Upgrade 98 to Win 2000 pro on HP, nothing but problems

[OlusAviatrix]

Okay. I upgraded to windows 2000 pro from 98 on and HP pavilion 8580c. I have had almost nothing but problems ever since. I have made my printer, browser, mouse, and keyboard work. I can't make my cd writer, dvd player, office 2000 pro, sound/video cards, scanner, and some other things work. Win 2000 pro even disabled something as simple as my address book. I can't even make a back up now, before I try to go back. I have heard about partitioning a drive to work with both operating systems, but I am a CIS student, and think that eventually, if I break it up too much, I will lose capabilities. I do not know all there is to know, so I really need some help. I cannot locate drivers, manufacturer names, and the like. From what I can tell, I like 2000 pro (boots up faster and freezes less), but half of my equipment does not work. Does anyone out there have any advice for me? Should I go back to 98, partition, or do you know what other people have done in this situation. HP told me that they did not recommend that any model pavilion be upgraded to 2000 pro, but why the heck not? What is the deal? There has got to be a way to make this work. I do not want to have to buy new hardware, because all HP says do is to go back to 98 and restore the comp to default properties. I have too much to start all over again from scratch. Sorry this is so long, but I am a bit frustated... Weary in Houston

 

[wolluf]

Don't know about HP Pavilions in particular (HP website suggests upgrading to XP might cause some problems but couldn't see anything about 2K) - but in general doing a clean install of win2k rather than an upgrade is much preferable (this is one reason why people dual boot - but that has its own problems once you've found out 2k is much better than 98 and want to remove 98). If you want to dual boot, you'll need to uninstall 2k to put 98 back (I'm assuming you installed 2k saving 98 data so you can uninstall), and then you'll need a partitioning tool (like Partition Magic) to reduce 98 partition to make room for 2k partition as well. Personally, I'd go back to 98 so CD writer works, back everything up, then do a clean install of 2k, reformatting drive (when you start 2k install from win98, you can chooose clean install option and tick box to say you want to decide where to install. After reboot, system will prompt where you want to install - you can reformat partition at this point (or remove & replace it)). If you can't get this to work, I presume you have a recovery disk to return machine to its original state.

 

[johnnym]

I agree with wolluf. When you do a upgrade vs a clean install you have nothing but problems. I stopped buying upgrades long ago.
I'm geeting ready to put 2000 pro on my HP 8480Z. It's going to be a clean install.

 

[SteveWallace]

You could just delete the windows dir and reload windows. This will allow you to keep the program files for your other software. Most software will need to be reinstalled afterward, but will take up no more space because you will just be overwriting the old programs. In many cases your program preferences will be saved too.

I have found this method to work better for me than a format because backing your docs, music and crap is a hassle. I just upgraded from ME to XP with no probs at all.

 

[wolluf]

SteveWallace,

So you don't back up 'your docs, music and crap'? Have you ever had a disk die on you? I have - it can be quite upsetting with no backups - so I do now!

 

[SteveWallace]

Your right, I probably should but the stuff isn't life or death to me. If I lost it sure I'd be ticked, but in my 13 years of PC computing and probably 10 HD's I have only had 1 HD go belly up and I was still able to rescue most of the data. Although I'm sure now I will go home and find my HD on fire!! Working in the environment that I do you would think I would live, eat and breath backups, truth is by the time I get out of work I am done with it.

I was just giving this guy a simplified upgrade path, not a lesson in disaster recovery. My suggestion also allowed him to keep many of the preferences in his software.

 

[OlusAviatrix]

Well guys
Thanks alot for all of your tips. I would like to say that I am a female, not a guy (hehe)! That is besides the poitn though. I would like to say that I tried to do a back up right before I did my upgrade, and I could not. I think the cd writer software was already havign problems, because it kept telling me that the drive was not accessible. I did a back up about 6 months ago, so if all else fails, I can resort to that, though I added so much more after that. In addition, I was having a problem with defrag. I couldn't do it. It would get to about 45% complete, and then start all over again! Who knows. I will try the things that were suggested, and see which one works for me. I do know that HP did not reccommend installing win2k on any of it's pc's (they told me that after the fact! They're customer service is awful)! I am trying to make it work though. Thanks for the tips gentlemen!!!!

 

[Snickle]

"HP told me that they did not recommend that any model pavilion be upgraded to 2000 pro, but why the heck not? What is the deal?"

What HP is saying is that they built the computer to run a certain operating system and built/bought/tested the hardware and software to run in combination. HP did not want the expense of re-testing for a different OS. That's the downside of having everything built on the motherboard. The 'custom' builders can pick and choose the hardware/software based on reports/evaluations.

I remember 4 or 5 years ago when a client tried upgrading an IBM PS/2 computer with Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, wouldn't allow a retail copy of Win95 to work. Because of customization by IBM, the Win3.1 could only be upgraded by a version available only from IBM. So I fdisked the drive and started from scratch, worked perfectly but did have get new drivers for the hardware.

 

[Badger7]

You need to go to HP site and read the ISSUES HP has before EVER upgrading any OS ... BUT A clean Install is the ticket like the others are saying ... first get the drivers you need anytime you EVER upgrade.

With W2K Pro you should have gotten the small program from Windows that checks ALL hardware and Programs prior to installing. It is also avaliable at TuCows I think ... and a dual boot might have been the ticket as well.

When I ever question a system I try getting an old harddrive and installing things on there first. This is all aftermath for you since you have done the deed.

It should safely uninstall if you did not remove the files W2K remove option in Add Remove Programs.

 

[OlusAviatrix]

Badger7,

Well, all I can say is that I should have done more research before I just went and upgraded. I did not know that there would be this many problems, but ofcourse, you always learn from your own mistakes.

Now, is there such a thing as downgrading back to 98, then start allover from scratch? See, I tried to back up before I did this upgrade, but it would never complete the backup. So I, like a dummy, went ahead with it. It was always freezing, IE was always shutting down, and a host of other problems from 98. If I can get it back to only 98, can you tell me exactly how to dual boot the system? I guess that is the answer, 2000 for those additions that are compatible, and 98 for those that are not. Is this wise? I do have enough memory. Thank you for your time, as I am awaiting your reply.

 

[SteveWallace]

If your having this many problems now, can you imagine the ones you will be having once you downgrade, if that's even possible? I say go with my original suggestion, boot from a bootdisk and delete the Winnt/Windows dir and reload the OS. Just remember before you do it to copy the My Docs folder and your Favorites out of the Winnt/Windows dir before deleting it. Although, I think in 2k and xp that the My Docs folder is in the Documents and Settings folder located outside of the Winnt/Windows dir.

Again good luck.