From Windows 2000 to XP

Ken Ibold

Ken Ibold

Final Approach
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Ken Ibold
A friend who owns a business gave me a surplus laptop that is running Windows 2000. I would like to upgrade it to XP. When I put in the XP disk, the laptop does not recognize it.

Could this be because I am not logged in as an administrator for the laptop? If that's the case, is there a way to blow out the old operating system such that it allows an XP install? I do not need any of the data on the hard drive, and I have copies of all of the applications currently installed on it.

This is on a Dell Latitude c610. I already have 5 working computers in the house, but I was thinking about leaving this at the vacation house if I can make it work. Worst case I will leave it on Windows 2000, but if I can get rid of that operating system I would like to.

Edit: Well, as it turns out the computer will not recognize the CD drive no matter what's in there. I guess there's a reason this was declared "surplus."
 
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Are you saying that the laptop will not boot from the XP CD? If so, then either the CD is messed up, or the laptop BIOS isn't set to allow booting from CD.

I recommend first trying to boot it from a CD that you KNOW will boot another computer. If it doesn't boot, check the BIOS settings (heck maybe the optical disk drive is bad).
 
You may be better off just leaving Win2K on it. In my opinion, it was more stable than XP, and it's definitely less of a resource hog. If you just want to check email and browse POA from the summer house, what's the difference?

That being said, even if you're not logged in as an admin, the machine should still recognize the XP disk. Are you sure the CD drive works properly?

If you want to (and if the XP disk is legal and the Product Key hasn't been activated on another machine), you should be able to boot from the disk, wipe out the existing OS, and install Windows XP. This is true even if the disk is an Upgrade disk. But some caveats are in order.

Firstly, if you are using an upgrade disk, you will need a qualifying prior version installed. Win2K qualifies, but sometimes the XP disk has issues with the existing installation (corruption, etc.) and wants the installation disk for the qualifying prior version. This happens infrequently on Win2K to XP upgrades (unlike on WinME to WinXP upgrades, where it happened so often that we just considered it part of the upgrade routine), but it could happen, so having the Win2K disk on hand would be a good idea.

Also, you should make sure that the machine has sufficient RAM to run XP (I say 512 bare minimum; 1 GB or more if you actually want it to do useful things), and that drivers for all of its hardware are available. You should especially be sure to have the network drivers on hand, if needed. Usually, this is less of an issue on an upgrade than a fresh install because most of the Win2K drivers work fine in XP. But a fresh install wipes out those drivers along with the rest of the system.

Rich
 
You can format and fresh-install using an upgrade disk, too. I've done it literally hundreds of times.

You just need the installation disk from a qualifying previous version. When it's unable to find a qualifying previous version installed on the HD, it will ask for the previous version's setup disk and qualify based on that.

You also can elect a new installation, with format, from within the XP Upgrade setup. Once it qualifies based on the installed previous version, the upgrade is selected by default; but it can be overridden and a fresh install selected, in which case the upgrade setup will restart into a fresh install.

Rich
 
Well, based on your latest edit, I'd say that the first order of business is to get a CD drive working on it, unless you want to do all your xfers via network. Does it recognize that there is a CD drive? If you go into the Device Manager, is it listed? Is there an exclamation mark next to it? (It's been too long since I've done this stuff to be of much help.)
 
gprellwitz said:
Well, based on your latest edit, I'd say that the first order of business is to get a CD drive working on it, unless you want to do all your xfers via network. Does it recognize that there is a CD drive? If you go into the Device Manager, is it listed? Is there an exclamation mark next to it? (It's been too long since I've done this stuff to be of much help.)
Click to expand...
Device manager says it's working properly. The troubleshoot button is grayed out, since I'm not an administrator.
 
gprellwitz said:
Well, based on your latest edit, I'd say that the first order of business is to get a CD drive working on it, unless you want to do all your xfers via network. Does it recognize that there is a CD drive? If you go into the Device Manager, is it listed? Is there an exclamation mark next to it? (It's been too long since I've done this stuff to be of much help.)
Click to expand...

Does BIOS see it? It could just be a disconnected cable, or it could have been disabled in BIOS. Some corporate IT departments do this for security reasons or to prevent users from listening to music or installing unauthorized software on company computers.

Rich
 
An update: If I unplug the CD drive and then plug it back in, the computer says "found new hardware," but then no matter what disk I put in, it does not autoplay and when I try to open it from My Computer it says "please insert a disk ..."

So I copied the XP update disk onto a flash drive and then tried running setup from that. It launched the setup program, but then ran into the "you must be an administrator to run this program" problem.
 
Ken:

Any chance you can get the donor of this computer (you know, the one on which you have now spent and $3,500.00 worth of your valuable time and which you continue to fight because it is now a challenge and you don't want to let the hardware win...) to give you the administrator login?

If not, get one of the CompuWiz Kidz here (Rich? Jesse?) to suggest an FTP where you can get the image of a psw-crack disk you can burn to the flash drive. Maybe you can get logged-in as an admin that way...

Or, post the model of the computer, maybe someone can come up with a CD drive for it (I may have one to give you...), so you can boot to the CD as opposed to running the setup program from the flash drive, which I believe is the diff here...

(Edit)

Just re-read, saw you are trying to use an XP-update, not an XP Install... you may be able to use an XP install disk with the keycode for the update, which is licensed, isn't it?
 
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I haven't seen anything posted yet that suggests the BIOS settings for the CD drive have been checked and verified. Have they?

If they have, then I'd suggest the logical thing to do is to get a replacement CD drive. Maybe your friend who gave it to you can let you borrow a drive from another identical laptop for testing purposes. If not, you can probably buy one from Dell, or with the make and model number you can probably find one on E-Bay. I'd imagine you'd probably want to have a working drive for future installs, movies, audio, etc.

I don't know enough about Dell laptops to know if this model would support booting off a USB device - it's certainly possible to use a USB CD drive or a flash disk to install XP.
 
SCCutler said:
Ken:

Any chance you can get the donor of this computer (you know, the one on which you have now spent and $3,500.00 worth of your valuable time and which you continue to fight because it is now a challenge and you don't want to let the hardware win...) to give you the administrator login?

If not, get one of the CompuWiz Kidz here (Rich? Jesse?) to suggest an FTP where you can get the image of a psw-crack disk you can burn to the flash drive. Maybe you can get logged-in as an admin that way...

Or, post the model of the computer, maybe someone can come up with a CD drive for it (I may have one to give you...), so you can boot to the CD as opposed to running the setup program from the flash drive, which I believe is the diff here...
Click to expand...
Dell C610 Latitude. I have sworn off Dells, as the Inspirons are built like crap, but the Latitude seems better made. Sigh. Like we need a sixth computer anyway ... seventh if you count the old Sony Viao that works (albeit slowly), but has a buzzing cooling fan.
 
Ken Ibold said:
How do I do that?
Click to expand...

As the computer powers up, look for anything on the screen that says SETUP. It might be the delete key, or a function key. If you have (or can get) the manual for the laptop you can find out what keystroke lets you into the BIOS.
 
During power up, and before Windows starts to load press <F2> to enter SETUP on a Dell Latitude c610.

c610 Service Manual

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latc610/sm_en/index.htm

I'm no computer expert, but I suspect the problem is within Windows or the disc itself is scratched or dirty.

Have you tried starting up in Safe Mode with CD-ROM support?

Press <F8> during startup to enter "Safe Mode". Most Admin passwords are blank for logging into "Safe Mode" unless explicitly changed by the owner.


Ken Ibold said:
How do I do that?
Click to expand...
 
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