View Full Version : Going from XP to Win 7? Maybe not....
Onkel Neal
07-24-09, 01:03 PM
Move To Windows 7 Will Be Tough (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204900904574304283334746634.html)
Ok, so, XP forevah!! Rah! :har:
But Windows XP users, including the millions who have recently snapped up cheap, XP-powered netbooks, will first have to wipe out everything on their hard disks in order to install Windows 7. on their current machines. In fact, Microsoft doesn’t even call migrating to Windows 7 from XP an “upgrade.” It refers to it as a “clean install,” or a “custom installation.” This disk wipeout can be performed manually, or automatically during the Windows 7 installation process.
If you’re an XP user, the disk-wiping will cause you to lose your current file and folder organization, and all your programs, though not necessarily your personal data files themselves.
And the pain doesn’t end there. If you’re an XP user, moving to Windows 7 on your current computer means you will also have to re-install all your programs and restore all the software drivers for your printers and other add-on hardware. That could require locating the original program disks, or downloaded program installers, and then re-downloading and re-installing the numerous updates that have been issued since these original disks or installers came out.
And, there’s another problem: XP hardware drivers won’t work in Windows 7.....
FIREWALL
07-24-09, 01:09 PM
Very Simple. Partition HDD and Dual Boot. I did and no problems for 2 months so far.
Use printer and other stuff on XP until you get the hang of Win7.
PeriscopeDepth
07-24-09, 01:09 PM
MS is in a bad place IMO. IIRC, 6/10 businesses are passing on Win7. Vista has left the company with a terrible name. I think they could take a beating from the combined likes of Google, Apple, and the various free Linux distros. It's not a for sure thing, but they are in as shaky as a position as the have been since the early 1990s.
PD
SUBMAN1
07-24-09, 01:18 PM
I'd recommend you do this anyway. Upgrades never work right. Always some niggling bug left from the old install.
-S
Sounds like Mr Mossberg is lazy man... :03: The recommendation to buy a computer with Win 7 pre-installed to save the hassle seems like a pure plug for people selling this. And everyone knows that most such deals means they install a lot of crap on your computer as well, and that you then will spend time to get rid off it. :yep:
I did a clean install of Win 7 RC on a friends laptop yesterday and I was done in two hours maximum, and that included program installs and upgrades. The driver support seems excellent in Win 7 as it found and installed everything on its own. (Remember installing a clean copy of XP? now we are talking fiddling with drivers and software, especially if you had to start from a disc with no sp 1 & 2 included)
I never missed Xp a beat after moving to win 7, I skipped Vista though.
cheers Porphy
Bah.. there is an file transfer system you can use so to not lose all your stuff if you go from XP to 7. Yes, the hardware drivers wont work, but geez, I doubt anyone has like 20 different things plugged into their PCs?! It's not like it takes 2 weeks to get your drivers installed.
Still using a 7100 RC build and it's 90% of the time better than XP was. :salute:
Sounds like Mr Mossberg is lazy man... :03: The recommendation to buy a computer with Win 7 pre-installed to save the hassle seems like a pure plug for people selling this. And everyone knows that most such deals means they install a lot of crap on your computer as well, and that you then will spend time to get rid off it. :yep:
I did a clean install of Win 7 RC on a friends laptop yesterday and I was done in two hours maximum, and that included program installs and upgrades. The driver support seems excellent in Win 7 as it found and installed everything on its own. (Remember installing a clean copy of XP? now we are talking fiddling with drivers and software, especially if you had to start from a disc with no sp 1 & 2 included)
I never missed Xp a beat after moving to win 7, I skipped Vista though.
cheers Porphy
Have to agree with you on the drivers. 7 had no problem installing all the drivers of all the printers on the network and for the PC. Of course my documents files were on the server.
Loud_Silence
07-25-09, 09:27 AM
From that point of view, moving from XP to XP is also a nightmare!:haha: When your installation goes crazy and the only solution is format, you have to install EVERYTHING again, drivers, software... unless you have an unattended XP.
Who are these people who would even considering an upgrade?!?!
Always do clean installs...to great a chance of old junk or problems will follow...
After a couples of month with Vista, I have now W7
I can play all my old and all the new games i have, without any problems at all.
Markus
Onkel Neal
10-09-09, 03:44 PM
A Windows to Help You Forget (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459293141191728.html)
So, to upgrade from XP, the easiest solution is buy a new HD, make it the master and slave the original with all my files, and format and load Win7 on the new HD. Voila!
Right? :hmmm:
I just hooked my new drive up to an available SATA port, formatted it, then moved it to the first port (where your main drive is now) and moved my main drive to the 2nd port and booted off the CD. no master slave stuff needed with SATA
I can access my data on the old drive, and if I want, swap the connectors and boot from it.
FIREWALL
10-09-09, 06:09 PM
If that wasn't bad enough then, there's this : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461173612366420.html
bert8for3
10-09-09, 07:25 PM
A Windows to Help You Forget (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459293141191728.html)
So, to upgrade from XP, the easiest solution is buy a new HD, make it the master and slave the original with all my files, and format and load Win7 on the new HD. Voila!
Right? :hmmm:
IMHO, I would just back up data to an external hard drive (pretty cheap these days). Then reformat and load with Win7 from scratch, which has to be beter than trying an upgrade.
So are people going Win7 on Oct 22? I'd like to ditch XP if only to get recognition of more than ... what is it ... 3 MB RAM?
Onkel Neal
10-09-09, 10:31 PM
IMHO, I would just back up data to an external hard drive (pretty cheap these days). Then reformat and load with Win7 from scratch, which has to be beter than trying an upgrade.
That's what I'm saying, right? Just add a new HD, and load the full version of Win7. You don't need to back anything from your original HD, as longam says, you can still access the files.
Some long time back, on my old PC, my Windows was corrupted and the PC would not boot up. Tried a lot of things, but it would not boot up. So I bought a new, and much larger, HD, made it the master and slaved the original with all my files, and installed XP on the new HD. Computer worked great, all the programs on the old HD with corrupted Windows worked fine.
What I am going to do is install a SATA removable drive bay (2 of actually so I get 2 drive carriers), then buy a new HDD then I can just pull out and plug in between systems till I'm happy with Win 7 setup!!:yep:
Arclight
10-10-09, 04:30 AM
That's what I'm saying, right? Just add a new HD, and load the full version of Win7. You don't need to back anything from your original HD, as longam says, you can still access the files.
Some long time back, on my old PC, my Windows was corrupted and the PC would not boot up. Tried a lot of things, but it would not boot up. So I bought a new, and much larger, HD, made it the master and slaved the original with all my files, and installed XP on the new HD. Computer worked great, all the programs on the old HD with corrupted Windows worked fine.
This is what I did recently; add in another SATA drive, install on that. If I select the old drive as #1 boot priority in BIOS, I can still boot the old one, you don't nescesarily have to swap connections like mentioned before. In short: sure, that works. :up:
What I am going to do is install a SATA removable drive bay (2 of actually so I get 2 drive carriers), then buy a new HDD then I can just pull out and plug in between systems till I'm happy with Win 7 setup!!:yep:
Got 2 of those as well, though they house a RAID array; was more intended as expansion because I ran out of bays. Works fine, but rigging up a fan or getting a bay with one is recommended; heat builds up in there.
Mounting those things in the optical drive bays causes a bit of vibration though, but that may be due to my particular case. Need to improvise something to reduce it. :hmmm:
CaptainHaplo
10-10-09, 09:45 AM
I run one main drive - in 2 partitions. I have a second drive devoted purely for copies of critical data.
So my machine shows 3 hd's in windows. If something I know is critical, I manually copy it over. This is my game machiine, so very little is truly critical on it, but stuff like pictures, a few docs, etc.
When its needed, its format and reinstall - all my needed stuff is already there. It also makes formats fast - because I can make sure all the necessary drivers and updates are downloaded and on that second drive, ready to be installed.
This is what I did recently; add in another SATA drive, install on that. If I select the old drive as #1 boot priority in BIOS, I can still boot the old one, you don't nescesarily have to swap connections like mentioned before. In short: sure, that works.
I have done the BIOS switch on ASUS boards, but for some reason this Dell board doesn't support it. :cry:
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