Upgrade question

?Hi, Gordon.

This is where I'm a bit confused. If I can install Windows 7 into the
Windows XP partition without disrupting anything else, it is a go
situation, but if installing Windows 7 will somehow mess up the other
partitions and destroy all my client software files, it is not worth the
trouble. Gordon

It's not enough to have all an application's files intact and available to
the new OS. You must also run the app's Install or Setup program in Win7 so
that it can make the proper entries into the NEW operating system's
Registry.

Until you INSTALL Word. for example, into Win7, that word.exe file is "just
another file", like a .doc or .txt file, and Win7 has no idea how to load it
and run it. Double-clicking on word.exe will just get you an error message
that the app must be installed (or something like that - I haven't tried
this specific situation). It's just like trying to run any other app
without installing it: some will work, but most require installation.

The Windows Easy Transfer (WET) program can smooth the transition
considerably. Run it first in WinXP, pointing its output to some storage
device that will be accessible to Win7 later. This can be a USB flash
drive, an external HDD, or another partition on your main HDD; just be sure
that it's some location that will not be reformatted or otherwise erased
during the transition. Then, after Win7 is installed and running, run WET
again in Win7 to retrieve your data. WET will not actually re-install your
applications, but can help you "re-tweak" them.

Except for updating the few small startup files (bootmgr instead of NTLDR,
for example) in the System Partition, Win7's Setup.exe will not write
anything to any partition except the Boot Volume (typically C - which is
where it will write the C:\Windows folder tree with all its gigabytes of
subfolders and files. It will not disturb your data files on any other
partition. (Reformatting the boot volume is highly recommended, but not
strictly required. If you choose not to reformat, then your data files and
other content outside C:\Windows will remain intact. If it were my system,
though, I would backup my files and reformat that partition. Or even delete
the partition and re-create it.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-9/30/10)
Windows Live Mail Version 2011 (Build 15.4.3502.0922) in Win7 Ultimate x64
SP1 RC


"Antares 531" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:14:06 -0500, Marty
wrote:

No reason not to replace XP with 7.
All are correct, you can not "upgrade" from xp to 7 but
you can install win 7 into the same partition that xp was
installed on.

This is where I'm a bit confused. If I can install Windows 7 into the
Windows XP partition without disrupting anything else, it is a go
situation, but if installing Windows 7 will somehow mess up the other
partitions and destroy all my client software files, it is not worth
the trouble. Gordon

When you do the install all files on the OS partition are deleted
with the exception of the windows directory. That directory is
renamed to windows.old and remains intact so you can access it if
needed.

Can I copy the files on the Windows XP partition to a back-up hard
drive, then copy them back to the new Windows 7 partition after the
installation is complete? That is, would the client software work at
all after doing this? Gordon

When I did this on 3 machines I used lap link utility to to save
all of my windows xp and program settings settings and then import them
into win7. Worked like a charm. Now to be fair I do not use
the program folders provided by the OS, I always created a separate
partition on the hard drive where I stored my applications and data.
That way when I upgrade/replaced/fresh installed the next OS all
needed to do was reinstall the apps and off I went. If you
did not do this then you will need to reinstall the applications.

I've set up my client software programs in a separate partition, too,
but had been led to believe that these would also be deleted when I
install Windows 7. Gordon

With the win 7 replacement of XP the lap link utility was able
to save all of the registry entries for my applications and OS and then
put them back after the win 7 replacement was completed.

This lap link is unfamiliar to me. Am I just out of the loop, or is it
some software that one can buy to link a laptop to a desktop computer?
Would a home workgroup, or a hard drive in a separate case do the same
thing? Gordon
Very happy with win7 stable as heck and not all that different the
win xp. I fact every application I had with win xp ran under win 7
with no problems. I even have an application bought to run under win98
and it runs just fine.

Marty



On 11/9/2010 3:45 PM, Antares 531 wrote:
On Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:19:46 -0600, Antares 531
wrote:

I have an older computer that is set up with Windows XP Pro SP3 and
would like to upgrade it to Windows 7. I've been told that the only
way to do this is to do a reformat/clean install. Is this correct?

This computer is a home built with a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
and an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.66 GHz. Is there any reason Windows 7
would not run on this computer? It has two Western Digital WD5000 AAKS
hard drives with about half the space available on each drive.

Gordon

Thanks to all who have responded. I think, in view of the information
posted, I should just leave well enough alone and let this older
computer live out the rest of its life as a Windows XP Pro SP3
computer. It's a bit confusing to have to jump back and forth between
the two and stumble around a bit while my brain makes the transition
form one OS to the other, but that might be less of a problem than
messing the old computer up beyond recovery. It's my genealogy records
setup, and I would be in a mell of a hess if I trashed this
information. Gordon

On Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:28:17 -0600, "R. C. White"
wrote:

?Hi, Gordon.

This is where I'm a bit confused. If I can install Windows 7 into the
Windows XP partition without disrupting anything else, it is a go
situation, but if installing Windows 7 will somehow mess up the other
partitions and destroy all my client software files, it is not worth the
trouble. Gordon

It's not enough to have all an application's files intact and available to
the new OS. You must also run the app's Install or Setup program in Win7 so
that it can make the proper entries into the NEW operating system's
Registry.

Until you INSTALL Word. for example, into Win7, that word.exe file is "just
another file", like a .doc or .txt file, and Win7 has no idea how to load it
and run it. Double-clicking on word.exe will just get you an error message
that the app must be installed (or something like that - I haven't tried
this specific situation). It's just like trying to run any other app
without installing it: some will work, but most require installation.

The Windows Easy Transfer (WET) program can smooth the transition
considerably. Run it first in WinXP, pointing its output to some storage
device that will be accessible to Win7 later. This can be a USB flash
drive, an external HDD, or another partition on your main HDD; just be sure
that it's some location that will not be reformatted or otherwise erased
during the transition. Then, after Win7 is installed and running, run WET
again in Win7 to retrieve your data. WET will not actually re-install your
applications, but can help you "re-tweak" them.

Except for updating the few small startup files (bootmgr instead of NTLDR,
for example) in the System Partition, Win7's Setup.exe will not write
anything to any partition except the Boot Volume (typically C - which is
where it will write the C:\Windows folder tree with all its gigabytes of
subfolders and files. It will not disturb your data files on any other
partition. (Reformatting the boot volume is highly recommended, but not
strictly required. If you choose not to reformat, then your data files and
other content outside C:\Windows will remain intact. If it were my system,
though, I would backup my files and reformat that partition. Or even delete
the partition and re-create it.)

RC

I'm considering buying a new hard drive to replace the primary drive,
then install Windows 7 onto this new drive...then re-install all my
client software. If for some reason this fails I could just remove the
new hard drive and replace the original one, then use the new hard
drive, after clearing everything off of it, as a back-up storage
means.

Gordon

"Antares 531" wrote in message
...

I have an older computer that is set up with Windows XP Pro SP3 and
would like to upgrade it to Windows 7. I've been told that the only
way to do this is to do a reformat/clean install. Is this correct?

This computer is a home built with a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
and an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.66 GHz. Is there any reason Windows 7
would not run on this computer? It has two Western Digital WD5000 AAKS
hard drives with about half the space available on each drive.

Gordon


FWIW... There are some third party programs you can run to effectively
upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7. Z-Install is one that comes to mind
and it seems to do a pretty good job. Just don't believe all of their
claims. I don't know if I would completely trust a program like this
though. I can see too many fail points.

Just my 2 cents worth.

bettablue wrote:

Path: ...!feeder.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "bettablue"
Subject: Upgrade question
Message-ID:
*** The References header shows the post was a reply ***
References:
*** The CULPRIT on why quoting is phucked up in the reply ***
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 15.4.3502.922

Antares wrote ...

I have an older computer that is set up with Windows XP Pro SP3 and
would like to upgrade it to Windows 7. I've been told that the only
way to do this is to do a reformat/clean install. Is this correct?
snipped the rest of the IMPROPERLY (non-indented) original post

FWIW... There are some third party programs you can run to effectively
upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7. Z-Install is one that comes to mind
and it seems to do a pretty good job. Just don't believe all of their
claims. I don't know if I would completely trust a program like this
though. I can see too many fail points.

Ah, now I realize why I'm seeing so many posts where the respondent
isn't quoting (indenting with "" characters) the cited post. I've read
over in the WLM group on how the latest release of that email/nntp
client no longer indents the quoted content ... not in email and not in
news posts, just the vertical bar (from using DIV) in email if composing
in HTML format (which is not recommended in Usenet). While the excuse
is that Microsoft no longer gives a **** about news[group] support with
their abandoning of their own groups (only on their own NNTP server),
that doesn't excuse the lack of this feature since it is also needed for
non-HTML email replies.

Sure seem folks using WLM should be going back to the prior version to
get back the quoting indent function or move to a better newsreader (the
latter giving them more robust clients even for ones that have been
abandoned by their authors almost a decade ago). Not quoting the cited
posts violates Usenet netiquette. It sure makes a mess of trying to
figure out who said what when multiple WLM users (of the latest version)
are involved in the same thread.

Looks like I'll have figure out a filter that looks for the WLM version
being used for a post/reply, maybe something like (in 40tude Dialog):

!setcolor(fg;bg) Header {^X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 15}

I already colorize lots of different types of posts so I'll have to come
up with a scheme that's unique to this test (so I can later look at the
properties of a colorized post to then look through my long list of
filters to see which one got used).

A beta version of v15 had the quoting function. It got lost in the
released version. Maybe in v16 it'll come back. If not, I'll have to
add more versions to the filter (since I can't do a greater-than
operator in regex), like replace "15" with "(1[5-9]|[2-9])" in the above
filter.

Yeah, there are the long-time arguments that Microsoft's newsreaders
suck but they are doable for many users so it sucks worse that Microsoft
phucked up the quoting function (by omitting it) in replies.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:09:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I already colorize lots of different types of posts so I'll have to come
up with a scheme that's unique to this test (so I can later look at the
properties of a colorized post to then look through my long list of
filters to see which one got used).

I suggest stripes :-)

Yeah, the WLM quoting (none) drives me a bit more crazy that I might
already be.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

This would be the best practice, IMHO, for upgrading an OS even if an
upgrade install were available to you.

The main advantage of this practice is to allow you to identify and solve
problems from drivers to application configurations at install time (of
course, one should do compatibility study first, but you will never know
until try), and if there were problems couldn't be resolved at the time, you
could simply put back the old hard drive and continue to work without
interruptions.

An upgrade install is theoretically faster but if there were problems, one
has to do lots of guesswork and usually ended up doing a clean install.

There is no way for anyone including MS to test all possible system states,
configurations, and scenarios other than limited sets of scenarios, so doing
an upgrade install is pretty much a gamble on your luck.

For major tasks such as an OS upgrade, it is advised to do things right the
first time rather than relying on one's luck.

Hope this helps and good luck.

"Antares 531" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:28:17 -0600, "R. C. White"
wrote:

?Hi, Gordon.

This is where I'm a bit confused. If I can install Windows 7 into the
Windows XP partition without disrupting anything else, it is a go
situation, but if installing Windows 7 will somehow mess up the other
partitions and destroy all my client software files, it is not worth the
trouble. Gordon

It's not enough to have all an application's files intact and available to
the new OS. You must also run the app's Install or Setup program in Win7
so
that it can make the proper entries into the NEW operating system's
Registry.

Until you INSTALL Word. for example, into Win7, that word.exe file is
"just
another file", like a .doc or .txt file, and Win7 has no idea how to load
it
and run it. Double-clicking on word.exe will just get you an error
message
that the app must be installed (or something like that - I haven't tried
this specific situation). It's just like trying to run any other app
without installing it: some will work, but most require installation.

The Windows Easy Transfer (WET) program can smooth the transition
considerably. Run it first in WinXP, pointing its output to some storage
device that will be accessible to Win7 later. This can be a USB flash
drive, an external HDD, or another partition on your main HDD; just be
sure
that it's some location that will not be reformatted or otherwise erased
during the transition. Then, after Win7 is installed and running, run WET
again in Win7 to retrieve your data. WET will not actually re-install
your
applications, but can help you "re-tweak" them.

Except for updating the few small startup files (bootmgr instead of NTLDR,
for example) in the System Partition, Win7's Setup.exe will not write
anything to any partition except the Boot Volume (typically C - which is
where it will write the C:\Windows folder tree with all its gigabytes of
subfolders and files. It will not disturb your data files on any other
partition. (Reformatting the boot volume is highly recommended, but not
strictly required. If you choose not to reformat, then your data files
and
other content outside C:\Windows will remain intact. If it were my
system,
though, I would backup my files and reformat that partition. Or even
delete
the partition and re-create it.)

RC

I'm considering buying a new hard drive to replace the primary drive,
then install Windows 7 onto this new drive...then re-install all my
client software. If for some reason this fails I could just remove the
new hard drive and replace the original one, then use the new hard
drive, after clearing everything off of it, as a back-up storage
means.

Gordon