Is the a way to force XP upgrade when booting from the CD

message from Anthony Ewell on 11 Jun 2004

Hi All,

When a prior version of Windows is installed on
a computer but will not boot, is there a way to
tell the XP installation CD (Full and Upgrade CD's)
that I want to do an "upgrade install?"

I have noticed that I must be in a operating
Windows desktop and insert the CD to get the
option of doing an upgrade. But, if I boot of the
CD I am told the install is going to overwrite everything.
YUK!

Many thanks,

Will Denny replied to Anthony Ewell on 12 Jun 2004

Hi

Have you got an OEM XP CD? If so, it will only perform a 'clean' install,
wiping out all data on the hard disk/partition. If you have a Full Retail
XP CD you will get an option to upgrade a previous version.

Quentin David Jones replied to Will Denny on 12 Jun 2004

Greetings Will,

No,
I have also found Tony is right,

even with a NON-OEM XP (which allows upgrade)
the upgrade option does NOT seem to be available when booting from the CD,
only when auto-running the CD from a booted OS.

But there IS the Repair option (well, two of them.)

Quentin

"Will Denny" <willdenny@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:uEUXZUDUEHA.2580@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Anthony Ewell replied to Quentin David Jones on 12 Jun 2004

Hi,

It is with the retail version. Booting
from the CD give no upgrade option that I
can find. I was hoping someone knew of
a workaround.

How would repair work when the OS on the
system is a prior version of Windows?

Ron Martell replied to Anthony Ewell on 12 Jun 2004

When you boot with the XP CD choose the option to "Setup Windows XP"
You will receive further options later on in the process that include
the option to upgrade your existing Windows to Windows XP.

Note:

If your hard drive is using a BIOS overlay program (EZDrive, MaxBlast,
Disk Manager, etc) and you boot with the CD then the BIOS overlay will
not be loaded and the XP Setup routine will not repeat will not detect
your existing installed Windows and therefore you will need to use a
different procedure.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

Anthony Ewell replied to Ron Martell on 12 Jun 2004

Hi Ron,

I am not finding it. I get to where it warns me that it
will erase my old windows directory and my "Documents and Settings"
directory (erasing "my documents" as well -- awfully rude of them).
Once, on a machine I did not care about, I let it go
through and it did exactly what it said it would. It erased
everything. Never gave me an upgrade option either.

I was hoping there was some find of "f" key or other hidden
switch I could pull that would run the upgrade option.

It also occurs to me, if the computer had a corrupted
prior Windows version already on it, that M$ (Microsoft) may
have done this on purpose. The upgrade option may require an
intact, fully functional registry to work. M$ may have decided
that if you had to boot from the CD, that your prior installation
was too far gone to recover.

I could always install in a separate directory, but I'd was
hoping not to have to reinstall ALL my programs AGAIN -- just
the few that wouldn't upgrade properly.

It is still kind of RUDE to erase your "my documents" directory.

Archived message: Is the a way to force XP upgrade when booting from the CD (Microsoft Win XP)