Help! Upgrading from 2000 OEM install to XP Volume-Licensed is fai

[bandgeekndb]

Let me see how concise I can make this for everyone's sake:

1) First things first: I am working in an office environment where the option of a clean install is NOT an option. I am only the IT guy and they are telling me that a clean install is NOT an option. My only "final" recourse (and I mean, only if I absolutely have to), I can make one system a fresh install, put all of the required software back on and then clone it.

2) I have a bunch of beige box systems from a vendor called "Network Access Systems." They were installed with OEM copies of Windows 2000 from the warehouse. Now, we would like to upgrade these machines to XP Professional.

3) We have bought a volume license key and appropriate licenses for Windows XP Professional and have done this upgrade on almost 30 other machines in the office (they are Gateways with OEM 2000 installs).

4) For some reason, whenever we use the exact same CDs from the other upgrades to try an upgrade on one of the beige boxes, the installer crashes half-way through the install leaving a wonderful endless boot loop. The computer blue-screens, and before I can read the message, it reboots. On 2 separate beige boxes, this is the case, so it is not a one-time fluke.

I am at wits end trying to figure out why these machines won't upgrade. The vendor I mentioned above says that because it is an OEM install, we can not do an upgrade from that. But from every other source, including my experiences with the Gateway machines in the office, I should be able to do the upgrade. I know it would be a problem if my XP disc was OEM, but it is not. It is a Volume License disc that was provided with the licenses.

If anyone has any insight on a solution, or at least a way for me to catch the blue-screen so I can post it for clarification, PLEASE let me know! I am desperate for a solution here! This is the LAST time I let this company buy from a beige box vendor!

I will be monitoring this thread pretty closely, so if you need more information, please let me know and I will do my best to provide it ASAP. Thanks so much in advance for any help you can provide.

[cluberti]

Before you start the upgrade (and this assumes you have a null-modem cable and a second machine to do the monitoring), you can configre the 2000 box to be debugged - if/when it bugchecks, the debugger on the second machine attached via the null-modem will break in on KeBugCheck so you can at least see what's going on.

And your upgrade should technically work (I don't think OEM to VL is "supported", however it should "work").

[bandgeekndb]

And now I see why you're an S-Mod :-)

Unfortunately, not only am I clueless to how to perform what you say, but I'm pretty sure we don't have any null modem cables lying around. Haven't started carrying that on my toolbelt yet!

Thanks for the help though!

[IcemanND]

This is precisely the reason why I refuse to upgrade from any version of Windows to any other version every since Win 3.1.

Something you might try is to bring up the boot menu sometimes you will get the option there to turn off the automatic reboot on BSOD. You may also try booting into safe mode, won't tell you a whole lot but you can check the event viewer and setup log files, and you can turn off the automatic reboot.

Is the software installation the same between the gateways and the beige boxes, excluding drivers? I have found that some software, like virusscan products don't like OS upgrades. Also some drivers will cause you issues, especially of the beige box company was cutting corners and building Intel images on AMD or vice versa and deploying via images.

[cluberti]

Not a problem - if you've got a Premier agreement with SA, you likely have access to the Microsoft DART toolkit, which includes the ERD boot CD (it gives you access to the event logs, etc, offline - might be useful in troubleshooting).

Honestly though, it sounds like there's a driver in the 2000 install that Windows is either not upgrading that is causing the issue, or it's trying to upgrade it and failing (both would cause a BSOD if the driver is a kernel driver, which it seems to be). Your best bet might be to use the USMT to migrate settings and do a clean install as per your second option.

[bandgeekndb]

Well well, I think I have my answer!

I tried someone's suggestion to unplug all USB devices, and then I kinda thought about any lingering bits of AV software, etc (I had "uninstalled" them, but symantec, etc. are SO BAD at removing their own products). So, I forced a bare startup from within msconfig (I just disabled all startup items, not messing with any other tabs).

Voila, it worked! Once I was in XP, I turned everything back on and life was good. Only needed to load 2 drivers from the cd that came with the computers.

I'm amazed, I really didn't expect it to work, but I guess I was wrong!

Thank you everyone for the help!