Vista Upgrades Require Presence of Old OS 561
kapaopango writes "Ars Technica is reporting that upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Starter Edition cannot be installed on a PC unless Windows XP or Windows 2000 is already installed. This is a change from previous versions of Windows, which only required a valid license key. This change has the potential to make disaster recovery very tedious. The article says: 'For its part, Microsoft seems to be confident that the Vista repair process should be sufficient to solve any problems with the OS, since otherwise the only option for disaster recovery in the absence of backups would be to wipe a machine, install XP, and then upgrade to Vista. This will certainly make disaster recovery a more irritating experience.'"
Ghost (Score:4, Informative)
Fresh Install Woes (Score:5, Informative)
Out of morbid curiosity I decided to install XP, worked like a charm. I then put in the Vista CD, and it booted and installed a fresh copy of Vista without problem. (Complete overwrite, not upgrade).
So, from my experience, Vista won't even install on a totally fresh hard drive.
A co-worker had a very similar experience, but had to go with installing XP, then upgrading - which leaves you with some decidedly annoying problems with the admin controls.
Overall Vista isn't as bad to work with as some stories would lead me to believe, but there are definitely days where it's easy to see it is not fit for prime-time.
Moo (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Symantec Called (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not sure if it's ghost or another norton product, but there is one where norton thought it was a good idea to change the partition ID to refelect the fact that it employed some form of nortons crap. That sounds logical, and well and good, except for the fact that after blowing a motherboard, it was not possible to mount the drive in windows, it wouldn't see it. You "could" mount it under linux easily enough, it was a perfectly valid NTFS partition. Partition magic wouldn't touch it which is now owned by Symantec, paragon wouldn't touch it, nothing would. And it's not like i'd tweek with the paramaters until such time as I got the drive backed up.
Symantec has some good utilities, but unforunatly many of them are bug ridden pieces of filth, and none of the utilities they buy the rights to and sell seem to be aware of each other, which is the apex of stupid when you have one product using it's own unique partition ID number and nothing else in the Nortons sphere that deals with the drive on this level understands this idiot approach.
Paragon backup seems to do the trick, without alot of bullshit. I wouldn't touch nortons ghost.
"Backup" Utility (Score:5, Informative)
Vista - a glossy step backwards.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about a little confirmation? (Score:3, Informative)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930985/en-us [microsoft.com]
To resolve this problem, use one of the following methods.
Method 1
Upgrade to Windows Vista from an earlier, supported version of Windows that is already installed on the computer.
Method 2
Purchase a license that lets you perform a clean installation of Windows Vista.
Re:And the problem is? (Score:2, Informative)
I had to install XP, upgrade a handful of things, then reinstall Vista. HUGE pain in the ass.
Re:Are you surprised? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:thank u bill (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"Backup" Utility (Score:4, Informative)
MS has made the old backup utility available for download just for people like you.
Did you ever think the BKF format might be limited and based on, oh 1993 technology??
Vista - a glossy step backwards.
Jealousy is a horrible thing, now go upgrade that 1993 system.
Re:Microsoft seems to be confident that the Vista (Score:3, Informative)
Vista Business Upgrade experiences and a Rant (Score:3, Informative)
Yes I was annoyed that the upgrade would not install on a 'clean' system.
So I had to install a copy of XP. I didn't authenticate it.
Then I started the upgrade from within XP and chose 'Overwrite existing system'
About an hour later and several (3+ I think) reboots I have a Vista System running.
M$ Could have done this better by not only asking for the original CD Media for XP but also the Key for that version of the OS.
Then you would not have to waste an hour with the XP Install before totally obliterating the newly installed XP.
Now I usually use Server running Windows Server 2003 which use "Windows Classic" by default. My XP System is also configured to use Classic. I tried the same with Vista.
I always put an Explorer and DOS icons on the desktop.
Vista let me put the DOS on no problem. But, would it let me do the same with explorer? Fat chance.
(Start->Programs->Accessories->Windows Explorer, Right Click->Send to Desktop)
The Right Click on "Windows Explorer" just closed the Start->Programs...
It is as if M$ have deliberately disable this functionality.
Vista, Not fit for Service.
Classic is Broken or is this a deliberate ploy by M$?
The system now runs Fedora Core 6.
Vista is there as a boot option but really M$, your boot editor is pure Cr*P. Was the UI designed by a 6 year old. Please do something aqbout it pronto. Why oh Why is this needed?
Re:Are you surprised? (Score:3, Informative)
This is nothing new.
Re:Another reason to keep backups current. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:thank u bill (Score:3, Informative)
To be fair to Microsoft, my OS X 10.3 Upgrade disks required 10.2 to be installed before running. When I did a wipe-reinstall, I had to first install 10.2 with the system recovery disk that came with the machine, then do an erase-and-upgrade to get a clean 10.3 system.
To be fair to Apple, the 10.3 upgrade only cost £15 ($20 for people in the USA), which is a little bit less than Vista.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Informative)
Because Direct X 9.0c already exists for Win2000 and XP. Direct X 10 promises more beautiful graphics, but it will take a long time before the majority of games is Direct X 10 only.
Re:Another reason to keep backups current. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And the problem is? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Microsoft seems to be confident that the Vista (Score:4, Informative)
I had to walk a friend on dial-up through this once over the phone. He had a liveCD but his internet was too slow to even think about doing a dist-upgrade. He's still up and hasn't had problems. It isn't the easiest thing to do, but it works, and I dare say updating Windows isn't that easy either.
Re:"Backup" Utility (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a tool that will allow the restoring of files located in a
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?F
(WGA required, get a legal copy if you're gonna run Windows).
I know it's only part of the solution, but, hey, at least it'll restore your files that already exist in the
Re:And the problem is? (Score:2, Informative)