Hi Guys,
I recently bought an HP computer with Vista and expecting my windows 7 upgrade DVD very soon. If anyone has done this upgrade before, please share your experiences or any cautions before I do the upgrade. Specifically,
1. Do you do upgrade or Fresh install?
2. My HDD has 2 partitions : C: Vista and D: Factory installed mirror image of the OS. Can I :
a : Have Windows 7 on a separate partition and keep Vista as is?
b: If I upgrade the C partition to Windows 7, can I reinstall Vista from the D:?
c: If I do fresh install, will the partition D: be deleted?
d: Do we get any of these options while upgrading or fresh install???
3. While fresh install or upgrade, which online registrations are absolutely important, which ones can be ignored?
Any other tips experts would like to share.
Hiren
Hi there, I would recommend going with upgrade option than fresh install as the HP upgrade DVD's takes care of lot of background custom tasks & firmware update installs for you. You can also go by custom option of doing a fresh install if you are familiar working with OS installs. personally i chose upgrade ( Even being a system admin ) option as i did not had to bother about formating & customizing my drives & i can always go with fresh install later incase i dont like . The upgrade option is pretty seamless & is very inituitive & you will have 2 DVD's & just need to follow the prompts. Some of the precautions i would take is take a backup of all personal data even though you dont loose any data with upgrade option. All my data & all applications were still present after upgrade option & i didnt have to reinstall anything. I am starting to love windows 7. With regards to your online registration question , at one point of upgrade stage it will ask you for your product code which will be available on CD cover & you would need to enter it to proceed completeing the upgrade. The very first thing it does is compatability test if your hardware is eligible for upgrade or not , which shouldn't be a problem & that is the reason they are sending the upgrade dvd. Since most of your questions are directed towards fresh install & since i did upgrade option i may not have answered all your questions but personally i would suggest go with upgrade option. Finally, make sure that you have stable internet connection during the upgrade as it needs to be connected to internet for the entire upgrade process ( the whole upgrade process will take anywhere from ( 2-4 hours ). You need to have powercable connected directly before you started upgrade as it wont let you run the upgrade option on battery. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Unless there's a specific reason you want to perform an upgrade (e.g. don't have a CD of some pre-installed software), I would highly recommend a clean install vs an upgrade. Its a breeze to do the install in case you're worried about the compexity (at least I found it a breeze and had absolutely no issues whatsoever). Its also the best way to delete any hangovers from the old OS. Plus if you bought the machine with Vista installed, there's probably more crap on it from the mfg.
Regarding a separate partition, there's nothing Vista can do that Win 7 can't do better. So again, unless you have a specific reason for leaving a Vista partition, delete it.
I recently upgraded my 2 yr. old HP with Win 7 and the difference in speed is night and day. (not that Win 7 is exponentially faster even though the performance is markedly better, but the machine was cluttered with pre-installed software and whatever I had loaded over 2 yrs. which made it crawl). Works like a new machine now 
Feel free to msg me if you have any specific questions.
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Thanks Guys for your valuable suggestions.
I have no problem with fresh OS installations from scratch, but just wanted to know some bobby traps with Win 7 installations - if any.
I also remember reading somewhere that Win 7 checks for serial numbers and installation IDs of all S/w installed on it and communicates with the original site for its authenticity - is that true? Not that I am scared of it, but is nice to know in advance to not install such s/w there.
My computer is fairly new, so there is no data that I need to backup. Since I am getting an upgrade version for Win 7 from vista, can I still do a fresh install? Will I be able to reuse the same disks on a later date if I have to replace my HDD?
Any other comments/suggestions welcome.
BL, I will email you if I have any specific questions-thanks.
Cheers,
Hiren
Fresh install has worked for me on my home HP Tablet. And I would second BL, with all the benefits that he has mentioned. Clean n Fresh install is always much better unless you have some data on it. Besides factory installed software might be Vista specific also. Go with Fresh.
Your second partition is to rebuilt your laptop with factory default OS n Softwares (which is Vista). This partition is not to be touched.
As it is new machine - I believe it has atleast 300GB Hard Disk. Assuming same, when you install Win7 - Create new partition of 100GB as your C:\ rather than installing it on existing single partition. Create second partition with rest of 200GB. You can use this Secondary Partition "D:\" Drive to store your data - which would be easier for you to maintain, backup n rebuilt. Incase of problem, you basically can rebuilt machine with Win7 without worrying of backing up data as it is in D:\.
I must also warn you that if you decide to rebuilt to factory-default from that partition - don't do it without backing up your data. As this process basically repartitions (erasing) everything.
One last, Microsoft has Free Security Pack, including Anti Virus that you can use. I am using it even though I have McAfee. As long as possible - I avoid third party.
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Posted on: 10-12-09 21:52:42
Quote:
Originally posted by hchheda
Since I am getting an upgrade version for Win 7 from vista, can I still do a fresh install? Will I be able to reuse the same disks on a later date if I have to replace my HDD?
Hiren
According to my experience of all transitions and upgrades to a higher version of windows, Fresh Install and Upgrade versions are separate versions.
Since you are getting an upgrade version of Windows 7, you may not be able to perform a clean install. Make sure about this before you format your computer.
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Quote:
Originally posted by hchheda
Since I am getting an upgrade version for Win 7 from vista, can I still do a fresh install?
Hiren
Not as simple as from a full Win 7 install CD obviously. However there are workarounds to do this and they are simpler than in Vista. Check out below for more specific information (this is a great resource for all Win 7 information)
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
No "booby traps" with Win 7 that I know of, the install is super smooth (and I've installed it a few times on multiple PCs with different configurations)
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