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Resolved Question

Upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista

by Dec 24, 2012 11:30AM PST

I am wanting to upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista and do a clean install in the process. I plan to do this using a retail Windows 7 upgrade disk.

The machine is an older Acer Aspire running the 32 bit Vista OS.

My plan is to buy a new HD because I think the existing HD may be flaking out. Of course, the machine has gone through several iterations of software installs and unistalls in its 7 year life span. So, some of the problems being experienced could be related to those circumstances. That's why I want to do a clean OS install and reinstall of programs.

Is this plan reasonable? What are the problems I might encounter?

I'm new to this forum, but not new to messing with computers. I've fixed my share of them and messed up my share as well. I'm not wanting to mess this one up. So, some advice and counsel would be appreciated.

Neither myself or the client is interested in doing something outside a lawful upgrade.

Would a retail Win 7 Professional OS be better/easier to get the system running on Win 7 pro?

EJ

Discussion is locked

TLARbb has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
4 Posts
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Best Answer

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Yes
by Dec 24, 2012 12:45PM PST

a full version of Win 7 pro would be easier to install than the Vista / Win 7 upgrade as you wouldn't have to spend the hours installing the Vista updates necessary to install the Win 7 upgrade. If you install a new HDD and had a Win 7 Pro disc than you would just install that plus any drivers needed.

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Answer
Yes it's feasible - here's how.
by Dec 24, 2012 11:59AM PST

The Windows 7 upgrade will want to have Vista installed. It doesn't have to be activated, and it can be on a different partition. So, what I'd recommend is that you create at least two partitions, one for Vista which doesn't need to be more than 20 GB unless you plan to install programs and actually use it, and the other for Windows 7 (should be at least 100 GB). Then you can do a clean install of Windows 7, and it'll work just fine. Just be sure you have all the drivers you'll need.

Good luck.

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What about on a different physical drive?
by TLARbb Jan 15, 2013 11:41AM PST

Can I install Win 7 on a new hdd set as master with the hdd containing Vista on the "slave".

I think the computer has a couple of problems:

One it has Vista.
Two it has had a lot of install/uninstall and maybe some re-install of various programs over its 7 year life. Probably has lots of crumbs and hairballs in the registry.

I have the new hard drive for the machine now and could clone the old HDD to the new one and then do the upgrade path, but that would leave all those crumbs and hairballs in the new HDD and OS. What I would like to do is a clean install of Win 7 on the new HDD without going through the aggravation of installing Vista on the new HDD and doing all of the updates. I had the apparently crazy idea that I could reinstall Vista off the original media and then just do the upgrade. Windows 7 upgrade disks should have all of the Vista updates up to its release date and not need any Vista updates. Is that an incorrect assumption?

Further complicating my thoughts on this is that the existing HDD has a partition for the operating system and another for Data. I will be looking at it in the next few days. I can't afford to get this machine to a point that it can't be used.

EJ

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You're asking about a hookup without my knowledge...
by wpgwpg Jan 15, 2013 12:08PM PST

...about your configuration. Since your computer is 7 years old, I don't know whether we're talking about IDE (PATA) or SATA. If SATA, you don't have master/slave configurations. Is the new drive IDE or SATA? The IDE drives are getting scarce these days, so I'm inclined to suspect the new drive is SATA. Does your mobo support SATA? In any event if you install the new hard drive, you should be able to create a new partition on it, format it, and give it a drive letter, then install the Windows 7 upgrade to it, giving you a clean install. You shouldn't have to do anything else as long as the Windows 7 upgrade can see Vista installed on the old drive. Once you do that, you can create 1 or more partitions on the new drive and copy your data to one of them.

Good luck.

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