for a couple of months now with no problem.
When I get the Vista release I shall format 'E' and install Vista there, keeping XP as a dual boot until I'm happy, then I shall remove XP, and merge 'C' and 'E' into one partition for Vista. I shall take an image of Vista, and XP, just in case.

Roger

 

If you move the starting position of Vista on the hard drive Roger then the BCD will no longer point to Vista, as it is the partition offset that the BCD uses, unlike the boot.ini that just used the partition number. Running the auto repair from the Vista DVD will however correct the BCD for you, but whether Vista will be totally happy with being moved so far I can't say. I have only tested moving it that way on the drive by just small amounts and so far it has been fine.

 

I had actually planned to image Vista using TI10 rather than just moving it around, that should work OK. If anything goes wrong a re-install of such a newly installed program won't be too much trouble. That is the cheering part of using images, I shall always have XP to fall back on.

Roger

 

Charles I have NEVER had any luck with SFC without OS disk, I actually put MCE (supplied with a Dell computer) into one drive and XP Pro into another as this is the only way it does not give me the pop up asking for the disk although the Registry source path points to C:\windows\I386 as stated in the link you provided.
And I do use Belarc Advisor and also have the MS authenticity sticker with the key, so providing them with my key would be no problem but again as you say HOW MUCH?????

Roger, sorry but you completely lost me on that one

It would be nice if Sony or other manufacturers sold the upgrade version for your model pc so that you would have all the correct drivers, but Sony only offers the upgrade to buyers after Oct 26, 2006.

 

There's a problem with the way you have that. If the I386 folder is a subfolder in your windows folder, the sourcepath entry in the registry needs to be C:\windows. If you had the folder in the root of your C drive, the sourcepath entry would be just C:\ . Remove the I386 part from the sourcepath entry in the registry and then give it a try.

SFC looks for a folder named I386. So, when you set the sourcepath as C:\windows\I386, it will look inside the C:\windows\I386 folder for a folder named I386. It won't be there of course so it fails and prompts you for your CD.

 

Windows Vista SP1 is coming http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5820.

I don't know if its good or bad. Just another thing to keep off Vista for some more time.

 

Zander, I made the change in regedit then ran SFC everything was doing great until it got down to the very last and it ask me for XP Pro Disk 2, so I put in an XP sp2 disk and it said I put in the wrong disk, so I put in the MCE disk and it completed. So I assume I had a file that was damaged????? Anyway will try again later and see if it still prompts me for the disk.

I found a site that explains how to make an OS disk if you do not have the original one http://www.nliteos.com/guide/index.html, but have not tried it yet as wasn't in the mood to rack my brain trying to figure it out.

 

The "Full" and "Upgrade" versions refer to the requirements to install Vista. Namely, the Full doesn't require a previous Microsoft OS - while the Upgrade does require either an installed copy of the OS, or a CD with a legit copy on it.

Then comes the "other" upgrade (now called an in-place installation) - it's only available under certain conditions. Here's a link to it. The green dots are the one's that you can do an upgrade from and the beige dots are the one's that you must do a clean install (regardless if you have a Full or Upgrade version): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeinfo.mspx

Frankly, an upgrade installation is like putting used car parts in your car. I prefer a clean install for most everything that I do.

 

I'll add my opinion here.

I'm only installing Vista because it's one of the 'perks' of being an MS MVP. I'd not buy it because in my opinion there isn't anything there to offer the average user.

If I run into users who do alot of media,e.g., video, heavy jpeg editing and so forth, I may say its worth it. but for the average user, XP will do just fine.

And since they recently extended support for it until 2014, there certainly is no big rush to upgrade.

 

Don't i have beta version now and i hate it so much. Such a mac OS rip off

 

Try this http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/95011/95011.html