so I'm upgrading to 7 right now

[milo]

as in, I'm downloading the executable. I got a student deal: 64 bit Professional for ~$80. Now the actual DVD should show up in a week or so, but the download will be done in a few hours.

I've never 'upgraded' an OS before, so, a few questions:

1. Is running this file going to reformat/wipe my harddrive?
2.


uh... I had more questions but can't think of them right now.

[Islandsnake]

Are you on vista or XP?

[milo]

Vista 32 bit, going to 7 Professional 64 Bit

[Islandsnake]

I think with vista there a option to keep your stuff, with XP I think your pretty much screwed.

Either way I recommend a fresh start - Do you have a second hard drive?

I think the DL should be fine- but I would wait of the CD.

[milo]

A fresh start would probly be good - I've been running this laptop for 18 months without a reformat. I don't have a second hard drive, but I should be fine.

[screw_ball69]

Since your on vista you can upgrade but I would recommend you do a fresh start.

to do that you need to first back up your data, then you place the disc in the drive restart the computer and boot from the disc, once you get he splash screen you can choose advanced from the installation options when choosing the the drive to install it to fromt here you can format the drive.

[Alex]

Actually, you can't upgrade directly - because you're going from 32bit to a 64bit. You'll have to do a clean install.
So just remember to backup all your files and settings, and do what screw_ball69 said.

[screw_ball69]

oh, whoops I missed that part.

[Xyvik]

Yeah, the 32bit to 64bit always requires a clean install. Even though Vista-7 has the "upgrade" process, I always recommend against it. When swapping OSs, or even just some internal components, I always -always- wipe the HDD down to 0s and start anew. It's kept my installs fresh longer

[LordofAscension]

Yeah, the 32bit to 64bit always requires a clean install. Even though Vista-7 has the "upgrade" process, I always recommend against it. When swapping OSs, or even just some internal components, I always -always- wipe the HDD down to 0s and start anew. It's kept my installs fresh longer

Definitely - I swapped from XP to 7 - and I love 7 (I hated Vista) brand new rig - it took me a couple weeks to fix a few things with it but I eventually figured it out (need to up the RAM voltage in the bios).

Hopefully all things go smoothly for you!

~LoA