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Upgrade vs Clean Install. 1
- Thread starter Kjonnnn
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As a rule, I always advise a "clean" install from a freshly formatted partition. The advantage of starting from a "clean slate" is just that...you know that there will be no chance of leftover apps, reg entries, incompatibilities, etc. interfering with the stability of the OS.
Having said that, I must admit that I recently did "the dirty" (installed overtop an existing Win98 OS) on my main PC, and I've had no issues whatsoever. It was purely for the sake of convenience, as I would have had to reinstall a lot of stuff if I had done it "clean". Also, I was interested to find out what kind of issues I might run into from a "dirty", it would be handy for me to know when/if I need to upgrade users.
I should clarify, I pay very close attention to the performance of my various PCs, am always careful about what I install, and consistantly keep good maintainence habits--much more so than the average user, so I was confident going in that this PC was relatively "clean".
Also, during the upgrade process, W2K performs a system check on the PC and produuces a conversion report that lists any possible issues with hardware, software, drivers, etc. If you choose the upgrade route, take a close look at this report so you know what you are getting into...
Having said that, I must admit that I recently did "the dirty" (installed overtop an existing Win98 OS) on my main PC, and I've had no issues whatsoever. It was purely for the sake of convenience, as I would have had to reinstall a lot of stuff if I had done it "clean". Also, I was interested to find out what kind of issues I might run into from a "dirty", it would be handy for me to know when/if I need to upgrade users.
I should clarify, I pay very close attention to the performance of my various PCs, am always careful about what I install, and consistantly keep good maintainence habits--much more so than the average user, so I was confident going in that this PC was relatively "clean".
Also, during the upgrade process, W2K performs a system check on the PC and produuces a conversion report that lists any possible issues with hardware, software, drivers, etc. If you choose the upgrade route, take a close look at this report so you know what you are getting into...
I personally prefer a clean install, it may be a huge pain to back everything up, but in the long run you will get rid of a lot of crap that win2k doesnt need, that stays on your computer because of win98.
The only advantage of upgrading (not really an advantage), other than not having to reinstall is that if you have a particular setup on your desktop, etc that you need to keep. Or specific network settings etc. When you upgrade, win2k will keep the desktop settings you had and retain any network settings you might have setup.
But in spite of this I agree with crisc, and recommend backing up your data, formatting and creating new partitions, and doing a clean install.
mgicash
The only advantage of upgrading (not really an advantage), other than not having to reinstall is that if you have a particular setup on your desktop, etc that you need to keep. Or specific network settings etc. When you upgrade, win2k will keep the desktop settings you had and retain any network settings you might have setup.
But in spite of this I agree with crisc, and recommend backing up your data, formatting and creating new partitions, and doing a clean install.
mgicash
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