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Upgrading to Windows 7 from XP? 4

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Nocandu

Nocandu

Technical User
Apr 27, 2009
304
US
Hi

Every place I look I see different information about what is involved in upgrading from XP to W7.

I have a new computer coming and I want to upgrade my old one to W7 before I give it to my nephew. I preordered the disk at a discount from Amazon.

I have been running it as a dual boot on the computer ever since RC came out.

I would like to format the drive and then just install W7 using my XP disk as proof of ownership.

Some places say you can do this others say you can't.

If that is't possible then should I just uninstall all my software except Windows and then upgrade the current installation?

I can't find a official set of instructions.

Does anyone know what the real deal is.
 
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The Upgrade option is not available in Windows 7 Setup when installing Windows 7 on a computer running Windows XP.
Click to expand...
Source: Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7

The source link above, will tell you ho to do the clean install from within Windows...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
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What you can do, if you have a spare Vista disk lying around, is upgrade XP to Vista - but don't enter a licence key - then upgrade Vista to Windows 7.

However, you said
I would like to format the drive and then just install W7 using my XP disk as proof of ownership
Click to expand...

If you're formatting the drive that's a fresh installation. If you ordered a full copy of Windows 7 you won't need your XP disk or key as proof of ownership. For a fresh installation it doesn't matter what's already on the disk as it'll be wiped, so you don't have to uninstall anything beforehand.

Regards

Nelviticus
 
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Hi

Thanks for the help.

I don't have the full install disk I have the upgrade disk.

Since I don't want to transfer anything to the new installation it looks like I can just do the install thing from inside Windows XP by clicking on the "Setup.exe file.

This will apparently give me a clean install of Windows 7 with nothing carried over from the old install if I don't do the transfer thing.

Since I'm giving the computer to someone I want them to be able to start clean with none of my garbage hanging around.

I was afraid that upgrading would just create a new user and leave all the stuff intact as reinstalling XP does and that I might have to uninstall everything before or after updating.

It was so easy to install W7 in a dual boot setup I'm hoping this will go easy as well.

I have spent the last couple of days going through everything and moving the files I want to keep to my external Hard drives. Every thing important, job files, Music, photos etc. are on both of them so I guess I'm covered. there always seems to be something left behind but this time I even remembered to export my address books etc.

I will format my second hard drive and just leave it blank.

Thanks again for the help, I think I actually found that page when I was looking but didn't scroll down far enough to get to the Windows XP part. I did find a lot of misinformation around about this.
 
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You shouldn't do (nor want) that.

It's best to freshly install your system with Windows 7, then add all the drivers and software you (really) need, and have the installer put in anything that's needed for the current system. Often, installers have 'hidden side-effects' based on the OS they are run on.

If you laboriously separate the Application and Data disks, by setting the proper paths, then you could store an image after successfully installing all apps, and restore it when things get fouled up, without affecting (most) data.

HTH
 
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If it is the same for W7 as vista I can do an in place upgrade from Windows XP MCE to W7 Home Premium according to the chart.
 
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Have you read the replies yet? It's not normally possible, what you are trying.
You can't upgrade from XP (any version) to Windows 7. Microsoft does not supply that option.

A possibility could be to upgrade to Vista first, and then to W7, but again, you don't want that! (really!)

Go for a fresh install, and re-install any application required on the system.

HTH
 
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Have you read the replies yet? It's not normally possible, what you are trying.
You can't upgrade from XP (any version) to Windows 7. Microsoft does not supply that option."

If this is true why is Microsoft offering instructions on how to do it?


I think the problem here is the definition of upgrade.

It seems that you can upgrade the operating system from XP to Windows 7. What is doesn't do is preserve all your files and settings.

I don't care about that, I just want a clean install of the operating system.

I wanted to start with a clean hard drive, but that you can't do. You must have Windows XP already installed to do the upgrade, it won't except a CD and proof of ownership.

You can upgrade and preserve all you files and installed programs by using the "Easy Transfer" utility.

Am I wrong about this?

Seems like the usual Microsoft confusion.
Why would Microsoft not want to let people upgrade from XP?
I don't know anyone who updated to Vista, so everyone I know who hasn't gotten a new computer in the last couple of years is running XP.

Most people will probably stick with XP until they get a new computer anyway I waited the order my new FNW computer until it would come with W7 otherwise I would have bought a new computer 6 months ago.

Anyway I will find out in a couple of weeks when my new computer comes and I actually try and upgrade this one.
 
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You can't upgrade from XP (any version) to Windows 7. Microsoft does not supply that option."

I think that this line is the source of all the confusion.
Because directly below this statement it goes on to tell you how to do exactly what it just told you, you can't do!

Microsoft at it's best!
 
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You can upgrade and preserve all you files and installed programs by using the "Easy Transfer" utility".

Easy Transfer will not preserve installed programs, only the settings of some installed programs.

How to use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate files and settings from one Windows-based computer to another Windows Vista-based computer

Description of Windows Easy Transfer for Windows Vista


You might like to look at this third party software.

"PCMover is the only program available that moves all your programs, files and settings from your old PC to your new one"
 
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Sorry I didn't mean programs, I should have said data.

As I said all I want is Windows 7 installed on an otherwise empty computer in place of XP. I don't even want to save my files etc. They are already backed up twice to external hard drives.

So as far as I can see I'm all set.
I can just skip the "Easy Transfer" step and install the software.
 
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RE: Windows Easy Transfer - some questions.

I'm looking to move up to Win7 from WinXP, and realise that C: is going to be wiped clean for a fresh install.

Easy Transfer may well do what I want but in the past my experience with any thing labelled "easy" has usually been any thing but, and often doesn't work as I expected. Although I have backups of valuable files, MS is telling me this is the tool for the job.

Easy Transfer lists three options for where to store the data to be transferred:
1. A network drive
2. Removable HDD
3. CD and DVD

Is there a fourth option of an internal HDD, obviously not the one on to which Win7 is to be installed? Will Windows Easy Transfer accept being pointed at say, E:, which is an internal HDD, and copy all the files to it from C:?

Also will Windows Easy Transfer copy over to multiple DVD disks, for a second backup copy (I'm looking at around 20-25Gb of files)?

And finally, it does transfer all user accounts, doesn't it, not just the active administrator account at the time of use?

Thanks for your patience.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.
 
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Having several Partitions across a couple of Hard Drives I have not had problems in saving the output from Windows Easy Transfer in Vista or Windows 7 to any of the Partitions that are not earmarked for the new operating system. The same went for XP's Files and Transfer Wizard.

You just use the option in the Wizard that relates to a removable hard drive and browse to your desired Partition.
 
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Many thanks. Father Christmas should be bringing me a copy of Win7, which should keep me out of mischief for a couple of hours.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.
 
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You can upgrade directly from xp to win7. Just did it myself. The upgrade will blow away xp, so back up your files. I first tried to do an upgrade from vista, but the hard drive died (in the process). So I put in a new hard drive, installed xp (did not activate), and then upgraded to windows 7 and activated it. All went smoothly.
Additional info can be found at:
 
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Well I started this so I when I saw it was still around I thought I'd come back and say the update went without a hitch.

I clicked on setup.exe on the disk in XP the computer rebooted started the process and installed fine.

All the drivers etc. loaded and the internet connection was active. I didn't have to do a thing.

My nephew has the computer now and it is running great.

Mike
 
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I can't really help with that, because I don't really know what the difference is.

I went with Home Premium and I haven't found anything that I want it to do that it won't.

I use the computer for both my Graphic Design business and for gaming. I'm an old mostly retired guy and am not involved in any kind of complex networking stuff.
 
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