About Upgrading Home Basic To Ultimate

My main PC use is for database and Photo editing.  I upgraded from XP Home SP2 to Vista Ultimate.  Before the installation, I went to all hardware and software web sites and downloaded all drivers, printed all installation instructions, surveyed their troubleshooting sites.  I updated my BIOS, Chipsets, eproms - you name it.  I hit tech support sites, I Googled Vista, I printed out every fix for every problem I could find online. Then, I backed up everything to an external drive, just in case.  I WAS prepared!!  I felt I knew Vista better than I know my wife!  

 

I loved the OS!!  My XPS Gen 3 was excellent, suggested only an upgraded Video card.  BUT, I ran into major issues with hardware drivers, lock-ups, lock-outs.  With a general HP Photosmart printer, a wide format photo printer, a basic All-in-one scan/copy printer ,an Epson hoto scanner, Canon flatbed scanner and a new Visioneer sheet feed scanner, the cost of replacement hardware was prohibitive, because my current downloaded Vista drivers did not offer full function to any printer or scanner.  Between uses, Vista often "lost" them!  Oh yeah, the video card worked just fine. 

 

Software was another issue -with some I had to emulate Win98 to make them work in limited fashion. Online and telephone tech support were unable to clear enough of the problems to make it liveable for a working PC. Online upgrades to the hardware drivers, etc are often only limited functions.  (No duplex or high capacity  lower tray support for my HP main printer.)

 

I removed Vista and went back to XP Home.   I am back in business with a fully functioning computer setup.  I am happy with my equipment again.  I do not expect to try Vista again.  (at least until MS stops supporting XP)

 

If it had worked, I LOVED it!  The graphics and little addons were terrific, but a month of crippled operations with 4 clean installs in the first 2 weeks - too much.  The retailer (Costco) gave me a full refund, commenting it was currently their most returned item. 

 

Vista replaced Outlook Express.  I had to "forward" all email received in Vista to an address that I did not access until after I had XP back up and running. That was the only snag going back.

 

Advice - don't do it unless you are prepared to upgrade or replace most of your your hardware and software with "Vista" on the original box.

 

Sorry this is so long, but better than a month of frustration!

Thanks for answer "BitBox",but as I mentioned,I'm gonig to upgrade from home basic,so it won't be any driver problem(as I think actually...)(if I'm wrong,please correct me).My wonder is if I upgrade my os with that disk,the update process wouldn't complete successfully and it push me to do a clean install(that I don't want it...);in fact,I want to know is there any other way to upgrade my home basic to ultimate except that disk and WINDOWS ANYTIME UPGRADE(that does the upgrade process online)?

I had purchased a new full retail copyof Vista Ultimate.  When I inserted the disk, it asked if I wanted to upgrade (Recommended) or a clean install.  I chose update because you don't have to reinstall all your software, right?  It seemed to be going thru the install program, but before it was complete, at about 99% and 40 minutes later, I got the Blue screen of death with the message that the install failed and now required a clean install. I could not boot to XP again.

 

I will strongly suggest that you have an up-to-date backup or copy of all data before any attempts at such a major change. 

 

Should your update fail, and you are unable to re-boot to your XP, it is unlikely that a repair of your XP will be possible.  The only alternative is then a clean install of Vista, or a new installation of XP in a new directory.  Both would require a complete reinstall of all your software.  Your data would be lost doing Vista, because the clean install of Vista would reformat your hard drive.  The reinstallation of XP to a new directory would leave the data intact in their original folders because no format would be required. 

 

I tried the re-installation route.  The failed upgrade attempt at Vista so messed up my PC that the re-install would boot, but that was all.  That's when I did the first of 4 clean installs of Vista, reloaded all my software, and started my month + of frustration.  My return to XP was done on a new hard drive. When it was working correctly, I spent some spare time with the Vista drive, still trying to make it work as I needed it to use my PC.  Unsuccessful, I finally gave up, reformatted the harddrive and returned the Vista box to Costco. 

 

In any event, ask Dell for the retoration disks for your existing system, and be sure to have program disks for all your software.

 

Please, copy all your data to CD's, an external hard drive, or one of the mega sized USB flash drives.  Remember, if you click on the "Install Microsoft Windows Vista" button, there is NO going back!!  You could lose everything. 

 

 

Thanks again "BitBox",

 With your answers I find out that it's not worthy to upgrade my os version.Maybe in the future time micro$oft release a truthful upgrade methode to do that,but now I don't think it is necessary to accept risk of losing data and format my drives(in fact I just have a one partition & it makes upgrading more risky...).

At last thanks for your discussion and the time that you spent to answer my questions.

I wish the best things for you...