question about Vista Upgrade

"richk" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ucO7%234EpJHA.3572@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I need to replace my wife's motherboard, and I am trying to minimize the
>amount of change. She is currently running XP, but the hardware is old
>enough that I cannot simply swap the MBs, because a new board will need a
>different HAL. I was thinking about installing XP and migrating
>applications. I was wondering what would happen if I cloned her disk to a
>SATA disk and installed a Vista upgrade on top of the XP disk. I would run
>setup and provide the appropriate drivers at the F6 prompt. She has used
>Vista on occasion when we are out-of-town. I have a separate userID on my
>laptop that is configured to look as much as possible like XP. The
>question is whether a Vista upgrade would work on top of an XP image that
>used a lot of older hardware.


New motherboards still have connections for floppy drives and at least two
IDE devices, so you should be able to install the new motherboard and then
do a repair install on the XP installation.

What you do after that is up to you regarding other new hardware or Vista
upgrade..


--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

If your wife's computer is still working, or you can read the hard drives
from another computer, backup all data before you do anything else. Many
users do not realize that a fresh installation of an OS, and even an
upgrade, can wipe out their data.
It does not make economic sense to replace the motherboard of an old machine
unless it is with exactly the same motherboard so you can reuse memory and
all the same vintage hard/optical/floppy drives and can avoid problems with
incompatible motherboard drivers.
It also does not make economic sense to build a computer unless you know
exactly what you want in a high performance machine, as opposed to an
ordinary desktop box, and are experienced at building and troubleshooting.
There are unbelievable bargains out there in premade boxes complete with
warranties.
Places like Tiger (not an endorsement) will sell older off lease boxes with
XP still installed for not much more than the price of a motherboard.
The best option is buy a new box with an installed OS, which means Vista at
this point in time, and install your existing hard drive in the box or
attach it via a USB enclosure.
If you insist on slapping in a different motherboard that, presumably, is
compatible with your existing memory sticks and drives you may be able to
simply boot into Windows and see if it will install new motherboard drivers.
You may have better luck if you first boot into safe mode and delete
pre-existing drivers. However more often than not a new motherboard and new
drivers needs a fresh installation of the OS or the system will be too
unstable because of a bad driver mix.
If you get the old installation of XP to work on a new motherboard you will
have to call the Indians who have American jobs courtesy of Microsoft and
beg for a new activation key anyway.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

"richk" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ucO7%234EpJHA.3572@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I need to replace my wife's motherboard, and I am trying to minimize the
>amount of change. She is currently running XP, but the hardware is old
>enough that I cannot simply swap the MBs, because a new board will need a
>different HAL. I was thinking about installing XP and migrating
>applications. I was wondering what would happen if I cloned her disk to a
>SATA disk and installed a Vista upgrade on top of the XP disk. I would run
>setup and provide the appropriate drivers at the F6 prompt. She has used
>Vista on occasion when we are out-of-town. I have a separate userID on my
>laptop that is configured to look as much as possible like XP. The
>question is whether a Vista upgrade would work on top of an XP image that
>used a lot of older hardware.

I need to replace my wife's motherboard, and I am trying to minimize the
amount of change. She is currently running XP, but the hardware is old
enough that I cannot simply swap the MBs, because a new board will need a
different HAL. I was thinking about installing XP and migrating
applications. I was wondering what would happen if I cloned her disk to a
SATA disk and installed a Vista upgrade on top of the XP disk. I would run
setup and provide the appropriate drivers at the F6 prompt. She has used
Vista on occasion when we are out-of-town. I have a separate userID on my
laptop that is configured to look as much as possible like XP. The question
is whether a Vista upgrade would work on top of an XP image that used a lot
of older hardware.

You would need to clone the XP drive, then do a repair of the XP to get it
up and running. Then do the upgrade to Vista. It's not as good as doing a
fresh install, but if that is the only way to keep her apps and whatnot, go
for it. If you can backup her information and get the original disks (or
upraded versions) of her older software, that'd be ideal. Make sure that the
older software works with Vista before upgrading, though.

Good luck!

Dustin Harper
http://www.mstechpages.com
dharper@mstechpages.com


"richk" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ucO7%234EpJHA.3572@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I need to replace my wife's motherboard, and I am trying to minimize the
>amount of change. She is currently running XP, but the hardware is old
>enough that I cannot simply swap the MBs, because a new board will need a
>different HAL. I was thinking about installing XP and migrating
>applications. I was wondering what would happen if I cloned her disk to a
>SATA disk and installed a Vista upgrade on top of the XP disk. I would run
>setup and provide the appropriate drivers at the F6 prompt. She has used
>Vista on occasion when we are out-of-town. I have a separate userID on my
>laptop that is configured to look as much as possible like XP. The
>question is whether a Vista upgrade would work on top of an XP image that
>used a lot of older hardware.