How to restore Win XP client upgraded from Win 98?

[tloredo]

 

Hi folks-

 

I'm using Retro 5 on a Mac G4 to backup my Windows XP laptop. I'll be replacing

the laptop drive and thus need to restore it from scratch. There are instructions

for restoring a Win 98 client and for a Win XP client. But I'm somewhere in

between. The laptop came with Win 98 and I upgraded it to Win XP. Thus

the Win XP CD I have cannot be used by itself to install Windows (I believe).

So when I first bring up the laptop with the new drive, I'll have to install Win 98

from the software restore CD.

 

What overall procedure should I use? Should I install Win 98 to a WinTemp

folder and then upgrade to Win XP over WinTemp (is that possible?)? Or

should I install Win 98 "normally", upgrade it to Win XP, but keep trying

to reinstall XP (presumably getting the WINNT folder message and then

installing XP again to Wintemp)? Or can I just install Win 98 into WinTemp,

and do the full restore just with Win 98 installed (even though I'm restoring

XP)?

 

Thanks,

Tom

[tloredo]

 

Hi folks-

 

I see lots of views of my question, but no responses. Presuming the views were

because others may have similar issues, let me briefly summarize my experiences

trying to completely restore Win XP using Retro 5 on a Mac, with the Win XP

computer being a client.

 

First, addressing the Win 98/Win XP update issue, it appears it doesn't matter if you

first install Win 98 and then upgrade it to Win XP, or just install Win XP from the

start with the upgrade CD. (I did both.) If you haven't installed Win 98, the XP

upgrade process will ask you to insert your 98 CD so it can verify your eligibility;

once it does, it just lets you install XP from scratch. It's after you've installed

a fresh copy of the OS that you turn to Retro to do the install (actually, you

have to install two copies of the OS---see the manual---and this proves

problematic for Win XP, at least the version I have, which includes SP1).

 

I will spare you the details of my attempts at doing a restore of the Win client

over ethernet from my Mac (I have over 4 pages of small-print notes, to make sure

I didn't repeat things that didn't work). I tried all kinds of things (following the

Retro 5 manual to the letter, and then varying some things), and was never

successful. After all the time of copying files over, usually in the last steps the

PC would freeze, and the boot partition was somehow screwed up enough

that it couldn't boot without me reformatting the drive (I used Partition Magic for this).

Though sometimes the PC would be similarly rendered useless upon install

of the 2nd copy of Win XP (I tried it in the suggested "WINTEMP" directory

on my boot partition, and on a separate partition).

 

I spent two working days trying to get this to work. After giving up, it took only

a few hours to install XP from scratch, install my main applications from their

installer CDs from scratch, and restore *only my own files* from my backup.

 

My advice to Retro 5 users maintaining Win clients via a Mac host: Do not

rely on Retro being able to do a complete restore for you. Install the Win OS

from scratch, and restore only your own files, not any of your backed up

Win OS.

 

I am extremely disappointed with Retrospect in this regard. I used it

presuming it would save me the trouble of having to reinstall all my software.

It was not up to the task (and even if it had worked, the procedure was rather

cumbersome). Perhaps the new version is more robust in this

respect, but I am not inclined to make the investment after this negative

experience (and the absence of any Dantz input on this question in the forum).

 

Good luck,

Tom