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General discussion

Vista to 7 upgrade or clean install

Sep 10, 2009 10:31AM PDT

Hi cnet:

I wanted to know if I should do an upgrade from vista to 7 or do a clean install from vista to windows 7. What is the difference from an upgrade and a clean install? What are the advantages of doing a clean install. I know that an upgrade you get to keep your files, but do you lose some features of windows 7? Also is it a good idea to do a clean install if your computer was build from a manufacturer like HP and not by me. Because I don't have any of the cds for some important programs that came with my computer, like lightscribe, software to the get the NVIDIA control panel, HP total care and many other important programs from HP.

Also if I do a clean install do I have to install back the software for my NVIDIA graphics card or sound card, or would windows 7 recognize it and install the drivers without putting the software cd from NVIDIA. If someone can help me thanks, please make a video of the advantages of upgrading or clean installing windows 7 on a computer that has been build by a manufacturer and not me.

Discussion is locked

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windows
Sep 10, 2009 10:38AM PDT

Another thing I forgot to mention I'm using windows vista 64 bit.

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upgrade vs. clean install
Sep 10, 2009 12:12PM PDT

an upgrade will keep most (if not all) of your existing apps. (xp apps may not be kept but the upgrade process will tell you in advance of anything it doesn't like.) a clean install (without a reformat) will kill all your apps and you'll have to reinstall them. a clean install with a reformat will, of course, force you to backup your data files, and reinstall all your apps and reload your data files. either clean install method will use drivers from microsoft and nvidia.

i've personally found the vista-win7 upgrade very trouble free.

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upgrade vs clean install
Sep 10, 2009 12:25PM PDT

so if I have windows vista 64 bit is better to just do the upgrade instead of the clean install.

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For performance issues it's allways better to do
Sep 10, 2009 11:26PM PDT

clean install because it removes all the residue of the last OS. But you don't have to install all your programs if you upgrade. Windows Operating Systems degrade in performance over time because of adding and removing programs that leave remnants in the registry and dll's and other things. So the choice of clean install versus upgrade is all a matter of choice.

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Article
Sep 11, 2009 2:59AM PDT

This article covers the move from XP to Vista but still explains the differences between a clean install and a upgrade install. Since you have a 64x OS you can only upgrade install to a 64x version of Windows 7. If you were thinking about going for 32x you would have to do a clean install.

What version of Vista do you have and what version of Windows 7 do you wish to move to?

NVIDIA has been pretty good about getting Windows 7 drivers out for the test versions of Windows 7 so you should be able to get drivers for 7 just fine, either via Windows or from the NVIDIA website (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us)

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upgrade vs clean install
Sep 11, 2009 5:52AM PDT

I have windows vista 64 bit and plan to move to windows 7 64 bit. The question is if is a good idea to do a clean install to computer that wasn't build by me. Because I don't have some of the cd's or software for some important programs that came with the computer.

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Then it's not a good idea.
Sep 11, 2009 5:56AM PDT
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Just asking.
Sep 11, 2009 6:13AM PDT

Are you prepared for the failing hard disk or motherboard (new motherboard = clean install) or the formatting needed to get rid of a nasty virus? What happens to your "important programs" then? If you aren't prepared you'll lose them.

So better start finding that CD's?

Kees

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experience
Jul 6, 2010 6:49AM PDT

just answering that i did a clean install from vista ultimate x64 to 7 ultimate x64 and began to have severe problems. Everything worked fine for a while and then the problems started. it began to stop botting up properly. It got to the point where it would only boot up every third attempt. I also began having problems with drivers randomly disappearing. I would reinstall and reinstall and they would never show up. and then it got to where it would never boot up at all. After a few days of intense repair and talks with my manufacturer over the phone, they asked me to send it in for free repairs. They called me two days later and said that they had replaced the hard drive and motherboard. I am back on vista for now, but considering at least attempting to upgrade and see what happens.

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Clean install= backup backup backup
Sep 16, 2009 3:00AM PDT
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Clean Install
Sep 15, 2009 8:54PM PDT

Best option if you just want to check out the system is to partition your hard drive, or better yet have 2 hard drives installed and create a dual boot machine.
Filing that I would always prefer clean install over upgrade install.The little leftovers in the registry can degrade system performance noticably.
this is true of all upgrade paths , it was particularly noticeable from xp to vista, where many problems were caused by residual junk, but were solved by clean installing after upgrading)
So far on my desktop I have a dual boot machine with vista ultimate on one drive and rc7 on the other, I hardly use the vista one.this machine uses the dedicated ati windows 7 graphics driver.
On my laptop, which was running vista premium I did a clean install to rc7 and it works well with no glitches( this machine originally had xp media cente edition installed , so it has gone through 2 upgrade cycles) this machine has an nvidia graphics card,It does not seem to have had a driver problem with the new os.
Hope my experience helps you
Ellis