In the fine tradition of <a href="http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/forums/viewthread/2018/">Nude Tech Support 2.0</a>, I am going to pass on a nice walkthrough I found for upgrading. First, I want to explain some terms that have been bandied about for the benefit of the less technically inclined among us. Also, keep your judgements of various OS's and programs and preferences to yourself; this is supposed to be a "how-to" not a "this is better than that" post.
An <strong>upgrade</strong> is just that, you are keeping all your files and settings and just upgrading from Vista. All your programs stay in place and you are not making any changes to how things are laid out or what programs are installed. It is not possible to upgrade from XP to Win7 directly, you must do a clean install.
A <strong>"clean install"</strong> means reformatting the hard drive and removing any trace of your former operating system. Also known as "nuking the site from orbit" in reference to the movie "Alien", this frees up your computer from all the old software that may be slowing your computer down, as well as any registry errors that refused to be fixed. Aside from the obvious hardware upgrades, this is one way to restoring speed to a system.
The "drivers" are files that tell your operating system what a piece of equipment does and how to use it. Typically, Microsoft has them already installed (or some generic that works just as well) but some third party hardware will have proprietary drivers (like graphic or sound cards) that require you get them from the manufacturer. You will need these to make your hardware work correctly. If you open your Device Manager and see yellow exclamation points, it's probably a missing/bad driver file that is causing it.
Before you do a clean install, it is imperative that you <strong>copy any and all personal files</strong> like pictures, videos, mp3s, documents, or email that is stored on your "C:" drive because once the formatting is done, they are GONE and lost FOREVER and you CAN NOT GET THEM BACK! I also like to copy over any installers for software that was downloaded, unless you know you can re-download them again at will. For example, Norton Internet Security 2010 requires an installer and had I not copied it to an external drive, I would be arguing with customer service right now. If it's important to you and irreplaceable, copy to a back-up drive or burn it to a CD/DVD, or mail it to yourself using a web mail account like Gmail. If you don't, you will never see it again.
Ok, here's a step by step guide that I borrowed from <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5445169&postcount=110">this guy</a>, edited to apply to more systems:
With upgrade disc in hand, you have two ways to go:
A) Do you want to upgrade from Vista?
B) Do you want to do a clean install?
If you answered "A", put in the Upgrade DVD and away you go.
If you answered "B", follow this guide:
<blockquote>1) Backup your "C:" drive because you are about to format it, this means copy any and all personal files that you want to keep to a separate location like an external drive or online storage service.
2) Download and store all of the drivers you'll need for third party hardware or manufacturer-specific devices, like HP's MediaSmart keys, for your version of Windows 7 on an external drive or online storage service, but an external drive is preferred.
3) Put the Upgrade DVD in your PC and reboot the machine. When it first powers on, it will tell you to press "escape" or "F2" or something to enter the boot sequence. Press the correct button and choose "boot from CD/DVD". There are a wide number of variations possible in this step, due to the wide variations of motherboard manufacturers, so the button pushed or the terms used may vary slightly, but the goal is to get the computer to boot from the Win7 DVD.
4) When the DVD starts it will give you choice on getting updates automatically or not, go with the choice you feel comfortable with and click next, until you can select "custom installation".
5) Click on "Advanced Disk Options". This will give you a number of options for actions regarding the hard drives installed on your computer. Typically, Win7 will go on your "C:" drive. If you have your main hard drive partitioned into more than one section, you may see a "C:" and "D:" drive listed. This screen will allow you to reformat those partitions, or delete them if you choose. If you do delete them, make sure to extend you C: drive to recapture the extra drive space. Just make sure that you are not deleting the drive where you were storing all your back-ups. Once you have your drives formatted and partitioned to your liking, continue with the install.
6) Install W7 but DO NOT enter the Activation Key when prompted, just leave it blank and press CONTINUE. The reason for this is to prevent a bad install from locking up your registration process.
7) Follow the directions, create your accounts, set up your PC, install your drivers, connect to your wireless or hard wired network but DO NOT ACTIVATE it yet.
8) After the install process is done, and Win7 has finished downloading it's updates, open up the "Control Panel" and select "Device Manager". This will open a screen showing all the hardware in your computer. Try and get all of the yellow exclamation points resolved by getting all of the drivers installed that you previously downloaded to the external drive or have on a disc. This will probably require several reboots as each driver is added. When they are all eliminated, continue to the next step.
9) From within Windows, open up the DVD and double-click SETUP.
10)Select UPGRADE and when prompted, enter your Activation Key.
11) Go through with the whole upgrade install. This will be quicker than last time. The drivers will all still be installed. Once you are logged back in and your desktop is ready, right click on "Computer" in the menu. Then click on the "Activate Windows" link.
12) Now you can set all of your preferences, install third-party software or applications, set up your email, and copy your personal files back over into the new folders.</blockquote>
Now, you need to understand that I am not going to be on the phone with you, or coming over to hold your hand through the process. If you break something, don't PM me with requests for help because I can NOT do anything with a machine I can not actually touch. That being said, if you take care to back up your personal files, you should be ok. If you bought the Full version, instead of the upgrade, you can just go ahead and activate it the first time around, because you have the Full install disc in case registration fails. I'm just posting this so that people with the "Upgrade" discs can do a clean install. Keep in mind, you may be required to insert your old Vista disc to "prove" you are eligible for upgrade... I haven't seen it yet, but Microsoft is still Microsoft and they dislike piracy.
In any case, I like Win7 so far. The install was easier than any so far and my little Q9100 processor is running it with zero problems. I hope you find this guide helpful.
