T60: How to upgrade to Win8 from WinXP dual boot with Linux?

[kenwong]

I am dual booting Win XP with Linux (Crunchbang Linux) on my T60 (1951). I also have a partition on my hard drive shared by the two OSs for data, and another partition for lenovo's recovery.

I am considering upgrading Win XP to Win 8. How can I proceed? Also, will the recovery partition remain intact after the upgrade? Do I need to re-install the Linux? Any other issues I need to take into consideration?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[emeraldgirl08]

I want to see the answer for this one

btw I love #!

Do keep in mind that W8 is more like a beta version still. There are probably still bugs in the system. I do know that some peeps are not able to get their power manager working as well as their graphics. Good luck

[piscikeeper]

Are you talking about an upgrade or installing Win8 in place of XP? In either case you can install to the current XP partition without touching the others. After Windows is installed, your boot loader will need to be reinstalled. Normally booting to Linux from a recovery disk and re-running the boot loader setup will restore the ability to select the operating system to boot from.

With that said, the first thing I would do is run the upgrade assistant for Win8: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... -windows-8

[farmall]

If you are sampling Windows 8 you might want to install it on another hard disk and set your old one aside in case things don't work out.

That's also a nice reason to use a newer/faster hard disk for the experiment.

[kenwong]

I am a newbie in this forum. Before I joined it, I observed that people here are very helpful. Just a few minutes after my first post, two people offered their help and gave me their advice. What an awesome community with nice people here. Thank you guys.

Are you talking about an upgrade or installing Win8 in place of XP? In either case you can install to the current XP partition without touching the others.

I read before on the Internet some people recommending a fresh installation rather than upgrade. I am trying to get those posts/blogs for the procedures.

After Windows is installed, your boot loader will need to be reinstalled. Normally booting to Linux from a recovery disk and re-running the boot loader setup will restore the ability to select the operating system to boot from.

Thank you. I will search for details on this.

With that said, the first thing I would do is run the upgrade assistant for Win8: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... -windows-8

I took your advice and did the check. Looks ok, except the wifi driver IIRC. However, I will lose some software like RecordNow which came along with Win XP on my T60 if I do a fresh installation. Right?

btw I love #!

Yes, #! is excellent!

Some years ago, I removed Win 98 and installed Ubuntu before switching to #! on my earlier Thinkpad, 600E, which retired only a few months ago. #! is so lightweight and easy to use. I now use my T60 with #! on it more than my iMac.

If you are sampling Windows 8 you might want to install it on another hard disk and set your old one aside in case things don't work out.

I am considering replacing Win XP with Win 8 entirely. Before I re-installed Win XP on my T60 bought a few months ago, I tried the Release Preview of Win 8. Everything seemed alright.

Thank you again. Any other help would also be appreciated.