installing windows vista beta

When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

Depends, A lot of persons are contemplating about upgrading their one and only, production install of XP. If you are itching to do that, DON'T! DO NOT upgrade your existing install of XP if you use it for work or you use it on a daily basis. Not because Vista is at BETA 2 means its ready for prime time or production environments, it is for testing and to get feedback on what's wrong with the product.
I also suspect some persons think Vista has been finalized, no its not, its still in development. I know Vista looks enticing and all, but it is still not ready for prime time and the numerous reports of unsuccessful, problematic clean installs, upgrades are proof of that.
If you want to try upgrade scenarios at least make sure you do it on a spare installation of XP, you have a back up image of your existing install or simply do a clean install on a separate drive or logical partition. For those who have already upgraded their installations of XP and want to return to XP, your only option is to format that drive and reinstall it. There is no way to uninstall Vista.
Also, there are no upgrade paths from Windows XP Professional x64 to Vista x86 or x64. You cannot launch Vista x64 setup in Windows XP x86 or you will get an "invalid Win32" error. You have to boot off the DVD. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message > When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

Make an image of your present system (XP) partition on a DVD... or just buy/get another hard drive, unplug the one w/ XP and install Vista on the new drive - you might need to install xp first on the new drive. No other safe solution - that I can think of Michael
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message > When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

I first installed Vista Beta 2 as a dual boot with XP Pro on my main computer without activating it to see how it would run. After a couple of days, I was satisfied with what I saw and then wiped clean my two hard drives and installed Vista Beta 2 as the only OS on my Gateway Computer. I have an older Dell P3-500 which is also running XP Pro on which I copies all my important files. The Dell will not be upgraded to Vista. It will remain with XP Pro for the future, if I don't do something like make it into a Linux box.
So far I am loving Vista and have not had any problems. Everything installed perfectly, it is running quite nicely and fast and is a well-behaved client on my home network. Even the Media Center is performing without a hitch. I have an ATI TV Wonder Elite tuner card and it work perfectly with Vista.
William
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote in message

Depends, A lot of persons are contemplating about upgrading their one and only, production install of XP. If you are itching to do that, DON'T! DO NOT upgrade your existing install of XP if you use it for work or you use it on a daily basis. Not because Vista is at BETA 2 means its ready for prime time or production environments, it is for testing and to get feedback on what's wrong with the product.
I also suspect some persons think Vista has been finalized, no its not, its still in development. I know Vista looks enticing and all, but it is still not ready for prime time and the numerous reports of unsuccessful, problematic clean installs, upgrades are proof of that.
If you want to try upgrade scenarios at least make sure you do it on a spare installation of XP, you have a back up image of your existing install or simply do a clean install on a separate drive or logical partition. For those who have already upgraded their installations of XP and want to return to XP, your only option is to format that drive and reinstall it. There is no way to uninstall Vista.
Also, there are no upgrade paths from Windows XP Professional x64 to Vista x86 or x64. You cannot launch Vista x64 setup in Windows XP x86 or you will get an "invalid Win32" error. You have to boot off the DVD. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

He would not have to install xp first.
There is no need to disconnect drives. The Vista boot options screen is better than risking static discharge while manipulating the components.
"Michael" wrote in message

Make an image of your present system (XP) partition on a DVD... or just buy/get another hard drive, unplug the one w/ XP and install Vista on the new drive - you might need to install xp first on the new drive. No other safe solution - that I can think of Michael
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

You can disable HDD controller/s in BIOS - no neede to physically remove HDDs. Anyway, I tried to install Vista on an empty 20GB (primary, healthy, non C:) partition on the only IDE drive - ICH5R RAID and Promise378 SATA/IDE disabled. At the beginning of Vista install, Vista pops up a message box "no OS found" with tweo options: 'restart,' and 'retry.' I can see my IDE HDD partitions, floppy and DVD drives if I pick the "search for drivers" option on Vista install screen... but eventually I get back to "no OS found" issue. Hence, I took it that Vista needs an OS preinstalled - it does not act like a "full" version in my case.
Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message

He would not have to install xp first.
There is no need to disconnect drives. The Vista boot options screen is better than risking static discharge while manipulating the components.
"Michael" wrote in message Make an image of your present system (XP) partition on a DVD... or just buy/get another hard drive, unplug the one w/ XP and install Vista on the new drive - you might need to install xp first on the new drive. No other safe solution - that I can think of Michael
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message When i install vista beta will it delete my current files ?

WHEN I INSTALL WINDOWS VISTA BETA WILL IT DELETE MY CURRENT FILES

It depends... If you do an upgrade install, no, your files will be fine. If you do a fresh install, yes, your files will be erased. If you install Vista on a different partition (blank), no, your files will be fine. At any rate, I'd backup your files to be safe or store them on another partition or network drive. "Sikskillz84" wrote in message > WHEN I INSTALL WINDOWS VISTA BETA WILL IT DELETE MY CURRENT FILES

Please turn off your caps lock. It is considered "shouting."
The upgrade from XP x86 to Vista x86 is supported (your files stay intact) but it is still a beta so may not work and destroy your files. Even if it works, you cannot return to XP without losing your files (Vista Beta timebombs and becomes unusable June 1, 2007).
The rule of thumb should be never to risk your files. Install Vista Beta on a test machine or at least on a separate drive or partition on your work machine (still not advised). Do not install Vista on the C: drive of your work or primary computer under any circumstances. If it is worth it to you to see what Vista is like then invest in a drive if you need to.
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message > WHEN I INSTALL WINDOWS VISTA BETA WILL IT DELETE MY CURRENT FILES

Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total 350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my 40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it that way or? Cheers for the help guys!

It will not work with a usb drive. The only external drive that will work is a SATA enclosure connected directly through a pass-through to a controller on the mobo.
"CHOUT" wrote in message

Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total 350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my 40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it that way or? Cheers for the help guys!

Mmmm....ok so thus I think my current XP Pro install is toast because it tries to boot into Vista at start up but gets errors and I chose to roll back and boot up XP instead. Only thing is now there is about 1.5gb of HDD space taken up on C: due to the install or partial install. So I suppose I will have to do a fresh XP Por install tomorrow...fun times =( Now my XP install is on my 200GB SATA drive an dI also have an additional 160 SATA drive as well. Should I partition that one and install on that? That way whatever is stored on the 160GB will be on a safe partition. Do I make the partition on the 160GB active for the Vista install or? Cheers Colin!
CHOUT
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

It will not work with a usb drive. The only external drive that will work is a SATA enclosure connected directly through a pass-through to a controller on the mobo.
"CHOUT" wrote in message Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total 350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my 40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it that way or? Cheers for the help guys!

Hey Colin,
Ok I formatted my 160GB SATA drive and made a 15GB partition on that for Vista. When I go to install it again, the option for installing it on my C drive is greyed otu due to limited space, which is perfect. The odd issue is now, when I choose the 15GB Vista partition, it writes the $WINDOWS.`LS to that drive and the $WINDOWS.`BT to my C drive?? So now my C is dwindling in size due to that folder which is ever growing during the install process. Is that normal? Is the BT folder a temp folder which is later trashed by Vista or? I don't get why anything would be written to my C drive if it was initially greyed out by the Vista install due to limited space? =\ That confuses me. Any clues? Cheers!
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

It will not work with a usb drive. The only external drive that will work is a SATA enclosure connected directly through a pass-through to a controller on the mobo.
"CHOUT" wrote in message Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total 350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my 40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it that way or? Cheers for the help guys!

Some files are written to the C: drive such as the log files for the installation. In the event of an installation failure you can find the log files MS needs for analysis on the C: drive.
IMHO you are allocating far too little space for both editions.
"CHOUT" wrote in message

Hey Colin,
Ok I formatted my 160GB SATA drive and made a 15GB partition on that for Vista. When I go to install it again, the option for installing it on my C drive is greyed otu due to limited space, which is perfect. The odd issue is now, when I choose the 15GB Vista partition, it writes the $WINDOWS.`LS to that drive and the $WINDOWS.`BT to my C drive?? So now my C is dwindling in size due to that folder which is ever growing during the install process. Is that normal? Is the BT folder a temp folder which is later trashed by Vista or? I don't get why anything would be written to my C drive if it was initially greyed out by the Vista install due to limited space? =\ That confuses me. Any clues? Cheers!
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
It will not work with a usb drive. The only external drive that will work is a SATA enclosure connected directly through a pass-through to a controller on the mobo.
"CHOUT" wrote in message Now I just tried to install my Vista onto a removeable 40 gig USB2 drive, it copied the $WINDOWS.~LS to the portable drive but then the $WINDOWS.~BT to my C: drive and of course I only have 10 gigs for my C: drive out of a total 350gb. Thus I wanted to have the install on a portable/removable drive. Is it possible that it isn't reading the drive on boot up or? The install still went to the C: drive and tried to go over it but I rolled it back. It even had the "update previous OS" blacked out when I did the initial install and only gave me th eoption to install it to a new drive, which I chose as my 40gb. Any clues? Can I copy the $WINDOWS.~BT folder over to my 40gb and do it that way or? Cheers for the help guys!

I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do i do?
And is there anyway i can uninstall it?

Safe mode with networking is what I usually choose.
You cannot uninstall Vista but you can reformat the partition.
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message

I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do i do?
And is there anyway i can uninstall it?

Ok i got it to work by just pressing buttons but not when i enter the product key it says its wrong and it says Authentication failed im pretty sure im puting it in correctly .... anything suggestions
"Sikskillz84" wrote:

I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do i do?
And is there anyway i can uninstall it?

Ensure you don't have your Capslock on while entering the product key; Windows hates that. Using the shift key makes it perfect; I installed vista at 3am; and accidentally used the caps lock the first 2 times; then took it off and the product key worked fine.
J
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message

Ok i got it to work by just pressing buttons but not when i enter the product key it says its wrong and it says Authentication failed im pretty sure im puting it in correctly .... anything suggestions
"Sikskillz84" wrote:
I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do i do?
And is there anyway i can uninstall it?

Thats what i was thinking also but my product key is all in caps and also even if my caps lock is off it still shows as captial
"Justin Payne" wrote:

Ensure you don't have your Capslock on while entering the product key; Windows hates that. Using the shift key makes it perfect; I installed vista at 3am; and accidentally used the caps lock the first 2 times; then took it off and the product key worked fine.
J
"Sikskillz84" wrote in message Ok i got it to work by just pressing buttons but not when i enter the product key it says its wrong and it says Authentication failed im pretty sure im puting it in correctly .... anything suggestions
"Sikskillz84" wrote:
I was installing it and now it messed up my computer when i start it up it says windows did not start because of hardware or software but i did the upgrade adviosry program and it said everything was good etxpcet my network adapter i need to update the driver but i diddn't so i just installed it. Now its gives me the choices of safe mode ,safemode with networking ,etc what do i do?
And is there anyway i can uninstall it?