Upgrade?

Hi, can not decide route to go on this,
Have 1 PC running win7 home, have another pc which i have just upgraded by purchasing a real cheap version of win 7 pro.
Realised now that i still can not backup pro PC to home PC via a network this is main reason for upgrade to pro as this PC was previously running Vista.
Should i purchase another Pro version to upgrade the home PC or find a third party program that will back up one PC to the other via network.
The main problem is the Pro version is D/L only and i am scared that i will have to do a clean install on the home PC and i have no where to backup all my stuff before doing it, i do not think the version will allow me to over read just the operating system.

Where did you buy Win7? If you found "a real cheap version" on eBay it may be a repackaged Technet key: Blocked Keys (Was EBAY Keys)

I know of no Win7 for sale that doesn't offer the option to get a disk and you should have the disk - for reinstalls, repairs and to get the full value of your investment in Windows 7 which you own for life.

You can borrow and copy or find any Win7 version retail installer to unlock all versions and burn to DVD: Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc - Create

To upgrade within Win7 MS wants us to use Anytime Upgrade, however valid retail Upgrade keys will work if inserted in Anytime Upgrade during the process where it unlocks the few extra features in Pro. You don't have to do a clean reinstall in that case.

I back up Home Premium computers over the network by copying their active User files and image stored on a Primary partition to a backup folder in the C drive of another home computer running any version.

You might be able to avoid upgrading by instead using free Paragon 10 Backup and Recovery program which will automate image and file backups over the network, and make you a boot disk if you ever need to reimage unbootable Win7: http://www.paragon-software.com/home.../download.html

You can also invest in an external HD to back up all of your computers, even on a schedule.

The " cheap version" is a D/L with a license key from a site for students, It worked well on the PC that was running Vista. I am happy to buy another from this site but when i installed it on the Vista machine i was not aware of having a option of keeping the original documents from Vista, so i believe the only option which i used was a clean install, lucky keeping the documents was not important from that machine, but on this one it is very important to.

MS took note that its fulfiller for student sales Digital River was not offering a DVD and corrected it here: Microsoft Fixes Windows 7 Student Edition Upgrade Problems

You might check on the Vista machine you did the clean install upon if there is a C:windows.old folder as you will find all of your files and the old OS within it. Do not rely on this however for backup in future clean installs. Either backup your User files to DVD, an external HD or copy them over the network using drag-n-drop as I described.

Are there any remaining problems now?

yes i have found that folder still on the vista machine but it not hold the documents that have been made i do not think, i will take a look

Checked inside that folder, and even though there is a folder within "My Documents" it is empty, so is My Pictures etc. this not a problem as already said for that machine but will be on this one.