I am replacing my system hard drive AND upgrading from win2000 to XP Professional. Can I install the XP upgrade (and not a "full version") onto a blank new drive? (and will it ask me to insert the Win 2000 CD? Or do I need to re-install Win 2000 first? I couldn't quite find the answer searching previous posts on this subject. Thanks.

You can install the XP upgrade which is a full version. The only difference is that it requires a previous Win version that qualifies, which your Win2000 does. The installation of XP will tell you it cannot find a qualifying version on a new install, just put your original Win200 CD in your CD ROM drive and point WinXP to it. It will then install your new XP.

I heard about doing this before. I think you have to swap CDs or something to trick windows into believing that you can install it from scratch. I'm not sure how it works. I would say for now, install 2000 then XP. If you don't need 2000, don't create any backup files for it if it asks you. Kevin.

Response number 1 is correct. During installation XP Setup will ask for a previous version of Windows, that can be Win98 SE, ME etc. No serial numbers required. Swap the CDs, after a few seconds Setup will ask to insert the XP Upgrade CD and will do a clean full insrall of XP. I have done it many times for friends who had the XP-upgrade CD. Cheers de Peter