Re: Upgrading to Vista?

"Astralis"

If there's a problem in the upgrade and you get the blue screen of death then
you essentially lose your original OS and will need to purchase it if the OEM
did not provide you the disk. This happened to me when I tried to upgrade
to XP SP2 from SP1. I lost everything and had to buy a new OS because I
didn't have the disk.

When it comes to your OS, you shouldn't be messing with it unless you truly
know what you're doing. I will never again upgrade an OS on a critical
server (computer). It's best to simply buy a new computer and install the OS
you require and keep it.

I recommend you simply wait to buy a new computer with the OS you require
and save yourself from some major potential problems.

"robothouse" wrote:

I am currently looking into buying a new, high-end PC (most likely
Alienware). I see that Alienware currently has a savings of $100 off of any
PC. However, that offer is ending soon and I am planning on ordering it
before then.

One of the plans that Alienware offers is a free upgrade to Windows Vista
Home Premium with the purchase of a new PC, even before Vista comes out (they
ship you the DVD). I, however, have never installed a new operating system on
a computer before.

My question is: how hard will it be to upgrade the PC, which would be
running Media Center, to Vista? Do I just pop the DVD in and it does
everything? Do I have to uninstall Media Center. Do I have to format the Hard
Drive?

Any thoughts or answers would be appreciated

Thank you,
robot

Your resolution is extreme, and to put it simply but without wanting to offend you, a situation of your own making. In the first place you should always have the means to recover your system, be it the system recovery CDs or an installation CD. Your not having it was just plain error on your part. Secondly there are easy ways to protect the status of your system which are worthwhile to use even when not upgrading.

Get a drive imaging program, image the drive to external media such as an external USB hard drive, then if something happens during an OS upgrade or the hard drive dies or whatever, restore the image and you're back in business.

Don't let circumstances control your choices on when/what you want to do, or cost you down time and money. Establish good computing practices and have fun.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

.

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