Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)
A few questions over an upgrade path for a friend's PC over the next
year...each step being months apart:
1) Move Windows 98 systems to larger/faster hard drive...clone (not image)
the old drive to the new hard drive and leave the old hard drive in the PC,
with data and power disconnected. To be cautious, I can make an image to a
few CDs and keep that out of the house.
2) Move to Windows XP. In this case, I am thinking about trying the upgrade
rather than a clean install (no major programs beyond the OS and Office 2000
SP3, and the adware/virus/firewall programs). How much success have people
had doing upgrades vs. clean installs? Can the drive be converted to NTFS as
part of the upgrade? I can not remember.
As for the old drive, after erasing it, I am thinking that this would be a
good place for an image (not a clone/copy) of the new hard drive. Can an
image of a NTFS drive be put on a FAT32 drive? Is there any advantage making
the backup (FAT32) drive an NTFS drive? After doing this, the data and power
cables would get unplugged again on the backup/old drive. Excepting for act
of nature or theft, that old drive should be safe as a backup. Imaging to
disks with a CD-RW seems like it's a lot of work when the drive gets that
big, but...
A backup of just the data would still be done on external media (like CD-RW)
regardless of the above, and far more often.
A few questions over an upgrade path for a friend's PC over the next
year...each step being months apart:
1) Move Windows 98 systems to larger/faster hard drive...clone (not image)
the old drive to the new hard drive and leave the old hard drive in the PC,
with data and power disconnected. To be cautious, I can make an image to a
few CDs and keep that out of the house.
2) Move to Windows XP. In this case, I am thinking about trying the upgrade
rather than a clean install (no major programs beyond the OS and Office 2000
SP3, and the adware/virus/firewall programs). How much success have people
had doing upgrades vs. clean installs? Can the drive be converted to NTFS as
part of the upgrade? I can not remember.
As for the old drive, after erasing it, I am thinking that this would be a
good place for an image (not a clone/copy) of the new hard drive. Can an
image of a NTFS drive be put on a FAT32 drive? Is there any advantage making
the backup (FAT32) drive an NTFS drive? After doing this, the data and power
cables would get unplugged again on the backup/old drive. Excepting for act
of nature or theft, that old drive should be safe as a backup. Imaging to
disks with a CD-RW seems like it's a lot of work when the drive gets that
big, but...
A backup of just the data would still be done on external media (like CD-RW)
regardless of the above, and far more often.