Windows XP to W-7 conversion question

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I have a desktop that I will replace with a new laptop sometime in November or December, depending upon "Christmas pricing."

That said, my other computer (Toshiba laptop) is running XP-H.E. Having heard about the weeping and gnashing of teeth that will accompany an "upgrade" to Windows 7 from XP, I thought "why not just buy a compatible hard drive with W-7 pre-loaded, install that in place of my current HD, then load my programs and copy my files over to the new HD?

Explain the flaw with my "logic," please.
 
It *may* work, if the system is in a post-sysprep state and the OEM Win7 license key doesn't get in the way. Sysprep is the way us admin's & OEM computer makes setup computers to be deployed on a wide array of hardware with a single image.
 
Just after I posted my question, I read an online article in the Wall Street Journal about "Laplink PC Mover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant."

For $15 or $20, that may be the way to go.

Then again, I may sit back for the first month of Windows 7 and learn from the experience of other XP users as they attempt to upgrade.
 
Assuming your laptop has a reasonable amount of RAM and a decent video processor, I can't see any reason why your scheme should pose a problem. Windows7 isn't bad at all. I've been playing with what I think is the RTM version for a couple of clients and it seems to be OK. Personally, it isn't enough better to lure me away from Linux + Virtualbox and it definitely isn't worth a couple hundred bucks when I can replace it for free. So I get a stable and virus free Linux desktop with the ability to fire up a virtual instance of XP if I truly need something that wine can't deal with inside Linux.
 
After I clicked "Submit", I re-thought about it. Just buy an external disk drive, copy all your data to it, then copy it back to your new system. Messing around with other methods is just too time consuming.
 
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
After I clicked "Submit", I re-thought about it. Just buy an external disk drive, copy all your data to it, then copy it back to your new system. Messing around with other methods is just too time consuming.


This. I have an external HDD for my laptops because I tend to format my systems frequently to keep everything fast and smooth. XP was about every two to three months before everything would get nasty and I would format.

Windows7, however, I have had installed for over six months and it is STILL fast and gives me zero issues. I am officially impressed with this OS.

When my release candidate license runs out, I plan on formatting again and doing a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate.

FWIW, there are good prices on the OS here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116762
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: dkryan
. . . my other computer (Toshiba laptop) is running XP-H.E. Having heard about the weeping and gnashing of teeth that will accompany an "upgrade" to Windows 7 from XP, I thought "why not just buy a compatible hard drive with W-7 pre-loaded, install that in place of my current HD, then load my programs and copy my files over to the new HD?

Explain the flaw with my "logic," please.


Having spent a lot of "quality time" with W7 deployment on a variety of new and old systems these past few months, just a couple questions and comments:

1. You're coming from XP home, not a very demanding platform. What are the core specs of the old laptop? An older single core system more than 3-4 yrs with 1 or 2gb ram is going to be limited to x86 w/o Aero. Win7x86 seems to be a bulletproof install in all the old stuff I've put it on. You won't see any gnashing of teeth on the install, but perhaps later. It should run as well as with XP pro, but don't expect an invigorating experience. Anything less than a 7200 rpm HDD in an older laptop will be sluggish.

2. If you need a new HDD and more memory to install W7, I wouldn't invest in a full, Pro or Ultimate version. Opt for the home prem upgrade. There is a 3 license family pack for $139. That's as good as I've seen lately - $46 a pop. Otherwise, a single upgrade is around $100-120. Tough call whether to invest all that into an older laptop.

3. I don't think dropping a new HDD in with W7 "preloaded" is such a good idea. I'm not sure how you'd even go about doing that. You're better off doing a clean install on a new HDD. If you want a faster install, you can always mount the W7 iso on a bootable thumb drive. With any upgrade version, you will likely need to reinstall the original OS first anyway (there was an old Vista upgrade clean install trick, but I'm not sure it will work here).

4. I would focus on getting a clean install and all HW working before worrying about migrating the apps over. Probably a good idea to run the Upgrade Advisor beforehand to give you an idea as to which apps will be trouble, rather than have them bugger up a clean OS later. I agree with you about the data; just leave it on the old HDD and transfer it over later.
 
Volvohead,

It's the old HP desktop (6+ years old, 1GB RAM (maxed out!), XP H.E., no duo core, etc) that will be replaced with a new W-7 laptop in a couple of months.

My current Toshiba A105-4104 has a duo core Centrino processor and 2 GB RAM. I plan on using matched pairs of Crucial DDR2-PC2-5300 to bring it up to 4 GB of RAM. Lots of space left on the hard drive.

I had planned on using nothing other than the W-7 home premium upgrade for this machine.

And I nixed the idea of installing a separate HD with W-7 pre-loaded about five minutes after I had hit "submit" on that post.

Thanks for the advice.
 
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