Upgrading to Win2000

I'm currently running Win98SE, and am considering upgrading to Win2000. I've been told that the best way is to reformat the hard drive, do a clean install, and reinstall applications rather than "upgrade." Is one way better than the other? What are the pros and cons? Thanks.

 

As a general rule of thumb, I never do "upgrades" any more. Over the years some worked OK but others were a disaster. So my personal preference is to save all the files I want to keep, reformat, and install fresh.

Pros 1) it works 2) it works clean 3) I didn't waste a bunch of time with an upgrade that was buggy and then still have to do this.

Cons 1) takes longer 2) you gotta back up the stuff you want to keep to some place off the drive you are formatting 3) you gotta reinstall all your software

OTOH, the upgrade might work fine for you and it would certainly save you a bunch of time. If you try it and have problems, you can always go back and start from scratch.

Good idea to back up files you want to save though. Data files, documents, favorites, email, address book, etc.

I also prefer to format the drive NTFS rather than FATxx because of the additional security it has. It will slow a system down every so slightly but well worth it IMO. More secure and more stable.

 

I've done both and while I prefer doing a clean install, an upgrade can save you a lot of time and data. The nice thing about the upgrade is that it will go through a process before Windows 2000 is installed and tell you what applications and hardware will have issues and how to correct them (if possible). You also get an opportunity to convert your file system to NTFS during the upgrade.

Usually I would recommend a clean install, but when you upgrade from Win9x to Windows 2000, very little is left of Win9x so any problems that were going on with the OS prior most likely will be history when Windows 2000 is done. The upgrade isn't like going from Win95 to Win98 or ME where the bulk of the OS stays intact with only key files being replaced or added.

 

Thank you both for your response. I've decided to locate an upgrade disk at a local computer show this weekend and just do it!