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How do I upgrade to Windows 7?

1

1Cheap2Crazy

Golden Member
I'll have a new hard drive.
An upgrade disc for 64-bit Windows 7 Premium.
Full retail 32-bit Vista Ultimate.

I'm still using my full retail copy of XP, so I have never upgraded. Keeping XP on this hard drive. Got Vista free, but never felt the need to use it. Till now. Been reading alot of stuff, but can't seem to find a simple answer.

How do I upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit on a new hard drive? Do I have to first install Vista 32-bit, or can I just put in the Win7 DVD?

If I have to install Vista first, and activate it, I would prefer to do it well before my Win7 comes.

Thanks

PS. I feel dumb.
 
My suggestion would be to format and reinstall. Doing upgrades across OS's (Save for possibly Linux) hardly ever results in the best representation of an Operating System.

Furthermore, I would imagine, as has happened in the past, that when you install, if no prior installations are detected in the file system, you will merely be prompted for a prior version disc.

-Kevin
 
You can't upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit anyways.

With Vista, you could put in the new HD, install Vista without entering the key, and then from within that install, immediately launch an upgrade. It's not really an upgrade because you're putting original files in place of original files. Do the upgrade, boot up, remove the windows.old folder and you're set with a clean install.

I haven't tried with 7 yet as I got my copy through MSDN AA but I haven't heard of the process not being allowed anymore.
 
I haven't yet seen a credible account of how the upgrade process will work if you have an empty disk. We'll all know come October 23, when the first W7 UPGRADE disks are released to the public.
 
Also, you can't do a direct upgrade from XP to 7. You can use the Win 7 upgrade disk to start in XP, but it will have to do a clean install. Here's whjat I would do with a new HDD.

1. Clone the existing HDD to the new HDD so it is bottable, etc.
2. Then do the clean install on the new HDD that has booted to XP.
3. You will still have your old XP HDD to fall back on.

In any case, going from 32-bit to 64-bit requires a clean install.
 
Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
The upgrade media is NOT bootable. It also requires an activated OS to be present.
Click to expand...

Are you certain? I thought all of the OS discs were bootable, if not just for the ability to run the recovery console.
 
I was just looking for my univerisity's website for discounted software and came across this:

Mac OS (using Boot Camp)

Clean install: Run by Booting from Windows 7 DVD

* Will need to install twice to enter license key.
Click to expand...

Based on this info, it seems as the two install method will work just fine. Alternatively, this could just be some intern typing up an instruction sheet without really knowing.

It also says you can boot from the DVD to do a clean install over XP. The media is still bootable apparently. Even though this is a full edition, I'd be surprised if the Upgrade disks weren't bootable.

I already have my keys from my MSDN AA account but it's pretty hard to pass up a copy of 7 Ultimate x64 for 7 bones...

Link
 
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