Windows 7: Win 7 Home To Win7 Pro?

Hi.
Have enjoyed using win 7 home which was preinstalled, but now because of the need to back up a laptop running win 7 pro over a network, i need to upgrade this win home to win pro.
Confused a little,
Can i use the win 7 pro disc to upgrade the win 7 home without losing any data, and by just purchasing a new product 7?
Do a clean install as above and by backing up all data first?
Do an anytime upgrade through the win 7 home? Costly!
Thanks for advance
What is the best route to go,

You can use either a retail upgrade or Anytime Upgrade key in Anytime Upgrade, which simply unlocks the extra features in Pro. I believe Anytime is priced better.

Have you looked at Paragon Backup and Restore 10 as another free backup solution which has network capabilities? Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Advanced Edition - Free Download

Others may have more suggestions.

Follow Greg's advice. Just one small info, ignore it if it confuses you.

The Anytime Upgrade is a retail license and can be transferred to another PC in the future provided it is removed from the existing PC (E.g. if you decide to revert to home premium, or you install any other retail OS on it, or you uninstall windows completely) and of course provided AU requirements are met on the other PC.

Thanks for the advance guys.
I have found a site that sells license keys for stupid money, approx 3rd cheaper then anytime route? could this price be for real?
Am i right in thinking that my Windows 7 home has all the upgrades to make it Windows 7 pro, they just need unlocking by the key?
I would like to let someone in the know to look at this site that sells keys really cheap, just to check it out, so PM me and i can forward the link, or if it's correct i can paste the link here, let me know
One more thing, if i went the anytime route is it 100% safe, will not lose my documents etc? I will backup in case but hate the idea of losing something i have forgotten to backup!

Noooooo.....Nooooooo................Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

DO NOT............DO NOT..........................DO NOT.

We've had a plethora of cases where people have got keys at a fraction of their real price and got ripped off. These are mostly illegally sold MSDN keys or leaked MAK keys that are subsequently blocked by MS. You're welcome to PM the link to me, if you wish to.

And yes, windows features specific to that edition can be unlocked by that edition's key.

As always, if a price is too good to be true, there is a gotcha someplace.
As BILL2 says.
NO NO NO
People who give their credit cards to cheap software sites, most often end up with their
credit card information in spain, africa or south america withing 10 minutes of entering the data.

Rich

Check your PM.

Hi there
just to re-iterate about Windows 7 anytime upgrade in case people have missed it or mis-understood.


RETAIL anytime upgrade is fine and you CAN transfer to another machine / re-activate on same machine.


If you are using a Technet version and upgrade to a higher version for example Windows 7 PRO to Windows 7 ULTIMATE) then you CAN continue with activations on other machines (up to 10 per Key) although these are meant for testing / evaluation purposes -- read the EULA.

My main prob with Windows 7 HOME is no RDP access although you can access other Machines remotely and with both Windows 7 PRO and HOME versions is that you can't have a Multi Language interface -- only ONE language at a time can be used. That's another issue however.

As others have posted DO NOT USE dubious sources for purchasing / acquiring software. You SHOULD be OK with legitimately recognized discount retail sellers such as AMAZON or when using University / Work offerings such as USE AT HOME prices of certain MS software.

A Grey area is if a collegue gives you a genuine purchased Retail Disc and you want to install it on your machine. You will have to activate by phone but so long as the software has been de-installed on the old machine then IMO it SHOULD be OK although strict interpretation of the Law might say this is not allowed --- another case of STUPID laws bringing the whole thing into disrepute.

In my time during the life of XP I've probably purchased at LEAST 15 copies of the RETAIL version of Windows XP in various forms -- I don't see any reason when I no longer need these and have "binned" the old hardware why I shouldn't pass these over to colleagues to install say on a Virtual Machine or as an OS when the've built a new computer. -- So long as only ONE copy is active does it matter if its me or my friend's DOG who is running the software.

(Same with books and Music CD's -- I can give to Friends, Charity etc etc).

Other than that DO CHECK THE SOURCE OF YOUR SOFTWARE.


Cheers
jimbo

Be sure to back up a Windows 7 backup image of Home Premium before you unlock Pro with Anytime Upgrade. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

This gives a path back when/if you decide to revert to Home Premium to migrate Pro elsewhere, or should you need to start over on the Anytime Upgrade in the unusual event that it fails - which hasn't been reported here that I've seen.

I also corrected my earlier post claiming that Anytime Upgrade cannot migrate: As it is a retail license (which can also be bought at stores) it can indeed migrate for life to machines wihch qualify for it by having an upgradable Windows 7. Retail Windows 7 upgrade can migrate to any machine as long as a qualifying XP or Vista is on hand and not used again.