Win 7: In-Place Upgrade vs. Clean Install

[Fingolfin269]

Have any of you done both? I was in a hurry to mess around with Win 7 so I went ahead and did an in-place 32 bit Vista HP to 32 bit Win 7 HP.

Everything seems fine but I'm wondering if any of you did an in-place first, then a clean install, and what results you experienced in doing so? For example, was performance the same or did you experience much better responsiveness after starting from scratch?

 

[ViRGE]

I did an in-place upgrade. The performance and behavior is indistinguishable from a fresh installation on another partition.

 

[ManyBeers]

In-place upgrade here too. If I clean installed I would have lost several oem programs with no way to reinstall them.

 

[Golgatha]

I did an in-place upgrade. The performance and behavior is indistinguishable from a fresh installation on another partition.

I did an in-place upgrade on my desktop and a clean install on my HTPC. I can't tell a difference in either install performance wise. I would highly recommend running the Windows Compatibility Checker before hands though, as I needed to uninstall several software packages before upgrading. Most of these where ones where you have to authenticate stuff.

I detailed all the issues I found here - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2019759&highlight=install+issues

 

[DJFuji]

I'm wondering if i should do an upgrade from RC to RTM or if i should just do a clean install. I'm partial to clean installs cause im old school like that, but god is it a pain in the ass.

Anyone do the RC-RTM upgrade? Did it cause any problems?

 

[corkyg]

I did the RC-RTM upgrade. It did cause some problems in some apps (And gadgets would not work correctly.) I then tried a clean install, and I didn't like that either. So, I went back and did a direct upgrade from the Vista Ultimate disk, and it came out perfectly.

 

[nerp]

I did a couple in-place upgrades from Vista to 7 and both went perfectly smooth and were error free. One was a Thinkpad Sl300 and the other is a custom AMD rig with a 780g board using onboard video. Both machines are work machines and I don't play any games or anything like that. The upgrades went quick on each and the machines peform just as snappy if not snappier than they did with Vista.

On the Lenovo, I simply ran the system utility which detected new driver versions for my fingerprint scanner, OSD, and other devices. On the AMD box, I didn't have to touch a single driver. Windows Update found what was needed and I upgraded the chipset and video drivers from AMD's site when they came out about a week after the upgrade.

 

[JackMDS]

I did an in-place upgrade. The performance and behavior is indistinguishable from a fresh installation on another partition.

Same here. I did few Upgrades and have No troubles.

----------------------
Human Psyche has an inherit tendency to No let go.

Technology works differently.

There are issues that were important in the past and become less important or Mute wit hte advance of technology (i.e computer devices get faster, more memory, huge HDs, bigger caches etc.).

Some advantages of Clean Install, RAID etc., are not so valid any more.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I could have easily done an in-place. I chose clean as an opportunity to increase my storage space, reallocation partitions sizing and function/duty, and to short-stroke my drives, as well as to clean out of vm's and backups turned to cobwebs. Good opportunity to get nvidia drivers' hand outta the cookie jar too.

I vaguely recall something about the core windows files leaving a larger footprint on one installation method as opposed to the other. But, I also vaguely recall that in-place can't be redone like a service pack.

I'd think a system would have a leg up with in-place, as long as it's not falling into a sh*t-hole. Got some indexing to inherit, and adaptive caching and booting procedures are already underway. I can see it being much easier on harddrives; a lot less thrashing from scratch. Only concern'd be malware that hung on for dear life.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I did the RC-RTM upgrade. It did cause some problems in some apps (And gadgets would not work correctly.) I then tried a clean install, and I didn't like that either. So, I went back and did a direct upgrade from the Vista Ultimate disk, and it came out perfectly.

I really think this speaks to the availability of placing previous rtm, rc, or vista installs as an image onto a vhd and virtualize it to run parallel to the new install; that should have been a plan that got adopted. It'd be easier to get things in order on the clean slate if you can roll with things rather than meticulously plan ahead. Then, if there are any screw-ups; jettison the clean slate and lay another down, falling back securely on the unscathed previous install. Getting all the settings and files over would also make a great point to save a base backup/restore image in case of a problem.
You didn't lose any data, did you? I know, first hand, good backing up practices can only go so far- the more customized a system is; pagefile, certain settings, partitions and volumes, etc.; the greater chance backups won't go so far. Here's my pisser of an experience:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2019405

is there a way to do a clean side-by-side install and use the settings and files transfer wizardry to act as a safe route to move data. perhaps updates from one install to the new one?

Not aiming to hijack the thread, just give a psa:
UNLESS THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN REMEDIED...
IF YOU RUN ATI DRIVERS AND INSTALL VISUAL STUDIO 2008 AND THE 2008 C++ REDISTRIBUTION PACK ON WIN7- YOU BETTER HOPE YOU'VE GOT A SAFE POINT TO REVERT TO. AVOID THAT MIXTURE.

 

[Infohawk]

I am at the point where I am not that interested in re-installing an OS for the sake of it. I upgraded in place so I could avoid reconfiguring things and finding software. The installer indicated to uninstall some apps and I did so. The process was relatively painless.

I haven't had any problems whatsoever.