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.