Upgrading to Vista

th3ha1og0d

th3ha1og0d

New Member
Hello there. My current PC is an HP desktop with Windows Media Center Edition installed on it (it is the original OS the computer came with when I bought it.) It did not come with an operating system installation DVD, however it did come with an HP utility to create rescue discs (these restore your OS back to factory defaults). I also have a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate full version (not the upgrade one.)

My question would be: Can I upgrade to Windows Vista and keep all of my files/documents that I have now, and if the installation was to fail or I just want to revert back to Windows XP Media Center Edition with the use of the recovery DVD's? I've heard that once Vista is on there, it's on for good.
 
When Vista goes on the the cirrent files and folders including the Windows directory is folded all into one folder now seen as "Windows.old". That includes the DocumentsandSettings and Program Files directories as well. Once Vista's new boot loader is installed onto the drive with a boot folder created you would have to delete the current partition to remove those. And with a prebuild system only seeing 512mb to 1gb of ram? Not good!

Some get away with 1gb on custom builds but HP, CompaQ, Dell, Gateway, etc.? not good! Plus Vista drivers and softwares are still in their "infancy at this time. There's no rush if your system is running good. Like any other version of Windows when new it also still has some not as many "bugs" to be worked out.
 
you can dual boot it , like partition ur hardrive and have one with ultimate the other with media center , and if u do or can , store all your files onto a external hdd
 
At this time making Vista a primary OS would be a loss if you have a lot tied up in current softwares. Most games even older ones seem to be running stock quite well while drivers are still often lacking and newer versions or replacements for current desktop applications is to be expected. You go through this with every new version of Windows.

For a dual boot it's sometimes a little harder to get Vista to install to a second partition while having improved drive tools available. By nature it will want to upgrade and over bear MCE being the older version of Windows. But you can shrink the current primary with a free Linux tool known as GParted even creating a new second primary for Vista to go on. How large is the drive there? You'll need room for softwares there too.
 
It has 2 gb ddr2533 ram and has a 250 gb hardrive with the data partition (224 gb) and a recovery partition (10 gb).
 
Despite the low numbers seen on Vista ready programs right at the moment you will want some 70-80gb to get started with even if you were plamming an XP installation. The 10gb recovery partition you will want to preserve anyways for the XP MCE side of things. There you would shrink the current primary down quite a ways and create a new NTFS primary in that space now considered unallocated for Vista to go on.
 
Thank you very much for all the help. I think that alot of people are waiting for SP1 for Vista to be released and I may as well do the same, because if my MCE will serve me well then why switch? Also, I can switch to Vista when I get that DX10 video card.
 
Microsoft has no plans to release any large service packs like seen with 2000, XP, Winserver 2003. Instead you will see weekly updates if any released on mondays. That's lame! When having to reinstall XP Pro there were some 84 updates to download and install. :rolleyes:
 
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