Can 98 (1st Ed.) upgrade to XP?

[DGO]

Purchased a Gateway system back in 97. Came with Windows
98 (1st Edition). Since then have changed tower and
mother board. Recently changed hard drive. Can I install
with my original win 98 CD and then upgrade to XP?
Thanks.

[Tom Porterfield]

DGO wrote:

> Purchased a Gateway system back in 97. Came with Windows
> 98 (1st Edition). Since then have changed tower and
> mother board. Recently changed hard drive. Can I install
> with my original win 98 CD and then upgrade to XP?
> Thanks.

Assuming the hardware supports XP, yes. One way to find out is to
insert the XP CD into the drive with Windows 98 running. On the
autorun that comes up select "Check system compatibility." If
everything checks OK as far as hardware then that's a green light to
install XP.

You can either upgrade 98 to XP or do a clean install using the XP
upgrade, providing the Windows 98 CD as proof during setup that you
qualify for the upgrade version.

--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows XP & Smart Display
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/tp.porterfield/support

Please post all follows to the newsgroup only

[Amethyst]

DGO wrote:
> Purchased a Gateway system back in 97. Came with Windows
> 98 (1st Edition). Since then have changed tower and
> mother board. Recently changed hard drive. Can I install
> with my original win 98 CD and then upgrade to XP?
> Thanks.

You don't need to install 98, BUT I would run the Hardware and Software
Advisor before doing anything. If it's just the HD and motherboard that have
changed then you're going to have hardware that is probably no longer
supported by the manufacturer. Not sure what you mean by 'tower' - do you
mean the chassis (case)? If so this has no bearing on anything - it's just
something to hold the bits together. The Advisor can be downloaded here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp.
Please be advised it's a 50MB download, and a cable or DSL connection is
recommended - otherwise you'll be there forever! Although it says 'Pro only'
the requirements for Home are the same so if it meets them you'll be fine
for whatever flavour you choose to install. The system requirements can be
found here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.asp.
As I said the basic requirements are the same.

Please be advised that 256MB RAM is considered the minimum required for
Windows XP to function optimally.

Six year old hardware probably won't be compatible (this is especially true
of printers, scanners and cameras - manufacturers consider them obsolete
after only a couple of years or so).

If you run the advisor before purchase you won't waste money on an upgrade.