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General discussion

Help me start over with a Windows 7 upgrade

May 14, 2010 8:09AM PDT
Question:

Help me start over with a Windows 7 upgrade


I installed the Windows 7 upgrade over the Vista software
that came with my computer using that option, rather than the
option of wiping the HD clean and the reinstalling all other
software after Win 7 was installed. Big mistake!

My experience with Windows 7 has been awful. I'll bet I've
had as many as 20 blue screens while using Win 7, and
probably as many freeze-ups. Even Norton's Utilities advises
me that my "System health is low" and scan the registry
(which I've done many times!)

How can I wipe this hard drive clean and then install my
Windows 7 upgrade now? Will Microsoft allow me a second try
using the Win 7 upgrade that I've bought and used once
already? Thanks for any advice.

--Submitted by Richard K. of Medford, Oregon


Here are some featured member answers to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.

Starting over... --Submitted by Watzman
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19411_102-0.html?messageID=3304493#3304493

Starting over... --Submitted by Wolfie2k5
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19411_102-0.html?messageID=3305439#3305439

Yes you can. Here's how to clean-install Windows 7 upgrade. --Submitted by NoriNY
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19411_102-0.html?messageID=3304936#3304936

Your answer is----YES! --Submitted by warpete
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-19411_102-0.html?messageID=3304569#3304569

Thanks to all who contributed!

If you have any additional advice or tip that you'd like share with Richard please click on the reply link and submit it. Please be as detailed as possbile when providing a solution. Thank you!

Discussion is locked

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how to reformat
May 18, 2010 3:02AM PDT

First you must make sure that your copy of Windows 7 is the full version. If you have only the upgrade version you wiill have to reinstall your original OS first. Either way you need to restart your pc with the full version windows 7 disk or your original OS disk in the disk drive.when the pc starts to boot up hit your DELETE button a couple time to get you into your bois. not sure what MB you have but you will just have to look around to find the boot order of your pc. when you find in you will want to put the drive you have you windows disk in as the 1st boot and the os as the second boot, save and exit bios and the pc will reboot. Just follow the direction from the windows disk after that.

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Install
May 19, 2010 9:55PM PDT

Not sure if this has been said or not but the windows 7 disk, if it is a full disk and not just an upgrade, has the option of installing without reformatting the drive. It saves ONLY personal files and folders and then deletes system files and re-installs the OS. I had originally done as you and had the same problem, reinstalling as such fixed 100% of the problems and saved me lots of time. But as with anything make sure to back up your files before trying.

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installing win 7 upgrade
May 21, 2010 10:20AM PDT

when i tried to install the upgrade i tried the upgrade over vista and got nowhere, then i tried the full win 7 upgrade ( the second choise) and during the instal it said the old files would be saved as "oldcomputer files" and sure enough there they were. saved files when i went through the files it gave me the choice of testeing for compatability with windows 7 those that werent i put on thumb drive and zipped them then checked compatability, most worked. the computer i have is an HP and recieved the upgrade from them. PS i tried the upgrade on my new AZUS laptop and it worked also. SHHHHHHH.

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Windows 7 upgrade from Vista
May 21, 2010 10:57AM PDT

First off, is your pc a desktop or laptop? Do you have the recovery disks available from the manufacturer? If you have the recovery disks, I would recomend using them to bring your system back to OEM condition if possible. Back up your personal data first if you can! If you system is not usable then consider all data as lost unless you are willing to install a new hard drive to use as a primary drive (on a desktom model) and the old drive as a slave or secondary to pull the data (pictures, mp3's, docs etc) Then use the microsoft upgrade adviser from either the Windows 7 disk of from Microsofts Windows & website. Once you have run this advisor and adhered to ALL the recomendations you can then safely proced to the upgrade procedure. I know this will be time consuming but without doing this you will be back to the current situation again.

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Moi Aussi
May 21, 2010 11:05AM PDT

I did the same, I printed out the instructions for my computer's manufacturer upgrade, for clean install (jic) and printed instructions for my periferalls. I read and re-read , choose my upgrade method,meticulalously copied all the drivers for all the products, installed them IN ORDER as instructed, disabled firewalls&virus (via interactive mode) and used the instruction manual accompanying Win 7 disk, as a guid. Obvioulsy I've had prior computer problems w/installs ....from not reading/understanding the proper way to do things& by being impatient by nature always "figured it out myself" and screwed everyting up. that was the past, I learned my lessons. I have spent at least 1 week 'fixing' everything that should never have taken place by following the instructions. I had to install/uninstall my HP (say no more....) printer at least 5 times.
I had backed everything up on external hard drive & flash drive as instructed.
It took me 30+ hours to get it all to work together and many a swearing out loud tear was shed. I haven't had to perform the clean install (yet) tho I almost through both the desktop and laptop out the window. It's really absurd how none of the producers of any of the products were prepared for this O/S upgrade- forget FORGET Win 7 advisory- it's one big pac of bs. I hope it's over. And no, a clean install would not have saved any time and would have made things worse w/older (<2 years...) peripherials and all my 1000's of Outlook pieces of info. to reinstall bc I'm still using 200 (the only year Office Outlook made a 1/2 decent program). Horrible experience but my printer finally prints from desktop & laptop - imagine the miracle of miracles, things work (with crossed fingers and 20 backups)

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help from users
May 21, 2010 11:29AM PDT

I have a similar problem and tried one of the suggestions offered, I tried the Systinternal and it messed up my pc to no end, no sound, couldn't do restore to earlier dates. Had to do sytem recovery and reinstall my op system. This was a microsoft program so wonder why it messed up my pc?

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Hi Richard
May 21, 2010 11:38AM PDT

I hope you got your issue resolved. If not, contact me (I'm local) and I will be happy to give you some (hopefully helpful) advice.

Chris
www.smbtechnology.com

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Systinternal problem
May 21, 2010 11:46AM PDT

YES have it sorted out now, did a complete recovery of vista then win7 back on, that program did something as nothing else had changed before I put it on, I had no problems through the day while it was turned on but after rebooting the next morning the problem was there, thanks anyway.
Regards
Ronnie

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PING and GPartEd..GET THEM!
May 21, 2010 12:03PM PDT

Get these two Linux boot discs.

GPartEd will partition and get your disc ready for any new install or multiple formats if needed.

Once you get through the Installation, validation, and updates (and whatever significant programs you need to install/update)...Use PING to back up the C drive (or partition. It takes about 5 minutes if you are backing up to a seperate drive, 10 if to another partition.

Give yourself a good 50GB for Windows 7 and your programs. If you need to restore, it also takes just a few minutes.

NEVER "UPGRADE" always clean install!

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Use recovery CD.
May 21, 2010 11:11PM PDT

Use recovery CD(comes with your computer when you purchased). This will reinstall all the required softwares including Windows Vista and cleans the entire HD too. This recovery makes your computer out of the box, I mean band new computer. Then upgrade to Windwos-7.

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PCMover
May 21, 2010 11:53PM PDT

If you do not want to reinstall all your applications use PCMover from Laplink. I used it recently and was very impressed and happy with the results.

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Some misconceptions about Windows 7 upgrade.
May 22, 2010 11:18AM PDT

To share my experience... I've used the Windows 7 Upgrade Version to upgrade one computer that had WIN2K, one that had XP, and one that had a bare drive. (with 3 different legal copies of Windows 7) All have been perfectly fine. It is not necessary to have Vista already installed and running. In fact, the one thing I haven't done yet is upgrade a Vista installation with a Windows 7 upgrade DVD.

I've had good luck with Windows 7 EXCEPT that there is going to be very limited driver availability for legacy AGP or PCI video cards. This, of course, is the video card manufacturers' doing. My older high-end workstation has AGP, PCI, and PCI-X slots, but since it doesn't have any PCI-e slots, making the Windows 7 transition on this particular computer will be a pain.

Possibly important note about Upgrade Advisor... If you still have WIN2K, the Upgrade Advisor won't even run. It's not recognized as a valid win32 application. I don't know if there's the same problem on XP or not.

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Try this
May 23, 2010 8:08AM PDT

If you have a full version of Windows Vista or XP you just Install a barebones minimum set of either and then upgrade to Windows 7

It would seem to me unless you have a full version of Windows 7 in any of the 3 flavors on CD and not the Upgrade version you would be able to install Windows 7 from scratch on your machine.
An upgrade is an upgrade.

The other possibility is that you have a backup version of Windows 7 which you use when you were asked to create it on CD which contains essential format files to work with your reformated hard drive ...

I would also suggest to work with the dealer whom you bought the system from.

This is useful in that if for any reason your present hard drive fails and you need to format a new hard drive from scratch [FDISK, format C:/sys]

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Starting over
May 23, 2010 9:59AM PDT

Firstly did you check to see if you system would definately run Windows 7?
Secondly most programs that run in XP or Vista (other than MS) may not run in Windows 7, so check for upgrades.

Thirdly, most drivers that run in XP or vista, will not run in Windows 7.

So its a wise idea (too late for you at this point) to look for the versions that will run in 7.

If you have the Vista/7 installation disk, turn on your system and boot from it, format the computer and start from scratch Id prefer to use Vista first then check to see if it will in fact run on your system, then, if it will, get all drivers and programs you need to use in 7, then upgrade to 7 and install the drivers/programs. OR when you install vista, partition the drive and have a dual boot system.

Your blue screen issue very well might be an incorrect driver for the graphics card/processor, most of them need to be new for 7. You might try turning off AERO and see if it is any better, but, a new graphics driver is definately in order.

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start from scratch and do a clean install
May 23, 2010 2:45PM PDT

I have had the same problem and ended up doing a full clean install of windows 7.

Not such a major problem as all my data is stored on seperate HDD and not on the main computer.

Most of the software has reinstalled well with some updates and windows 7 is working fine.

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Win 7 upgrade
May 28, 2010 12:07PM PDT

I had the exact thing happen to me. Lots of BSOD even during install. Once I finally got it working it toasted my GPU in about 4 hrs. I think even tho the windows upgrade tells you it can many older MBs can't handle it. I replaced the MB with a Win 7 certified MB upgrade the RAM from 2 to 4 and haven't had a glitch. Not a single BSOD. The old MB had ran Ubuntu 64 for years with no problems. I will say Win 7 64 was as fast as Ubuntu 64 until I had to start adding all the crap to shield Win that's not a needed in Ubuntu. Like virus, spyware progies. About 90% of my web and vid tools will only work in Win. As the Linux kernels keep upgrading it seems less and less will run under WINE.

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Well, Try this way...
May 29, 2010 11:57AM PDT

Hi there! The 1st. time that I?ve installed Windows7 was in last Octobre. That time I?ve just installed my Windows7 Ultimate 32 Bit over Windows XP Pro Edition 32 Bit, that came with my Toshiba Satellite Pro A-200 Laptop. But recently I?ve needed to reformatt my laptop due to some blue & black screen error messages. That was very hard to me, but finally I?ve done it.

In order to make a clean install, you?ll need to follow some steps here:

1.- Make sure that your hardware supports Windows7. You can make your own research over your PC or Laptop Manufacturer Home Page on the Web. Also you can download and install the "Microsoft Windows7 Advisor", with great results.

2.- If your hardware supports Windows7, you?ll need to back-up all your files, and if you can,your software. Major PC or Laptop Manufacturers have software support upgrading to Windows7. Check it out. (In my case I have a lot of software on my portable HDD and pendrives, so it wasn?t a matter for me).

3.- After the "Back-Up" you?ll need any partition software, in order to reformatt your HDD. I?ve used the freeware "Partition Wizard", downloaded and installed either the app and the iso. files. Here, (once burned the iso. files) I?ve run the boot CD and formatted my HDD. All my HDD data were erased on the selected partition "C".

4.- I?ve reboot my laptop and press F2 in order to select the boot priority (1st. DVD ROM; 2nd. HDD).

5.- Once inserted the Windows7 DVD, I have reboot again, and install the new O.S. on a selected clean partition.

6.- After installing the new Windows7, make sure to install first the Antivirus/Anti-Malware app. before connecting to Internet.

7.- Install all the apps. you need or desire. You can move on the Manufacturers Home Page in order to obtain the needed apps. support.

8.- Enjoy Windows7!

Kind Regards.

Lawtimes74.

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Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
May 29, 2010 11:23PM PDT

hello,In my opinion, if your current edition of Windows Vista can't be upgraded the edition of Windows 7 that you want to use, you can still install Windows 7 by using the Custom installation option instead. However, the Custom option doesn't preserve your files, programs, or settings. Recommended that you download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

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upgrade win xp to vista and then to win 7
Jul 3, 2010 2:34AM PDT

sometime ago I asked about this and was told it will work reading this thread now I'm worried. I ran the vista & win 7 utilities & both said My sys is good to go

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upgrade vista to windows 7
Jul 21, 2010 4:09AM PDT

Sir, when i just giving upgrade option in my Lenovo Y550 laptop, it shows that so many program will not work on windows 7 . So how can I install windows 7 with work all the programs that are currently get with vista home edition.

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Upgrade to Windows 7
Jul 21, 2010 7:05AM PDT
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Fixed it
Jul 23, 2010 2:15AM PDT

Yep, I had a similar experience sans BSoD (blue screens of death). I hated the thought of wasting time w/clean install and fought it until I wasted so much time trying to fix it and ended up w/clean install anyway (I had purchased Upgrade disk but managed to do a full, clean install). It works almost fine now, but a new glitch is that for no reason it's now not recognizing me as an Administrator and won't let me change User Accounts to be administrator.
Alsways something.

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Windows 7 Upgrade
Jul 25, 2010 10:53PM PDT

Well, I suggest that you back up everything whatever important files in your PC then do the fresh install of windows 7. In order to avoid the problems after installing windows 7 it is very important that you will do the level 0 format then install the fresh copy of windows7.

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