Questions. Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss Questions. in the Windows Vista forums; Hello, I am interested in installing Vista. When it is time to choose the "upgrade" or "custom". I do want to keep all my files to ...

[danteunknown]

Hello, I am interested in installing Vista. When it is time to choose the "upgrade" or "custom". I do want to keep all my files to XP, but it is not letting my choose upgrade. What should I do? I have 3 GB free to install it, Is that enough?

[crabby]

Are you installing from INSIDE xp? If you are then it should work :S I don't do upgrades, but if you load xp, start setup you should hopefully be able to upgrade... if n, does it say why? Others here will be more help

crabby

[danteunknown]

well it says that i need 76167 mb before i can upgrade and i need everything else on my computer.

[felix8406]

Danteunknown

First thing first; I see you mentioned about wanting to keep all XP files. Since we are not dealing with a final version of Vista, upgrading your XP would be a bad choice at this moment. Second, I don’t know how big your hard drive is, but judging by your 3 GB of free space, it appears to be a small hard drive. I believe that to install Vista you’ll need around 15 GB of free space, but that number is not really important as it does not take in consideration the amount of space you’ll need to run programs. Thirdly, your PC must meet Vista’s minimum requirements; but even minimum requirements do not guarantee that your PC will function any better than XP.

You can check this site http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvist...uirements.mspx to see if your PC meets the minimum requirements.
Also, tells us about your current system; I’m sure you’ll get plenty of help here. But more importantly, if in doubt, please ask. Good luck.

[danteunknown]

Well i can go custom but i was reading where i can have something called vistabootpro. I have enough to download the custom but just not to upgrade. I thought that i could go custom and have the thing where i can switch back and forth to xp and vista. I also read where upgrade wasnt a option for ne-wayz.

[Davehc]

You should do a clean install on another partition or HD. Vista will automatically set up the dual boot for you. But please read Felix' note on minimum requirements. You don't seem to be very close to those.

[Znod]

Originally Posted by danteunknown

Hello, I am interested in installing Vista. When it is time to choose the "upgrade" or "custom". I do want to keep all my files to XP, but it is not letting my choose upgrade. What should I do? I have 3 GB free to install it, Is that enough?

I am not sure that I understand your circumstances clearly. But, here goes anyway--given that you want a dual boot.

First, I would try to do an upgrade of your existing partition, but let the upgrade go only to the point where it tells you what installed programs are going to be problems in Vista. Then, abort the upgrade.

Next, given that you are likely to need to do a clean install of Vista ultimately because of space limitations, you'll know what your problems are likely to be. Knowing that some programs may not work well enough, or at all, on Vista might help you determine how to save some space or at least what to try to install last. At the extreme, the knowledge might make you change your mind about installing Vista.

And, of course, I would free up all the space I could on what will be your XP partition. I think you may end up with enough space to cleanly install Vista and a judicious selection of the programs you are using on your XP partition.

Personally, I would not waste my time with Vista Boot Pro. You can find all you need to know about dual booting on this wonderful thread: http://www.vistababble.com/forums/vi...-xp-vista.html.
While I have a huge amount of respect for crabby (also felix), I proceeded essentially as felix suggested in the first reply. I threw caution to the wind because I always am well backed up and I made a disk image of my XP Pro drive before installing Vista.

You will need to find a way to create your second partition. You could use XP's Disk Management, Norton's Partition Magic (I don't like Norton anything very much), or Acronis Disk Director.

[danteunknown]

Oh, i c i dont have 15 gb free i only have 3 it looks like but it is giving me the option of installing it clean. How do i creat an extra portion on my hard drive.

[Znod]

It is giving you the option of intalling over XP or cleanly installing XP. In either case, XP, and any installed programs that are incompatible with Vista, will be gone "for good."

[crabby]

Originally Posted by danteunknown

Oh, i c i dont have 15 gb free i only have 3 it looks like but it is giving me the option of installing it clean. How do i creat an extra portion on my hard drive.

You CANNOT alter the partition table of partitions which hold the system. This means that if your hard drive is made of just 1 partition atm, you won't be able to change it I would suggest you either 'bite the bullet' and back up your files on removable media (like DVDs etc) and do a clean install (and whilst you are at it, make some partitions ), OR stump up the cash for a new hard drive Hard drives are always a great purchase and right now they are DIRT CHEAP! In the UK you can get 400 GB for £105 which is less than $200.

crabby