before installing

Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)

If this is your primary computer do not do it. You only have one hard drive. If you install you will overwrite your current operating system and there is no tool to roll it back. If this is just a second computer you use for testing then go for it. The most important info to start with is to read http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx, in particular the red-text.
If you are a customer who fits the description Beta 2 is for you. If not, at least make sure you have the skills listed. If not then consider waiting until Vista reaches release. Remember this is not a Consumer Preview and it is not an Early Adopter Program (TAP). Microsoft will not help you if you get into trouble. We will do the best we can, but this is an all-volunteer group.
"ALF4" wrote in message

Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)

Or you can make two partitions on your 40GB hard drive. (I would do either two 20GB partitions or I'd do a 10GB partition for XP (assuming that's what you're using) and a 30GB partition for Vista.) WARNING! You will lose all data on the hard drive unless you use a special 3rd party partitioning tool. Also, 20GB isn't a lot for Vista, and don't expect to put much of your software on there then. Now if this is not your primary computer, then go for it and install Vista just on the 40 gig HD as you have it now. "Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message

If this is your primary computer do not do it. You only have one hard drive. If you install you will overwrite your current operating system and there is no tool to roll it back. If this is just a second computer you use for testing then go for it. The most important info to start with is to read http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx, in particular the red-text.
If you are a customer who fits the description Beta 2 is for you. If not, at least make sure you have the skills listed. If not then consider waiting until Vista reaches release. Remember this is not a Consumer Preview and it is not an Early Adopter Program (TAP). Microsoft will not help you if you get into trouble. We will do the best we can, but this is an all-volunteer group.
"ALF4" wrote in message Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)

I have read the replies from Colin and Travis, and I agree with them. If this is your primary computer, and you have important data on it, do not upgrade your current operating system to Vista.
So if this is a test machine with no data that needs to be saved on it, go for it.
But if this is your primary machine, with important data on it, there are still ways to do it.
1) do an image of your current operating system, so that when you are finished looking at Vista you can restore the image, and be back to exactly where you were. Then do a clean install of Vista. If you're not exactly sure how to do an image, don't do it. All too often users find that after making an image, they can't restore it. I blame the companies that market so called backup software that can't be relied on, and that misleads a user into thinking he has a good backup when he doesn't.
2) Get a new hard drive. I got a new 200GB maxtor hard drive for $45 after rebates. Look around, you can find similar deals. I used the MaxBlast software that was included in the box to copy my operating system to the new hard drive. You can also download software from the drive manufacturers site. After verifying that it worked, I removed the new hard drive from the system, reinstalled the old hard drive as the secondary master, and did a clean install of Vista. Then I reinstalled the new hard drive as the primary master. Now I use the BIOS to select the hard drive to boot from.
3) as Colin and Travis mentioned, if you have enough free space on your hard drive, you can use third party partitioning software to split your hard drive into two partitions, and install Vista on the second partition. I would prefer to do 1 or 2. Given the chances of getting an unusable image, I'd really prefer 2.
Todd

"ALF4" wrote in message

Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)

I agree #2 is the best. If you do an image, make sure the software verifies the image, more time but absolutely necessary, especially if you use CD/DVD's for backup.
"Todd" wrote in message

I have read the replies from Colin and Travis, and I agree with them. If this is your primary computer, and you have important data on it, do not upgrade your current operating system to Vista.
So if this is a test machine with no data that needs to be saved on it, go for it.
But if this is your primary machine, with important data on it, there are still ways to do it.
1) do an image of your current operating system, so that when you are finished looking at Vista you can restore the image, and be back to exactly where you were. Then do a clean install of Vista. If you're not exactly sure how to do an image, don't do it. All too often users find that after making an image, they can't restore it. I blame the companies that market so called backup software that can't be relied on, and that misleads a user into thinking he has a good backup when he doesn't.
2) Get a new hard drive. I got a new 200GB maxtor hard drive for $45 after rebates. Look around, you can find similar deals. I used the MaxBlast software that was included in the box to copy my operating system to the new hard drive. You can also download software from the drive manufacturers site. After verifying that it worked, I removed the new hard drive from the system, reinstalled the old hard drive as the secondary master, and did a clean install of Vista. Then I reinstalled the new hard drive as the primary master. Now I use the BIOS to select the hard drive to boot from.
3) as Colin and Travis mentioned, if you have enough free space on your hard drive, you can use third party partitioning software to split your hard drive into two partitions, and install Vista on the second partition. I would prefer to do 1 or 2. Given the chances of getting an unusable image, I'd really prefer 2.
Todd

"ALF4" wrote in message Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)

I agree with Todd that if you cannot make the partitions, go out and get another hard drive. An 80 gig hard drive can be had for dirt cheap nowadays. Secondly, if you dual-boot your computer, make sure to install XP first, then install Vista second. If you do it in the reverse order, (Vista 1st then XP) you will probably end up with a dual-booting nightmare. "John Barnes" wrote in message

I agree #2 is the best. If you do an image, make sure the software verifies the image, more time but absolutely necessary, especially if you use CD/DVD's for backup.
"Todd" wrote in message I have read the replies from Colin and Travis, and I agree with them. If this is your primary computer, and you have important data on it, do not upgrade your current operating system to Vista.
So if this is a test machine with no data that needs to be saved on it, go for it.
But if this is your primary machine, with important data on it, there are still ways to do it.
1) do an image of your current operating system, so that when you are finished looking at Vista you can restore the image, and be back to exactly where you were. Then do a clean install of Vista. If you're not exactly sure how to do an image, don't do it. All too often users find that after making an image, they can't restore it. I blame the companies that market so called backup software that can't be relied on, and that misleads a user into thinking he has a good backup when he doesn't.
2) Get a new hard drive. I got a new 200GB maxtor hard drive for $45 after rebates. Look around, you can find similar deals. I used the MaxBlast software that was included in the box to copy my operating system to the new hard drive. You can also download software from the drive manufacturers site. After verifying that it worked, I removed the new hard drive from the system, reinstalled the old hard drive as the secondary master, and did a clean install of Vista. Then I reinstalled the new hard drive as the primary master. Now I use the BIOS to select the hard drive to boot from.
3) as Colin and Travis mentioned, if you have enough free space on your hard drive, you can use third party partitioning software to split your hard drive into two partitions, and install Vista on the second partition. I would prefer to do 1 or 2. Given the chances of getting an unusable image, I'd really prefer 2.
Todd

"ALF4" wrote in message Greetings.
I am about to install you'ved guessed it, vista beta 2 and have run the windows upgrade advisor which says that my realreak AC97 drivers needs to be downloaded (done) and I need a driver the nvidia network controller (downloaded).
I have the following spec:
AMD athlon XP2800 MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum nforce 400GB 1.5GB Dual Channel memory 40GB ATA 133 HDD nVidia 6800GT 128MB
Has anyone else installed with similar specs? Can anyone suggest things I might need to look out for before installing?
Thanks in advance :)