Best way to upgrade to Windows 7

[LD55ZRA]

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message

news:60b3q5l9uvd9ao82p1sk35mo5bb5avvvra@4ax.com...



> No problem; I'll put you back in.



No problem pervert. You are welcome.

 

[Terry Heinz]

On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:37:27 -0400, SC Tom wrote:



>"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message

>news:iie2q556k2ht4l7g6p14vk157ua5d8dpss@4ax.com...

>> I have. I did that with my netbook, more as an experiment than

>> anything else. Since I use it for e-mail while traveling and very

>> little else, I didn't really care very much what version of Windows it

>> was running. But because to do it I had to go to Vista, then SP1 of

>> Vista, then Windows 7, and it was done on a slow machine, it took the

>> better part of two days.

>>

>> However, despite its taking two days, it mostly did what it did by

>> itself and took very little attention from me. So the two days really

>> didn't bother me at all. If I had done it by doing a clean

>> installation of Windows 7, it probably would have taken about the same

>> two days (that's about what it took when I first installed and

>> configured all the apps on it under Windows XP), but it would have

>> been two days that kept me very busy.

>

>I've been putting off upgrading from XP to Win7 for that very reason. I've

>had XP on this PC since XP was released to the public, and I've installed a

>lot of programs since then. Granted, a lot of them are not used much, if at

>all, any more, but there are a number of ones I do use that I don't have the

>installation files for, and probably not the registration codes either.



See my comments following: D:\Archives, D:\Attic.



>They're all legal, but with moving/cleaning/getting rid of old stuff, I just

>don't have everything that I bought over the years.

>Aside from the fact that I don't have a Vista install disk or another Win7

>one, and I really don't want to put out the bucks to upgrade an OS I'm

>perfectly happy with. I guess sometime between now and 2014 I'll have to do

>something



I went from Win XP to Win 7 by formatting my C: drive and installing Win 7,

but it wasn't too painful for me. ;-)



My hard drive is partitioned into C: D: E: drives, I install the operating

system to C: but most other programs I use are installed to D: drive.

I have a large Music library which is stored on E: drive.



To put it another way:

1. If it doesn't need backing up it's installed on C: drive.

2. If it needs backing up it's installed on D: drive.

3. Music needs backing up so it's stored on E: drive.



That reduces the amount of configuration that needs to be done after the

reinstallation of the operating system. Agent, Eudora, Opera and many other

programs don't always need to be reinstalled, sometimes you can just create

a new shortcut that when you click in it the program fires up.



"My Documents" doesn't exist on my computer by that name, but a large

amount of documents are saved at D:\Archives.



I vaguely recollect a C:\"download folder" but my downloads automatically

go to D:\Attic.

--



Terry Heinz.

 

[Unknown]

You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes bad

you'll

wish you backed up everything.

"Terry Heinz" wrote in message

news:hnsc7e$vjq$1@news.datemas.de...

> On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:37:27 -0400, SC Tom wrote:

>

>>"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote in message

>>news:iie2q556k2ht4l7g6p14vk157ua5d8dpss@4ax.com...

>>> I have. I did that with my netbook, more as an experiment than

>>> anything else. Since I use it for e-mail while traveling and very

>>> little else, I didn't really care very much what version of Windows it

>>> was running. But because to do it I had to go to Vista, then SP1 of

>>> Vista, then Windows 7, and it was done on a slow machine, it took the

>>> better part of two days.

>>>

>>> However, despite its taking two days, it mostly did what it did by

>>> itself and took very little attention from me. So the two days really

>>> didn't bother me at all. If I had done it by doing a clean

>>> installation of Windows 7, it probably would have taken about the same

>>> two days (that's about what it took when I first installed and

>>> configured all the apps on it under Windows XP), but it would have

>>> been two days that kept me very busy.

>>

>>I've been putting off upgrading from XP to Win7 for that very reason. I've

>>had XP on this PC since XP was released to the public, and I've installed

>>a

>>lot of programs since then. Granted, a lot of them are not used much, if

>>at

>>all, any more, but there are a number of ones I do use that I don't have

>>the

>>installation files for, and probably not the registration codes either.

>

> See my comments following: D:\Archives, D:\Attic.

>

>>They're all legal, but with moving/cleaning/getting rid of old stuff, I

>>just

>>don't have everything that I bought over the years.

>>Aside from the fact that I don't have a Vista install disk or another Win7

>>one, and I really don't want to put out the bucks to upgrade an OS I'm

>>perfectly happy with. I guess sometime between now and 2014 I'll have to

>>do

>>something

>

> I went from Win XP to Win 7 by formatting my C: drive and installing Win

> 7,

> but it wasn't too painful for me. ;-)

>

> My hard drive is partitioned into C: D: E: drives, I install the

> operating

> system to C: but most other programs I use are installed to D: drive.

> I have a large Music library which is stored on E: drive.

>

> To put it another way:

> 1. If it doesn't need backing up it's installed on C: drive.

> 2. If it needs backing up it's installed on D: drive.

> 3. Music needs backing up so it's stored on E: drive.

>

> That reduces the amount of configuration that needs to be done after the

> reinstallation of the operating system. Agent, Eudora, Opera and many

> other

> programs don't always need to be reinstalled, sometimes you can just

> create

> a new shortcut that when you click in it the program fires up.

>

> "My Documents" doesn't exist on my computer by that name, but a large

> amount of documents are saved at D:\Archives.

>

> I vaguely recollect a C:\"download folder" but my downloads automatically

> go to D:\Attic.

> --

>

> Terry Heinz.

 

[Terry Heinz]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:



>You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes bad

>you'll wish you backed up everything.



If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

the backup be to me.



There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

system.



All my valuable data is on D: & E: drive and is carefully backed up.



It'd be handy in future before you reply to a post, you first read it.

--



Terry Heinz.

 

[SC Tom]

"Terry Heinz" wrote in message

news:hnv4l3$2ip$1@news.datemas.de...

> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>

>>You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes

>>bad

>>you'll wish you backed up everything.

>

> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

> the backup be to me.

>

> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

> system.

>

> All my valuable data is on D: & E: drive and is carefully backed up.

>

> It'd be handy in future before you reply to a post, you first read it.

> --

>

> Terry Heinz.



That's why I use a good imaging program. When the HDD in my notebook

crashed, I was back up and running in less than an hour with everything the

same as it was at the last image, no reinstallation of anything. By imaging

to an external drive, I also eliminate the possibility of destruction of the

backup on an internal drive by malware, lightning strike, etc.

You may have your programs installed on your D: drive, but if you C: drive

crashes, odds are when you reinstall your OS, you'll have to reinstall some

of those programs also since almost every Windows program writes files and

registry entries to the OS. If you have to format a new drive and reinstall

the OS, all of that is lost and the programs won't run. Much easier to image

it and not have to go through all that, IMHO

--

SC Tom

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:12:39 +1100, Terry Heinz

wrote:



> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>

> >You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes bad

> >you'll wish you backed up everything.

>

> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

> the backup be to me.

>

> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

> system.





And reinstall and reconfigure all your programs. And reconfigure

Windows the way you like it.



Depending on how many programs you have installed, which programs they

are, and to what extent you have them and Windows itself personally

configured, that could be a minor job or a major job. If you believe

it would be a minor job for you, fine--don't back up C:. But doing

that would be a major job for many people and take a significant

amount of their time.



Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may

have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?

Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you even remember

all the customizations and tweaks you may have installed to make

everything work the way you like?





--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[Unknown]

If my internal drive goes bad, I simply install a new drive and then copy my

external to the internal. Roughly

30 minutes time.

"Terry Heinz" wrote in message

news:hnv4l3$2ip$1@news.datemas.de...

> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>

>>You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes

>>bad

>>you'll wish you backed up everything.

>

> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

> the backup be to me.

>

> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

> system.

>

> All my valuable data is on D: & E: drive and is carefully backed up.

>

> It'd be handy in future before you reply to a post, you first read it.

> --

>

> Terry Heinz.

 

[Terry Heinz]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53:14 -0400, SC Tom wrote:



>"Terry Heinz" wrote in message

>news:hnv4l3$2ip$1@news.datemas.de...

>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>>

>>>You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes

>>>bad

>>>you'll wish you backed up everything.

>>

>> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

>> the backup be to me.

>>

>> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

>> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

>> system.

>>

>> All my valuable data is on D: & E: drive and is carefully backed up.

>>

>> It'd be handy in future before you reply to a post, you first read it.

>

>That's why I use a good imaging program. When the HDD in my notebook

>crashed, I was back up and running in less than an hour with everything the

>same as it was at the last image, no reinstallation of anything. By imaging

>to an external drive, I also eliminate the possibility of destruction of the

>backup on an internal drive by malware, lightning strike, etc.

>You may have your programs installed on your D: drive, but if you C: drive

>crashes, odds are when you reinstall your OS, you'll have to reinstall some

>of those programs also since almost every Windows program writes files and

>registry entries to the OS. If you have to format a new drive and reinstall

>the OS, all of that is lost and the programs won't run.



That is true I generally need to reinstall many of the programs on D:



>Much easier to image it and not have to go through all that, IMHO



Can you suggest a program I could use to do the imaging?

--



Terry Heinz.

 

[Terry Heinz]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:12:55 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:



>On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:12:39 +1100, Terry Heinz

> wrote:

>

>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>>

>> >You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive goes bad

>> >you'll wish you backed up everything.

>>

>> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use would

>> the backup be to me.

>>

>> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

>> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

>> system.

>

>And reinstall and reconfigure all your programs. And reconfigure

>Windows the way you like it.

>

>Depending on how many programs you have installed, which programs they

>are, and to what extent you have them and Windows itself personally

>configured, that could be a minor job or a major job. If you believe

>it would be a minor job for you, fine--don't back up C:. But doing

>that would be a major job for many people and take a significant

>amount of their time.



There is a good days work in reinstalling the operating system to C: and

reinstalling the programs on D: But I have been convinced by the idea of

imaging as being much quicker.



>Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may

>have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?

>Can you find all the needed installation codes?



All the CDs and installation codes are kept in their own cupboard but I

will do some searching for imaging tools.

--



Terry Heinz.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Terry Heinz wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53:14 -0400, SC Tom wrote:

>

>> "Terry Heinz" wrote in message

>> news:hnv4l3$2ip$1@news.datemas.de...

>>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:07:47 -0500, Unknown wrote:

>>>

>>>> You don't think the OS needs backing up??? When your internal drive

>>>> goes

>>>> bad

>>>> you'll wish you backed up everything.

>>>

>>> If I had a backup of my OS and the internal drive goes bad what use

>>> would

>>> the backup be to me.

>>>

>>> There is nothing on C: that needs to be backed up.

>>> I would need to replace the internal drive and reinstall the operating

>>> system.

>>>

>>> All my valuable data is on D: & E: drive and is carefully backed up.

>>>

>>> It'd be handy in future before you reply to a post, you first read it.

>>

>> That's why I use a good imaging program. When the HDD in my notebook

>> crashed, I was back up and running in less than an hour with everything

>> the

>> same as it was at the last image, no reinstallation of anything. By

>> imaging

>> to an external drive, I also eliminate the possibility of destruction of

>> the

>> backup on an internal drive by malware, lightning strike, etc.

>> You may have your programs installed on your D: drive, but if you C:

>> drive

>> crashes, odds are when you reinstall your OS, you'll have to reinstall

>> some

>> of those programs also since almost every Windows program writes files

>> and

>> registry entries to the OS. If you have to format a new drive and

>> reinstall

>> the OS, all of that is lost and the programs won't run.

>

> That is true I generally need to reinstall many of the programs on D:

>

>> Much easier to image it and not have to go through all that, IMHO

>

> Can you suggest a program I could use to do the imaging?



Acronis True Image. If you buy it in the box it comes with a bootable CD,

too, in case you ever needed that.

 

[Terry Heinz]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:26:40 -0600, Bill in Co. wrote:



>Terry Heinz wrote:

>>

>> Can you suggest a program I could use to do the imaging?

>

>Acronis True Image. If you buy it in the box it comes with a bootable CD,

>too, in case you ever needed that.



Thanks Bill, I looked around and "Acronis True Image" seems to be popular

so I downloaded and installed it.

--



Terry Heinz.

 

[SC Tom]

"Terry Heinz" wrote in message

news:ho1sp0$kho$1@news.datemas.de...

> On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:26:40 -0600, Bill in Co. wrote:

>

>>Terry Heinz wrote:

>>>

>>> Can you suggest a program I could use to do the imaging?

>>

>>Acronis True Image. If you buy it in the box it comes with a bootable

>>CD,

>>too, in case you ever needed that.

>

> Thanks Bill, I looked around and "Acronis True Image" seems to be popular

> so I downloaded and installed it.

> --

>

> Terry Heinz.



Bill beat me to it, but that's what I use and would have recommended also.

If you haven't already bought it, you can get a free version if you own a

Seagate, Maxtor, or Western Digital HDD. Here are the links to those:



WD version of ATI:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en



Seagate/Maxtor Disc Wizard by ATI:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD



They are not the full-blown versions with scheduling and all that, but work

just fine in a home environment, IMHO. You don't to have any of the drives

installed internally. If you're using an external USB/Firewire/eSATA drive

manufactured by them, it qualifies. I image my drives to an external WD and

have no problems with the software.

--

SC Tom

 

[milt]

On 3/16/2010 10:40 PM, OREALLY wrote:

> Hi,

>

> Is there a way to upgrade to Windows 7 w/o losing programs and data?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Oreally



Not really, you could just do the upgrade path but that is sure to lead

to problems and odd behavior. Your best bet is to back up your data

(pictures, docs, music, etc.) then format the drive and do a clean

install, that is your best chance of having a trouble-free install.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:08:59 -0500, milt

wrote:



> On 3/16/2010 10:40 PM, OREALLY wrote:

> > Hi,

> >

> > Is there a way to upgrade to Windows 7 w/o losing programs and data?

> >

> > Thanks,

> >

> > Oreally

>

> Not really, you could just do the upgrade path but that is sure to lead

> to problems and odd behavior.







Sorry, but assuming that OREALLY is running Windows XP, that's not

correct. There is no upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7.





> Your best bet is to back up your data

> (pictures, docs, music, etc.) then format the drive and do a clean

> install, that is your best chance of having a trouble-free install.



--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[undisclosed]

Oreally,

Please note that when migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 you will

not have an "in place upgrade" option. You will however have the option

to select "custom" install when prompted. The Windows 7 install process

will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old

folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in

other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.

For more information on the Windows 7 Upgrade, please go here:

'Installing and reinstalling Windows 7' (http://tinyurl.com/y9b2lp7)

For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows

7, please go here: 'Windows 7 RC | Support, Deployment, Resources'

(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee150430.aspx)

When migrating from Windows Vista to Windows 7 you will have the option

to select "custom" or "upgrade" install when prompted. By selecting the

"upgrade" option, your documents and applications will follow and carry

over through the install process. If you select, "custom" however you

will be able to perform a clean install and all applications will have

to be reinstalled manually -- documents will be moved to a folder

entitled "windows.old".

For additional assistance with the migration of Windows Vista to

Windows 7, Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 Support Forum

located here 'Windows 7 IT Pro Category'

(http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/w7itpro/) .

It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support

teams. You are welcome to check the threads there and receive additional

assistance and feedback.

Jessica

Microsoft Windows Client Team





--

JessicaD

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[Better late than never, I suppose...]



undisclosed wrote:

> Oreally,

> Please note that when migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 you will

> not have an "in place upgrade" option. You will however have the option

> to select "custom" install when prompted. The Windows 7 install process

> will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old

> folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in

> other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.

> For more information on the Windows 7 Upgrade, please go here:

> 'Installing and reinstalling Windows 7' (http://tinyurl.com/y9b2lp7)

> For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows

> 7, please go here: 'Windows 7 RC | Support, Deployment, Resources'

> (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee150430.aspx)

> When migrating from Windows Vista to Windows 7 you will have the option

> to select "custom" or "upgrade" install when prompted. By selecting the

> "upgrade" option, your documents and applications will follow and carry

> over through the install process. If you select, "custom" however you

> will be able to perform a clean install and all applications will have

> to be reinstalled manually -- documents will be moved to a folder

> entitled "windows.old".

> For additional assistance with the migration of Windows Vista to

> Windows 7, Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 Support Forum

> located here 'Windows 7 IT Pro Category'

> (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/w7itpro/) .

> It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support

> teams. You are welcome to check the threads there and receive additional

> assistance and feedback.

> Jessica

> Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[JessicaD]

Greg Russell,



There are several reason why we at Microsoft do not support an in place

upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. We realized at the start of this

project that the “upgrade†from XP would not be an experience we think

would yield the best results. There are simply too many changes in how

PCs have been configured (applets, hardware support, driver model, etc.)

that having all of that support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be

nearly as high quality as a clean install. This is something many of you

know and already practice. We do provide support for moving files and

settings and will prompt at setup time, but applications will need to be

reinstalled. We know that for a set of customers this tradeoff seems

less than perfect, but we think the upfront time is well worth it.



For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows

7, please go here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee150430.aspx



Jessica

Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

A member of the Windows Client team posting via supernews.com? I don't

think so...



JessicaD wrote:

> Greg Russell,

>

> There are several reason why we at Microsoft do not support an in place

> upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. We realized at the start of this

> project that the “upgrade†from XP would not be an experience we think

> would yield the best results. There are simply too many changes in how

> PCs have been configured (applets, hardware support, driver model, etc.)

> that having all of that support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be

> nearly as high quality as a clean install. This is something many of you

> know and already practice. We do provide support for moving files and

> settings and will prompt at setup time, but applications will need to be

> reinstalled. We know that for a set of customers this tradeoff seems

> less than perfect, but we think the upfront time is well worth it.

>

> For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows

> 7, please go here:

> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee150430.aspx

>

> Jessica

> Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[Greg Russell]

In news:JessicaD.48qr1w@no.email.invalid,

JessicaD typed:



> We realized at the start of this project that the "upgrade" from XP

> would not be an experience we think would yield the best results.



April Fool's Day isn't until April 1st, today.