Vista to Seven upgrade

I'm looking for a bit of assistance here bcoz' I would like to upgrade to Windows 7. Right now I'm using Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Now, if I read this correct over the net, I can do the upgrade with no hassles as long as I have the equivalent of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit right? Would I still have to back up my files just in case something should go worng? Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

i would back everything up and do a fresh install.

I would backup regardless. But before doing anything I suggest if you haven't done already you download the application from MS that can test your machine and tell you if you are ready for windows 7 this will also tell you if you are able to upgrade or need to do a re-install.

if you back everything up to an ext drive or DVD or whatever, you can set your computer to boot from it's CD drive at startup, then place the win7 disk in your CD drive and restart. at startup, it will look to boot from the CD drive.... "press any key to continue".... then it will take you into the windows7 install menu, and you choose "fresh install" or however it's termed, and it will show you what drives or partitions you have available. i deleted my logical partitions, formatted both drives (i have two 320gb drives), repartitioned my slave drive to have a 60gb logical and a 260gb logical), then set the process to install on my primary drive. 20 or so minutes later, whoila, good to go. then begin the process of putting all your backed-up stuff back onto your computer.

tommykjensen wrote in post #8925322
But before doing anything I suggest if you haven't done already you download the application from MS that can test your machine and tell you if you are ready for windows 7 this will also tell you if you are able to upgrade or need to do a re-install.

if he's running vista ultimate 64bit, he should have no problems with win7 64bit. good idea to check sure, but my 5 or 6yo pc is running windows7 just fine, almost better than it ran xp.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm about ready to upgrade and I pretty much backed up all my files. I have yet to install the app from MS to see if I can do the upgrade. Hope this works out for me w/o no issues. Thanks!!

some possibly useful links
http://www.techspot.co​m …183-app-backup-checklist/

http://www.selfstarter​sweeklytips.com/ebiz/d​ata-backup.htm

jdizzle wrote in post #8925436
Thanks for the input guys. I'm about ready to upgrade and I pretty much backed up all my files. I have yet to install the app from MS to see if I can do the upgrade. Hope this works out for me w/o no issues. Thanks!!

Let us know how it goes. I just received my windows 7 upgrade today so I will be going through the same soon.

Thanks for those links dipps. I've done fresh installs before but, it sounded too good to be true that I can just install a new OS over the old one and not have to do much. A fresh install is a better option anyway. =)

jdizzle wrote in post #8925508
Thanks for those links dipps. I've done fresh installs before but, it sounded too good to be true that I can just install a new OS over the old one and not have to do much. A fresh install is a better option anyway. =)

I will probably try the upgrade option first and see how it goes. Not that its a big deal the pc is fairly new so I have on purpose limited the amount of new applications I have installed because I knew that I eventually could end up having to do a re-install.

tommykjensen wrote in post #8925493
Let us know how it goes. I just received my windows 7 upgrade today so I will be going through the same soon.

Sure Tommy. Will do. I just have to recheck and make sure I have all my files backed up completely. All these RAW files are massive! LOL!

I'll probably try that first myself. It wouldn't hurt.

jdizzle wrote in post #8925508
Thanks for those links dipps. I've done fresh installs before but, it sounded too good to be true that I can just install a new OS over the old one and not have to do much. A fresh install is a better option anyway. =)

last time i tried installing an upgrade OS over an existing one was when i went to windows 95. lol

the hardest part is backing things up. if you don't have much to back up and reinstall afterwards, i would definitely do a fresh install. the install part is easy. i did it on my kid's computer the other day, which is a dell dimension 8400 series that NORMALLY required that i have some sort of disk available during the reinstall process, but i didn't even need that disk anymore. i had quite a bit of stuff to reinstall (including about 10 kids games/learning software), but i'm happy i went the route i did. enables a greater peace of mind (for me, anyway).

now i have my vista xps system to do (my workhorse). i have lots of picture files and home video viles to archive before i can tackle that one.

I bought a new 500gb drive for my install (wanted one anyway.)

After initializing and formatting the new drive in vista I swapped SATA cables to make new drive my primary... and left vista drive unplugged for now (didn't want to risk anything touching it during install.) I ran my Win7 disc (upgrade disc) and everything went through fine. If you have trouble with your legitimate upgrade on clean install, these tips should get you through it pretty easy: http://www.winsupersit​e.com …install_upgrade​_media.asp

Then I shut down, reconnected my Vista drive as secondary, and restarted my machine. In a month or so, once I'm happy I've got everything I need restored from my external backup (documents, pictures, itunes library, etc) and sure everythings working properly, I'll format my Vista drive and recover all that space.

edit: I did went from 32 to 64bit

I upgraded on the 26th from Vista Home Premium 32 bit to Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit. Instead of a fresh rebuild, I didn't want to bother with saving everything and installing everything again.

So I chose to just do the upgrade. It first told me the Citrix, Eos Utility, and i Tunes had to be uninstalled. I did that and it crashed during the install about 3 times but the 4th was a charm. I reinstalled the Eos Utility and the iTunes and they both work fine now. The upgrade that worked took about an hour or so. If I had to reinstall everything, it probably would have taken me half a day or so for me.

I think if you go from 64 bit to 64 bit, the experience should be similar.

As for the difference, it seems a bit more stable and the Huey doesn't decalibrate itself as much when a new device is plugged into the USB port as much. I tried LR a bit and it does seem a bit faster.

Good luck.