-> My first recommendation is to reinstall Vista, assuming you have the DVD available, and then attempt the upgrade again. The sluggishness is not typical of Windows 7 and is typically caused by incompatible/malfunctioning software or drivers. Upgrading from a clean installation of Vista should prevent such issues from recurring.
-> You cannot upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7; Despite XP users being eligible for the upgrade, it requires a clean (custom) installation.
-> The XP installation issue is likely caused by having a SATA, which early releases of XP have problems with. Check your system BIOS settings to see if there is a PATA/SATA compatibility setting or see if you have a newer copy of XP (preferably with SP2/SP3) available.
Hope this helps,
John
OK, I purchased the student Windows 7 Upgrade for my Dell 1520 (1.5 ghz dual core, 2gb ram, 80gb HD? maybe 160).
Anyway, my plan was to reformat the computer with the disk given to me by Dell and upgrade from Vista (home). I've reformatted my desktop computer many times with a windows XP cd (it is not a Dell computer) so I figured I would be fine.
The installation of Vista was taking a long time, but it finally got to the end of the installation where I think it was supposed to restart. Instead, I got a black screen which never went away. I left it over night and throughout my working day in case it was just being extremely slow.. Didn't work and of course, it didn't complete so VIsta wouldn't boot up.
I tried the process a few more times until I admitted defeat, and decided to try to reformat and put XP Home on (I wasn't even sure if I could upgrade to WIndows 7 from XP Home but I just needed my laptop to work..). Now I can't install XP on because when its about to start it says that "setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer." I'm assuming this is because the attempted Vista installations wiped everything off my computer and didn't make it to the point of reinstalling stuff like that.
I'm wondering if maybe there's a setting I might need to change in the computer's set up? Otherwise, I have no idea what to do.
Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
Erica
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