Installing Vista...but backing out just in case....possible?

[beanbag]

OK. I've got me a legal copy of Windows Vista and I'd really like to try it out, but I'd also like the option to back out and revert back to my fully working and perfectly stable (no sneery comments), Windows XP OS, just in case Vista turns out to be crap and I don't like it.

I've made an image of my C: drive and MBR using Paragon Hard Disk Manager and stored that on a partition on my hard disk (J), but the other problem is I have 7 other drives which I'm a little worried Vista will affect. (2 hard disks and 8 partitions in total including my C drive - Note the screenshot).

So basically, I want to know if Vista is crap and I don't like it, can I simply format my C drive, restore the image and start again or will programs and files in my other drives be affected and not work after I restore the XP image due to Vista messing with them?



Cheers,

BB

[Muncher]

Surely it is far, far easier to dual boot?

[beanbag]

Muncher said:

Surely it is far, far easier to dual boot?

Sorry...I didn't really explain what I wanted to say too clearly. I've already dual-booted but not with all my current apps.

I've heard the upgrade process works very well and now I've tried just using Vista, I want to try it for real with all my applications hence I want to do what I mentioned.

I just want to be sure I can back-out if all goes tits-up!

[andygo]

From what I have heard, an issue to be careful of is getting peripherals such as printers etc. to work. Also there are concerns with existing software, for instance Norton A/V and Nero burning software have to have patches applied.

[beanbag]

andygo said:

From what I have heard, an issue to be careful of is getting peripherals such as printers etc. to work. Also there are concerns with existing software, for instance Norton A/V and Nero burning software have to have patches applied.

Not to worry about Norton crap! I use Avast, but my firewall may be an issue....Sygate Pro.

I also use Nero and this popped up during the upgrading advisor tool. There were also some driver issues.....

I'm beginning to think I won't bother but it's very very tempting!!!!

[Scraggles]

or wait for the numpties to beta test it and have the service pack out to fix all the bugs ms could not be bothered to fix and instead got the paying punters to fix

getting useful software to work will take a while as well

[nickjm]

It might be ok. Vista will copy your current windows folder to a backup folder (usually windows.old) when it installs.

I've not tried to revert back to the old version yet though, so it's at your own risk.

[Zod]

Scraggles said:

or wait for the numpties to beta test it and have the service pack out to fix all the bugs ms could not be bothered to fix and instead got the paying punters to fix

getting useful software to work will take a while as well

It has been beta-tested. I was one of the testers. It works very well, apart from the fact that games currently run slower.

To the OP: dual boot and when you have no longer used the XP install for a coupole of months, nuke it.

[rich1231]

Scraggles said:

or wait for the numpties to beta test it and have the service pack out to fix all the bugs ms could not be bothered to fix and instead got the paying punters to fix

getting useful software to work will take a while as well

very negative pov, when the reality is that vista seems to work very well indeed.

[tycho]

rich1231 said:

Scraggles said:

or wait for the numpties to beta test it and have the service pack out to fix all the bugs ms could not be bothered to fix and instead got the paying punters to fix

getting useful software to work will take a while as well

very negative pov, when the reality is that vista seems to work very well indeed.

Exactly, I've got it on 2 machines, 1 a media server and an HP laptop and have had no problems at all and is solid as a rock.

[Scraggles]

Zod said:

It works very well, apart from the fact that games currently run slower.

Next PC will be mostly games orientated and suspect it will be XP SP2, apparently updates end in 2014 or so

[beanbag]

OK....the results.....

I installed Vista using the upgrade route but it totally messed up the configuration for most of my programs meaning a reinstall was needed anyway and it somehow corrupted my partition tables, (have no idea how). In the end I had mirrors of the same drives but with a different drive letter. Very odd as I'd never seen this before. When I tried to investigate with Paragon Hard Disk Manager (top tool, worth every penny), I found it's not Vista compatible BOOOOO!!!!

In the end I formatted the drive and restored my working XP image and all is back to normal, thank goodness. I've decided to install Vista but only when XP finally breaks down and needs a rebuild so sometime later this year I think. A clean install of Vista from my experiences is the only way to have it.

I'm curious to hear anyone else's opinion on upgrading their existing XP setup! Did it work for you or was it totally hashed up like mine? I'd read some really positive reviews of the upgrade process on the net and was hoping it would have worked better for me.

[beaker123]

Before installing Vista - I would read this:

www.mattwoodward.com/blog/index.cfm?commentID=432