Can I upgrade XP to Win 8 but onto a new HDD?
RockitMan
Brisbane, Queensland
6440 posts
I'm currently running XP and want to upgrade to Windows 8 but I want to buy an SSD to put it on because my pc is old and takes forever to boot. Is this possible?
PC is an AMD Phenom II X2 550
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Hogfather
Cairns, Queensland
12982 posts
Can you image the drive and then run the install onto the SSD?
NFI otherwise. Not sure if you can do a bare install with an upgrade key, someone here might know.
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If you're keeping the old HDD in there and just adding the SSD then I'd assume it'd probably work, otherwise as far as I'm aware you'd need to install XP on the SSD then run the Win 8 installer.
I had to do that with Vista to 7 just recently (install Vista on a new HDD then 7), I'd be interested to know if there's a better way though.
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thermite
Brisbane, Queensland
10364 posts
I would set up a fresh XP on the SSD first, this is your chance for a new start, especially considering your SSD is probably smaller than your old drive?
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Oh, I thought he was just wondering if the Windows 8 upgrade version will install OK on a blank SSD.
If you're upgrading all the way from XP then definitely do a fresh install (ie. choose custom install then format the partition/drive), upgrading Windows in place just sucks, and upgrading from XP to 8 is pointless cause it doesn't keep any of your settings or anything anyway (just your personal files).
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mental
Brisbane, Queensland
3571 posts
Yes, you can either install xp onto the ssd and then upgrade it to 8 and then tell it to remove windows.old.
For some people doing a clean install just works, if not (note its the activation which fails not the actual install):
If activation doesn't work you can ring microsoft and explain that you are upgrading an install, provide all the details and get an activation code, or:
clean install
and then
regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
and change 'MediaBootInstall' from 1 to 0.
run cmd as admin and type: slmgr /rearm
restart
rerun activation
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Opec
Brisbane, Queensland
7685 posts
Pretty sure you there's no upgrade path from XP -> Win8. You can't even do that from XP -> 7.
Honestly don't go this route if possible, just do fresh copy of Windows 8 install and copy files from XP to it. Or mount the old HDD and copy files etc once you load Windows 8.
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RockitMan
Brisbane, Queensland
6442 posts
There is an XP -> Win 8
i downloaded the upgrader and it's a go.
CBF fresh installing XP, will just deal with the slow boot i guess
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IVY_MiKe
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
1295 posts
WTF is with MS still running this old BS.
if Win 8 is sub $100 just buy the full thing, install it fresh and be done with it!
Dear MS,
It's no longer 1998 and people aren't fond of 'installing 2 OS' at a time'...
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copuis
Brisbane, Queensland
3376 posts
currently my preview version of win 8 which is running on an IDE drive, boots not much slower than my win 7 with SSD,
as in if i start the win machine, then take three steps, count to 2 then start the win 7 machine, they are booted about the same time
story is, you might not need to upgrade just yet
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andrewus
Brisbane, Queensland
2844 posts
You can upgrade XP through to 8 easily.
We used to do the old xp > vista > 7 trick but I wouldn't recommend it as 90% of xp installs are 32 bit and these days there is no excuse to not use 64 bit (especially with mass amounts of ram, who can live with < 4gb????)
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mental
Brisbane, Queensland
3573 posts
Did you miss my post? Clean install windows 8 and then change a reg key and activate.
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