XP -> Win 7

[Pondboy]

Looking to move my desktop rig from XP to Windows 7, having studiously avoided Vista.

Question is, once upgraded, should I have to do a reinstall, will I have to load XP again before loading the upgrade version of Win 7 or does it just ask for the XP disk and do some sort of verification that it is a valid copy?

Cheers,
PB

 

[OzzieGSA]

Looking to move my desktop rig from XP to Windows 7, having studiously avoided Vista.

Question is, once upgraded, should I have to do a reinstall, will I have to load XP again before loading the upgrade version of Win 7 or does it just ask for the XP disk and do some sort of verification that it is a valid copy?

Cheers,
PB

Don't do half an upgrade, take my advice and upgrade to APPLE. Bit top-heavy on the wallet, but you'll never look back after the initial expense. AND you actually enjoy your time on the computer. Have heard heaps of problems with Windows 7 already, but all hearsay so read into it what you will.

 

[Pondboy]

OzzieGSA,

Sorry, old MS / Apple story.

I just couldn't move away from a o/s that lets me build pretty much what I want as a hardware base from a huge range of componet suppliers. Currently running some water cooled rig with slightly ageing components, well the processor maybe (2.4 Quad core) 4Gb fast ram 1Tb disk and a better than OK graphics card.

Thing is I can change it all pretty much at will.

And yes, my brother in law agrees with you entirely. PB

 

[freeloader]

Looking to move my desktop rig from XP to Windows 7, having studiously avoided Vista.

Question is, once upgraded, should I have to do a reinstall, will I have to load XP again before loading the upgrade version of Win 7 or does it just ask for the XP disk and do some sort of verification that it is a valid copy?

Cheers,
PB

I've been thinking about the move from XP to W7 too, Vista initially looked pretty but I thought I'd let my other half play with it first - she still uses it but it's just too resource-hungry for my liking.

I'll probably let others do the W7 beta-testing though, I'm in no hurry.

Don't do half an upgrade, take my advice and upgrade to APPLE. Bit top-heavy on the wallet, but you'll never look back after the initial expense. AND you actually enjoy your time on the computer. Have heard heaps of problems with Windows 7 already, but all hearsay so read into it what you will.

Ah yes, and some of us are happy to stick with Microsoft's OS in some form or another. It may be apathy, lethargy, or something else, but I'm in no rush to spend more money to get the same job done, thank you so much.

 

[turbine_2]

If it's anything like my upgrade, no. You can do an install from a brand spanking new hard drive using the media supplied and it won't bat an eyelid. You'll just have to watch the product activation bit. As long as the rest of your hardware is not changed (or at least, not significantly changed) there won't be a problem.
Actually, an install from the clean disk is the reccomended method (be it a brand new one or your old one that's just been formatted).

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Say after me. Rule one of computing......

Never, never, never upgrade to a windows OS until AT LEAST Service Pack 2.

 

[shugie]

Microsoft were saying there is no upgrade path from XP to 7, if you try and install 7 as an upgrade you get an error message. If that is true, will an upgrade version of Windows accept an XP disk as something it will allow you to use to validate the upgrade I wonder.

But it seems clear that you will be doing an install that needs an empty disk, r empty partition on a disk. And have to reload all the applications and your data.

Apple fanboys can pipe down, 7 works just fine, and you can use it on a lot more hardware than OSX. Most of which is also cheaper. Although if you want a cheap OS, Ubuntu is pretty good value!

 

[Pukmeister]

I recently used a Win7 upgrade disk and had to think outside the box a little to get it working.

I bought a three-user license version of Win7 Home Premium from Amazon online and thought I was getting a full version not upgrade disk, although I am actually upgrading mine and kids computers anyway. Had to put my original "Win95 OEM" installation disk in my PC to get it to work as all my other disks are also upgrade versions from that original OS.

When installing Win7 from XP it formats the HDD, installs itself then needs to verify the previous installation CD before allowing you to register/activate the product online. Be sure to back up your emails, favourites etc. Win7 also has no built-in email client like outlook express (I use webmail anyway so no hassle).

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

You don't have to format the drive to upgrade from XP to win 7. What happens is it will create a folder called old windows or windows old, cant remember which. You do still have to reinstall your other software though but it will keep your old saved files. You can do this for a Vista to win 7 upgrade as well if you would rather. Whether you should upgrade from XP to Vista is another matter and depends on the machine spec. if it should have ran Vista but you opted to XP then you will probably be fine. If it should always have ran XP your probably not going to be happy with Win 7 as you machine wont be up to spec enough to handle it properly. I am not just talking about raw grunt, I am talking about proper drivers for the hardware. Drivers are key to reliability and performance. As for upgrading from Vista to Win 7 its not a problem. I have done it about 10 times at work and every one of them works perfect. Is Win 7 any good? Yes it is, I was an official MS beta tester (none paid) from the beginning on it an its a great operating system. Personally I think MS should have given it away free to any Vista owners since Vista was totally rubbish and should never have been released. Win 7 isn't really a new operating system, its more a proper fix for Vista with some added features. In short its slightly faster uses less memory and it very stable in comparison to Vista which is a resource hungry bug ridden and crash prone.

 

[Pondboy]

I'm not worried about making the upgrade work, I've done enough of them over the years to know what to prepare & back-up.

Win7 will just blitz my C: drive which only holds XP, temporary files and documents. Everything else resides on data specific drives D: -> M:. and is backed up to an external portable disk as well.

If I have to roll back, I just format C: and off I go.

It's just having got used to the practise of reinstalling XP if something does F.Up, I was just planning ahead for the same eventuality under Win7. Having said that, the last sYstem I had to restore was my sons Vista desktop. PB

 

[turbine_2]

Windows 7 is effectivly Windows Vista SP2.

 

[Achim]

Looking to move my desktop rig from XP to Windows 7, having studiously avoided Vista.

Cheers,
PB

Just bought a new Acer laptop with W7 for son #2. The laptop bluescreened within 20mins of unpacking.

W7 = Vista in Leopard drag.

Get a Mac. Anything else is a waste of time.

Achim

 

[turbine_2]

Poor installation or faulty laptop? After all, Macs never have problems. Er, well, except for those ones that arrive with broken screens, or catch fire...

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Just bought a new Acer laptop with W7 for son #2. The laptop bluescreened within 20mins of unpacking.

W7 = Vista in Leopard drag.

Get a Mac. Anything else is a waste of time.

Achim

Funny how I keep getting asked by Mac owners for a copy of windows OS's to run on them if they are so brilliant! Pay double the amount for a MAC than you would something windows based then buy a windows operating system. That's just sheer genius

 

[cookie]

Funny how I keep getting asked by Mac owners for a copy of windows OS's to run on them if they are so brilliant! Pay double the amount for a MAC than you would something windows based then buy a windows operating system. That's just sheer genius

well, you wouldn't pay for it, would you