Upgrade to 2000 from 98 SE

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Hello,

Via EBay, I purchased an O.E.M. copy of Windows 2000, which I plan to install over my O.E.M. copy of Windows 98 SE (which came preinstalled on my Dell P.C.).

Before I install 2000, will I need to obtain 2000 drivers for all my software and hardware; or has it been your experience that the 2000 CD carries most drivers?

Has anyone encountered any problems in upgrading from 98 SE to 2000 that I should know?

Thanks,

Jonathan Rick Feder
JonFeder@home.com

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I installed Win2K last week. I decided not to upgrade my Win98 SE, so I formatted the hard drive and did a clean install. I read that an upgrade over Win98 may cause problems if the present software is not compatible with Win2K and you are not able to uninstall incompatible software.

Most of the drivers I needed had to be obtained from the vendor sites. One item was my NVIDIA graphics card. Win2K had the driver, but it caused problems. The vendor driver works fine.

If I can be of help, just drop me an e-mail.

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Allan,

Thanks for your reply.

I’d prefer an upgrade instead of a clean install, because I just got through a spring cleaning, in which I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled 98 SE; then I had the unending pleasure of reinstalling drivers and programs.

To be prudent, I’ll check the Web sites of all my software and hardcare to ascertain whether or not they’re 2000-compatible.

By chance, if programs or drivers aren’t officially compatible with 2000, they sometimes still work, right?

Thanks,

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The places to start are the hardware and software compatability lists at the MSFT Windows 2000 web site.

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http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/profe…pat/default.asp

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John,

After reading through the posts here I wanted to toss in a few observations and tidbits from experience.

Windows 2000 is over a year old and the software included on the 2000 CD is even older – the code there had to be frozen to prepare for production. So let 2000’s installer select the drivers it wants but update with vedor supplied drivers anyway.

Next, apply Service Pack 2, after you install the drivers.

You will find that most modern applications run under 2000 with the exception of a few games. As time passes this might change but if games are a big favorite of yours, don’t expect them to run. Dual boot instead.

Lastly, Microsoft has a tool available for download that can help determine if your system is compatible. It’s also on the 2000 CD. It is called the Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer – run the chkupgrd.exe file from the CD.

Good luck to you in your install.

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I found the MSFT Readiness Analyzer to be LESS THAN useful.

Since it was run in Win 98, naturally, it reported many incompatible things. However, all were irrelevant, as Win 2000 has buit-in drivers for most things.

The only problem I can recall is the sound card.
However, AFTER Win 2000 was installed, I just went int DEvice Manager, removed the sound card, and rebooted. Win 2000 then found the sound card.

Indeed, I saw a number of postings on similar problems with modems, etc. For some reason, Win 2000 does not recognize certain devices when Win 2000 is installed, but does, if you remove them frpm DEvice Manager and then reboot.

The Hardware Compatability list is the important list.
Again, I found the Readiness Manager less than useful.

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Unlike Mark here, I have found W2K to be OK with most modern games. I was having so much trouble with Windows ME turning to treacle, I upgraded. Windows 2K took all my network settings, and most other drivers, the only exceptions being my Sparkle Nvidia Card and my ISDN modem. I got those from the web. I dont have either service pack installed and things are running fine.

BTW, my sons games (if you are interested) include Quake III and mods, Fifa 2001 and mods, Actua Golf, Grand Prix 3 plus others, a fairly good mix I think you’ll agree.

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Yes, some do. I had installed WinFax Pro 9.0 and it worked, although Symantec had it listed as not compatible. However, I haven’t used it enough to discover any problems.
A great site for answers to Windows 2000 questions is http://www.freeanswers.com

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I believe Winfax is OK on a standalone W2K installation. However, it is not supposed to work with a host/server pc configuration.
Although great in many ways, we found Winfax an enormous memory hog, and the reliability of the host installation flaky to say the least.

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I agree Leif. I removed WinFax 9.0 and replaced it with the basic version offered on Norton System Works. The basic version is much less demanding and has all the features I need.

I wonder, though, about the ability of software to run on Win2k, even though it is not listed by the manufacturers. I feel this could cause some problems.

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I’d suggest the retail version, not the OEM version.
Who knows what’s different?

In any case, I’d recommend setting up your system as a dual boot Win 2000/98 system.

I did this by putting Win 2000 on a different disk drive.

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Hi Howard,

Thanks for your reply.

The O.E.M. version is a fait accompli, since I purchased it via EBay.

I only have one hard drive, so would dual-booting still work? In any event, what are the advantages of doing this?

Thanks,

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You can dual boot with a single drive, but it better be a large drive.

In effect, dual boot means that you have installed Win 2000 in a different directory than Win 98 AND you have told Win 2000 install NOT to remove Win 98.

DRives are fairly inexpensive these daze, I’d add another drive.

With a dual boot system, you do have to install many/most apps separately in Win 98 and Win 2000, so this does require lots of disk space, but it is safest until you are sure that Win 2000 fully works with your hardware.

Note that I got Win 2000 ONLY because I wanted to install Office 2000 in a separate system and keep Office 97 with Win 98.

Win 2000 is so superior to Win 98, I boot to Win 98 ONLY when I need to use Office 97 for my macro writing.

P.S. I still question using an OEM version of Win 2000, unless one can get FULL documentation of any differences from the retail version.

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Hi,

I also have Office XP, which is all that I need; so I’ll stick with Windows 2000 only.

Apropos of a second hard drive, any responses to my Hardware post 50144, “Backup device to replace external Jaz 2GB”?

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