- Location
- NC Sandhills
At least this time it's not a pressing issue... but involves MS Windows licenses and upgrades.
Here's the setup:
#1: I took the bait on pre-ordering Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on Friday. (It's ship date is like 4 months out, so we have the benefit of time.)
#2: The copy of XP Home I want to "upgrade" is on a crummy old Compaq desktop - (AMD Sempron 2.0GHz, maxed at 512kb memory, 40GB IDE HDD) This PC did not come with an XP DVD, but prompted me to burn a set of seven 'recovery disks' when I first booted up.
#3: The 7 Pro 64 upgrade will be used on a newer desktop - (Intel E5200 2.5GHz, 64 bit capable MOBO, 4 SATA ports and an IDE port, 4GB DDR2) and shall live on one 320GB HDD. I also want to keep the XP Pro SP3 living on another identical drive, and possibe set it up for "Dual Boot." At present, I am switching b & f between 7RC 64b and XP 32b by powering down and unhooking the data cable to the XP drive, and it boots up with the 7RC drive. Not a huge PITA, but looking for a more elegant way.
And here's where I need to plot out a course of action:
I think I need to (unclear of the order) format & partition the new SATA 320GB drive... get it in the box and make sure it's "seen"
Then I need to somehow extract the old XP home files from the IDE drive and get it onto that new SATA drive.
Or should I try to load the drivers (for the new PC) onto the old drive first, then see if it boots up on the new PC.
My understanding of Windows upgrades is that it has to load over the top of a registered previous version... one can't do a 'clean install' of an upgrade by itself?
I also understand that once I upgrade, the old XP Home OS is not to be used anymore. (I'm fine with that, the old PC is mostly a doorstop, and not completely reliable anymore) I am NOT looking for any gray-area workarounds... I want to keep it 100% legal. But I'd rather sacrifice my least-used license to do the upgrade, than blow up my new & playing nicely XP Pro 32 Bit license
Sage advice, taunts, and lambastation is always appreciated...
Here's the setup:
#1: I took the bait on pre-ordering Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on Friday. (It's ship date is like 4 months out, so we have the benefit of time.)
#2: The copy of XP Home I want to "upgrade" is on a crummy old Compaq desktop - (AMD Sempron 2.0GHz, maxed at 512kb memory, 40GB IDE HDD) This PC did not come with an XP DVD, but prompted me to burn a set of seven 'recovery disks' when I first booted up.
#3: The 7 Pro 64 upgrade will be used on a newer desktop - (Intel E5200 2.5GHz, 64 bit capable MOBO, 4 SATA ports and an IDE port, 4GB DDR2) and shall live on one 320GB HDD. I also want to keep the XP Pro SP3 living on another identical drive, and possibe set it up for "Dual Boot." At present, I am switching b & f between 7RC 64b and XP 32b by powering down and unhooking the data cable to the XP drive, and it boots up with the 7RC drive. Not a huge PITA, but looking for a more elegant way.
And here's where I need to plot out a course of action:
I think I need to (unclear of the order) format & partition the new SATA 320GB drive... get it in the box and make sure it's "seen"
Then I need to somehow extract the old XP home files from the IDE drive and get it onto that new SATA drive.
Or should I try to load the drivers (for the new PC) onto the old drive first, then see if it boots up on the new PC.
My understanding of Windows upgrades is that it has to load over the top of a registered previous version... one can't do a 'clean install' of an upgrade by itself?
I also understand that once I upgrade, the old XP Home OS is not to be used anymore. (I'm fine with that, the old PC is mostly a doorstop, and not completely reliable anymore) I am NOT looking for any gray-area workarounds... I want to keep it 100% legal. But I'd rather sacrifice my least-used license to do the upgrade, than blow up my new & playing nicely XP Pro 32 Bit license
Sage advice, taunts, and lambastation is always appreciated...