Windows7 - "Upgrade" from Vista64 or Clean Install?

[OmnipotentSpleen]

I've never done an upgrade install of Windows, usually reformat and clean install. I don't feel like reformatting...I just want to upgrade my computer and have it work, and work well.

Also, since i'm on a laptop, i'm not 100% sure how the drivers will work (bluetooh, webcam, etc). I have an Asus M70v and they haven't released any official win7 drivers.

I know the best option is "clean install", but has anyone ever had problems because of an upgrade install?

 

[ViRGE]

Thus far, it sounds like the Upgrade Installs are working rather decently.

 

[corkyg]

I feel your concerns. A clean install does have some advantages, but a lot depends on what you are dealing with.

My practice is to try the upgrade first. Reason? I have over 50 apps installed on my laptop and many customizations, and everything works perfectly. A clean install means about 3 days work. So, if the upgrade works and everything is happy - that can save a couple of days work.

If that doesn't work, then simply suck it up and do a clean install.

 

[RebateMonger]

Like corkyg, if the prior system is healthy then I'll try an in-place upgrade if it's going to be a significant amount of work to do a clean install. If you are happy with the result, then all's good. You don't have anything to lose other than the time it takes to stand there and watch the upgrade screen.

Personally, I've never had a problem with such an upgrade, doing them with Win95, Win98, and XP. But I've never done an upgrade to Win7, so I have no personal experience there.

 

[KentState]

Just make sure if you do an upgrade that you follow MS recommendations to a T. Meaning if they call for you to remove programs, do it! Also, I have an Asus M50 (the 15.4" of yours) and I had no problems with the drivers on the disk. Everything else was on Windows Update and the gfx drivers are available from ATI directly. I did a fresh install just this morning and was fully up and running in an hour.

 

[Gerle]

My upgrade installation from Vista Home Premium 64-bit to Win 7 Ultimate worked great, no driver problems on laptop at all, camera, mike, speakers etc worked right away. Will do clean install on desktop later on. The only thing was that an upgrade takes a long time, but since all progs etc where already there then I guess you save time compared to a clean install anyway. Abyway, no problems encountered so far with the upgrade.

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

ah, thanks for all the great advice i think i'm going to upgrade. i'll let you all know how it goes!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Like corkyg, if the prior system is healthy then I'll try an in-place upgrade if it's going to be a significant amount of work to do a clean install. If you are happy with the result, then all's good. You don't have anything to lose other than the time it takes to stand there and watch the upgrade screen.

Personally, I've never had a problem with such an upgrade, doing them with Win95, Win98, and XP. But I've never done an upgrade to Win7, so I have no personal experience there.

I did an upgrade over the weekend from Vista Enterprise x64 to Windows 7 Enterprise x64. The upgrade worked very well, and the only minor issue I had was an error message appearing upon login which dealt with one of the Asus apps I had installed. I uninstalled the application per a note I found on the internet and all is well.

 

[pctwo]

fwiw, I upgraded from win7 x86 RC to x86 RTM. everything worked fine. then I imaged my drive and did a clean install of x64 RTM, just to see if there was any difference. at first things seemed a little bit snappier but after I installed all my apps win7 doesn't function any differently or better than the x86 upgrade (I only have 3G RAM). except my cisco vpn client doesn't work in x64. since it's a must have for me, I restored the x86 image.

 

[OmnipotentSpleen]

just wanted to share my results with you all - i love win7! first time i've been this excited over windows. it's not perfect, but nothing is.

before the upgrade, the win7 installer told me to uninstall itunes and the fingerprint scanning software that asus bundled with the lappy that enables fingerprint login. after doing so, right away to the install. i let it install while i was out for dinner...when i got back, everything was working! i was even surprised to find out that stuff like poweriso was still working along with the virtual drives. cool!

the only problem i had was the built in webcam wasn't working...said it was a PnP problem. i just uninstalled the drivers and hit "scan for new hardware" in device manager and it installed correctly without a restart.

so far, firefox 3.5 is the only thing that is giving me any problems.

i'm glad i did an upgrade and not a clean install. thanks again for the advice!

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: OmnipotentSpleen
just wanted to share my results with you all - i love win7! first time i've been this excited over windows. it's not perfect, but nothing is.

before the upgrade, the win7 installer told me to uninstall itunes and the fingerprint scanning software that asus bundled with the lappy that enables fingerprint login. after doing so, right away to the install. i let it install while i was out for dinner...when i got back, everything was working! i was even surprised to find out that stuff like poweriso was still working along with the virtual drives. cool!

the only problem i had was the built in webcam wasn't working...said it was a PnP problem. i just uninstalled the drivers and hit "scan for new hardware" in device manager and it installed correctly without a restart.

I believe it asks you to de-authorize iTunes. At least that's what I recall it saying. I know all I did was de-authorize iTunes and then re-authorize it after the upgrade. You don't have to uninstall it. I believe the reason is so that you don't lose one of your five device authorizations due to the upgrade. Probably more of a cautionary procedure than anything.

For some reason, after the upgrade from RC to RTM, I can't get Daemon Tools to install. Gonna work on that later. Everything else seems to be working.

 

[sticks435]

Originally posted by: akugami
For some reason, after the upgrade from RC to RTM, I can't get Daemon Tools to install. Gonna work on that later. Everything else seems to be working.

Do you have the latest version with beta win7 support? I upgraded to win7 and installed that version and it worked fine. Then I was having some issues with slow startup, so I did a in-place upgrade again without uninstalling first, and now I can't get it to work. I tried uninstalling, but it just hangs. If I try to reinstall over the top, it continusaly says I need to restart.

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: sticks435

Originally posted by: akugami
For some reason, after the upgrade from RC to RTM, I can't get Daemon Tools to install. Gonna work on that later. Everything else seems to be working.

Do you have the latest version with beta win7 support? I upgraded to win7 and installed that version and it worked fine. Then I was having some issues with slow startup, so I did a in-place upgrade again without uninstalling first, and now I can't get it to work. I tried uninstalling, but it just hangs. If I try to reinstall over the top, it continusaly says I need to restart.

Yeah, using the latest Daemon Tools lite. The one with beta Win7 support.