I want to upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate from Windows XP Professional. I'm not exactly familiar with how to upgrade from one OS to another. I don't want to lose all my data by performing what I believe is a 'clean install'? I want to do an 'in-place install' but I do not know if this is recommended or frowned upon because of technical errors that may surface. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm not exactly looking to buy an external HD to back my data up just to upgrade to Vista. Thanks.

Doing a clean install is the best way to go, that way you won't have to worry about running into errors or glitches. It's never advised to upgrade a new OS ontop of an old OS due to what I mentioned. Not to mention some of your programs and hardware devices may not work with Vista like it did on XP, you may have to check those programs and hardware devices to see if they work with Vista. My advice, would be to backup all your data and make sure all your programs and hardware devices are compatible with Vista and do a clean install.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wi... "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

"My advice, would be to backup all your data and make sure all your programs and hardware devices are compatible with Vista and do a clean install." I agree... Installing Vista: A step-by-step guide Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

"I'm not exactly looking to buy an external HD to back my data up just to upgrade to Vista". You should be concerned about losing all your data at ANY time, not just when performing this operation. If you don't maintain regular backups of some sort you are flirting with disaster.