Windows 7: Some questions about Windows 7 please

Hi,

The information in this thread is very useful, but I have some further problems/ clarifications that I was hoping you could help me with.

Microsoft offers free Windows 7 professional to students from colleges registered with the Academic Alliance program. Since hardly any students have Vista Business installed, no direct upgrade path is applicable.

I will be holding a Windows 7 installation camp at my college soon, and was hoping to get some basic questions out of the way (some have obvious answers but I would like you to confirm these, as I will be dealing with several people's systems):

1. If I wanted to store a backup of my personal files on a new partition, then install Windows 7 on the remaining hard disk partition, then get the personal files back, would it be a problem?

2. Why do we need to back up our device drivers (very amatuer question, but please indulge me), HOW do we back up drivers, how can the back up be used once installation on Windows 7 is complete?

3. The Windows 7 setup files is directly downloaded to the target system by the Academic Alliance website, any specific changes to installation process if a DVD is not being used?

4. Finally, my computer came with Vista preinstalled. It has two drives, one for normal usage (say C, the other for back up (say D. What happens to D: if I install Windows 7 on C:? Can I later format and extend that memory back into C:? Does Windows 7 too automatically create a backup drive on the machine?

Hope you can answer these questions, it'll help me introduce Windows 7 to a lot of systems which will other die with Vista.

1. Nope. Before I got my second hard drive, I'd just have a 2nd partition on my primary hard drive, which is where I'd store my back up files. I'd then just choose the partition I want to install the OS on, and once it had finished, my 2nd partition was there with all backup files intact (same if you backup on to a 2nd hard drive, anything on this drive will be untouched).

2. Not 100% how you mean with this question. I always backup the latest versions on my second hard drive when I do a clean install, then once the OS is installed, I just install all the drivers I've backed up.

3. If you're not installing to DVD, then you can either create a bootable USB disk to install Windows (you'll find a guide on here on how to do that), and when you select the USB as primary boot drive, it will install the same way it does off a DVD.

If you're not installing via this way, then you can either mount the .iso you download, or extract the .iso and install from your current OS. The only downside to this is you can't format the drive you're currently working from i.e. if you want to install it over Vista and format this drive, you need to boot up from DVD/bootable USB to be able to format.

You can, however, install over Vista (albeit this won't be a clean install). The Vista installation is then put in to a Windows.old folder on your C Drive that you can access like a normal folder and browse your old Vista installation and take any personal files you want out of it.

4. Not sure what you mean with this question. Like with answer 1, anything on the 2nd hard drive will be untouched if you format and install on to the first hard drive. And I don't know what you mean with extending memory, sorry.

Just my 2¢

No problem doing this - I just did it on my NAS drive for my latest installation of Windows 7

You don't need to backup your drivers - but it's handy to have them there if you don't like going out to find them.

With Windows XP this was almost a requirement, with Windows Vista it wasn't needed except for a few specific pieces of hardware, and with Windows 7 it usually recognizes all the drivers that are needed. In the event that the drivers aren't installed, it's fairly easy to locate the appropriate drivers to install.

You'll have to follow the instructions here to enable this - I can't access it since I'm not eligible for an AA license.

Windows 7 will create a small boot partition and will use the rest of the C: drive for the OS - the D: drive will remain untouched (this is the default installation).

If the D: partition is a data partition, then the data will be left alone. If the D: partition is a restore partition for Vista, then the system will be able to restored to Vista if necessary (depending upon the method used to access it).

Looks like most of your questions were answered. If you want any clarifications just reply here.

I'd like to add links a valuable resource, the Seven Forums Tutorials.

For Installation related questions look at this tutorial list: Tutorial quick reference list for Installing Windows 7

A Link to the extensive Seven Forums Tutorials, there are clear easy to follow tutorials on about every subject you can imagine.

For question #3: USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create
I have found this the best way to install an Operating System.

Install Windows 7 Without Using Any External Device