Upgrade or
Not?
I will tell you that it is
always… let me repeat that, ALWAYS best to fresh install any
operating system and upgrading from a previous operating system
such as Windows3.1 to Windows95… or Windows95 to
Windows98 is always a bad idea. It can be done, but it adds a
layer of problems if it goes successfully, worse case…
your system is trashed and you find yourself formatting only to
install fresh.
Why would you consider
upgrading Windows95 or Windows98 with Windows 2000?
There are only two possible situations
that come to mind:
-
You have a great number of
software applications installed on your system and fear
reinstalling them all; and,
-
You have lots of user
accounts and settings that are going to be difficult to
reconfigure in a fresh install.
The best thing to do...
is to do everything in your power not to upgrade an existing
installation. It only takes one bad experience with an upgrade
of Windows95 or Windows98 for you to realize that a crashed
operating system is a horror. You can believe that it will not
happen to you, you can handle the problems that arise or somehow
you are protected by the Gods of Software… then you are living
in a dream world. A complete operating system melt down is no
fun and recovery can be a nightmare.
The best possible way to
install Win2000 on a Windows 95/98 system is to create a
parallel install. This means placing Win2000 and Windows 95/98
in separate directories or separate hard drives or drive
partitions. This isn't hard to do and is spelled out later in
the installation instructions: all you need to do is specify a
different directory than the existing one for Windows. But be
advised, you must have at least 850 megs of free space on the
target drive to do this and I recommend at least a gig free.
For best results with parallel
installs, use another drive. One reason for this is that Windows
places components in the Program Files folder of the system
drive that may not be cross compatible with other Windows
versions. If you have Win95/98 on the 'C' drive and space on the
'D' drive, install Win2000 on the 'D' drive. This way you'll
have two discrete Program Files directories, one on C: for
Win95/98 and one on D: for Win2000. No possible confusion
there. Trust me, putting Windows versions in their own
partitions is the most reliable way to work with a multiple-boot
environment.
Back to Windows200
Install Guide
Upgrade
Issues: FAT SYSTEMS
If you're installing Win2000 on
a Windows95/98 system, you need to think about the file-system
issue... even if you're upgrading Win95/98. Win2000 works
transparently with FAT (also known as FAT16) and FAT32, which
makes it possible for Win2000 to coexist on the same drive as a
Win9x installation, without any major problems.
Even so, no version of FAT
should be left on the system if you want take advantage of NTFS
security features, and any Win2000 installation on a FAT or
FAT32 partition will be far more vulnerable to casual attacks
(all someone has to do is put in a Windows boot floppy to get
into the system!) than if the system were on NTFS drives.
Okay... most of you who
will read this are loading Windows200 either at home or your
home office, so this is not a concern. But, we thought to
mention it.
So, if you're looking for the
best mix of interoperability and security, use FAT32 as a happy
medium between the Operating Systems. You can use a FAT32 drive
as a data repository while you upgrade your Operating System and
application drive(s), then convert the FAT32 drive to NTFS using
the Win2000 command line command:
CONVERT {drive letter}: /FS:NTFS
Down the road, though, think
about moving any data you need to migrate between Operating
Systems completely offline... say, to a local-network
shared drive or a backup device/drive. Then convert all
drives to NTFS and restore your data back onto your local
system.
Why would you consider leaving
FAT or FAT32?
One big reason comes to mind... not all of your existing
applications will run from a NTFS drive, many are older and
designed to run on FAT or FAT32. Converting over may
completely make these programs unable to run. So, consider
hard before converting all your drives to NTFS.
