After installing XP on a Mac via BootCamp, if I wanted to upgrade from XP to Vista, would I need a full Vista install disc or an upgrade install disc?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
XP to Vista
- Thread starter jedivulcan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As stated immediately above, the upgrade disc is fine. Note a potential "gotcha":
Vista will not install on FAT32. So if your XP partition is FAT32,
1. You can back up any data on that partition that you wish to keep, format it as NTFS, re-install XP, then try the upgrade process.
2. Another solution: you could back up your data and try to use the convert utility that comes with your XP install disc to convert it to NTFS and then redo the Vista upgrade process.
3. Or, you could back up the partition, format it as NTFS, install Vista without a product key (it's possible--just choose the correct edition!) and then once the first install is complete, redo the Vista upgrade process and the second time use your product key. This is well documented on the net and most believe this possibility was intentionally left in by MS to allow upgrade users to re-install in case of a disaster, etc. without their original XP discs. If you have a valid XP key and license, I wouldn't feel bad about doing it this way. Google "clean install vista upgrade" and you'll see plenty of articles.
So if you have FAT32, you may be in for a bumpy upgrade process. Just remember to back up any data -- don't worry about apps -- re-install those once Vista is in place.
Oh, if you do 3 you can throw away your Windows.old folder (the first Vista install) once you are done to reclaim the space.
Good luck!
Vista will not install on FAT32. So if your XP partition is FAT32,
1. You can back up any data on that partition that you wish to keep, format it as NTFS, re-install XP, then try the upgrade process.
2. Another solution: you could back up your data and try to use the convert utility that comes with your XP install disc to convert it to NTFS and then redo the Vista upgrade process.
3. Or, you could back up the partition, format it as NTFS, install Vista without a product key (it's possible--just choose the correct edition!) and then once the first install is complete, redo the Vista upgrade process and the second time use your product key. This is well documented on the net and most believe this possibility was intentionally left in by MS to allow upgrade users to re-install in case of a disaster, etc. without their original XP discs. If you have a valid XP key and license, I wouldn't feel bad about doing it this way. Google "clean install vista upgrade" and you'll see plenty of articles.
So if you have FAT32, you may be in for a bumpy upgrade process. Just remember to back up any data -- don't worry about apps -- re-install those once Vista is in place.
Oh, if you do 3 you can throw away your Windows.old folder (the first Vista install) once you are done to reclaim the space.
Good luck!
When i upgraded my sisters FAT32 laptop it just converted the filesystem for me during the upgrade process, no problems at all with it.
I just installed Vista Ultimate Upgrade a couple of days ago and this was definitely an issue that I ran into. It's also documented on the net:
Link
Maybe I was being an idiot and didn't see the magic path...
If you want it in both, then install using bootcamp. You will then be able to use the bootcamp partition as your virtual machine from within Parallels. I used VMWare Fusion, but I think Parallels works similarly in this regard.
Sorry to hijack the thread but is there any performance gains/losses from running Windows from a partition Vs a disc image ?
I understand that running from a Boot Camp partition is slower than from a disk image. See Re: bootcamp performance?.
LMO
LMO
The upgrade process did involve running some Acer tools or something like that, so maybe that did it for me. Was a little while ago so can't quite remember.