Ken writes:

<<Trying to upgrade a client's Win 98 PC, but the Win XP installation keeps
restarting>>

 From all I've ever read, it would be most unwise to even attempt an
"upgrade" from 98 to XP, especially where the original OS has gone flaky.
You are more than likely to end up with a less than satisfactory system at
best, or a disaster at worst.

If a reformat is not possible, then at the very least you should deltree
the existing Windows system before installing XP.  Microsoft system
upgrades have always been notoriously flaky unless coming from an already
perfect system. More so when upgrading to a totally different concept of
OS, as you are doing when moving from 98 to XP.

Using a third-party utility to "fix" (which I suspect might only mask) an
existing problem may only compound the problem.

I would at least caution the client of the possible (likely?)
unsatisfactory outcome before attempting the conversion. At least you won't
get the blame that way.

Sorry, this doesn't really answer your problem--perhaps you have been given
no alternative. And I'm sure that many upgrades work perfectly OK---we
probably only read about the horror ones. But I've read too many notes in
too many journals and forums, (and not only with XP), to disregard this
possibility.

You are probably right----XP won't install if the conditions are not right,
though logically you'd expect it to fail before the key-in stage.

Don Penlington










 From the beach at Surfers Paradise.
http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
for sunny Queensland photos, fractal art, free computer tutorials, and more.

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