Upgrading to Windows2000 or XP

In general, I do not recommend doing in place upgrades.

For example, you currently have Windows98 and want to upgrade to XP, and upgrade directly over your current operating system .
There are just too many problems that can occur this way.
It might seem like it will take too long otherwise but typically you spend more time trying to fix problems than if you did a clean install.

However....

This does not mean you need to format your hard drive first and erase all your data in order to get the benefits of a clean install.
Preparation is the key.

1. Write down what apps are installed and have all the source files available.
2. Save any configurations like e-mail settings to a simple text file.
3. Copy the source files for the new operating system to a directory on the hard drive.
4. Boot with a simple Win98 DOS disk. Make sure Smartdrv is loaded to speed up the actual install.
5. On the C: drive, rename the \windows and \progra~1 (program files directory)
6. Change to the location of the source files that were copied and start the install of the new operating system.
7. Now you will have a clean install and everything is still on the hard drive.
8. You will need to reinstall your applications but typically this doesn't take that long if things are ready ahead of time.
9. If you have enough hard drive space, I also like to copy all my source files to something like an Install directory along with any product ID's. Then you don't need to keep looking for them.