Switch Win 7 OS from HP to Pro - New Laptop & Old Laptop

I have decided to stick with HP with the new laptop because as you mentioned there are no performance differences between HP and Pro. Also that would be a waste of a good OEM license. I dont know what I should do with the Pro license on the old machine.

Other than the drivers why would I need an imagebackup? I going to do a fresh install from the Win 7 Pro DVD that I have, there is no data stored on the laptop. I have downloaded all the drivers from the Acer website.

I plan to give the old machine to my dad who will use it for skype and web browsing. I was planning on installing Vista HP that it came with so that i could do something useful with the Win 7 Pro license. Any reasons why I shouldnt switch to Vista?

I only suggested a secondary image backup if you were going to Anytime Upgrade the new Home Premium to Pro, so you could revert back to the native license easily with a backup on hand.

Do you still have the Vista Recovery Disks or a Vista installation DVD for the version which is listed on the COA sticker?

If a Recovery partition survived it's not likely it will run, but you can try tapping F11 hotkey at boot or forcing it to run by marking it's partition Active first: Partition - Mark as Active
Force Compaq Recovery which loses it's hotkey at boot

I understand, now that I am not upgrading to Win 7 Pro I should be good to go. Do you suggest that delete 18GB recovery partition or keep it?

I do have Vista installation disks that I can use to install Vista. I was planning on a clean install for that.

I contacted Adobe and the Belarc license key is a valid key for installing Photoshop Elements ver 9. My machine was built before Adobe updated PSE to version 10 (couple of months ago). Adobe now doesnt allow downloads for the ver 9, which is what I have a license for. Do you know where I can download Photoshop Elements 9? I searched and could not find good link. I will keep searching.

If you are referring to the Recovery Partition on the Vista machine I would try running it to see if it will run. If not you can delete it along with all partitions and create a new one using Custom>Drive options following the same steps as for getting a perfect Win7 reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7

If your Vista disks are Recovery disks they should reinstall the Recovery partition too, or if it is a Win7 Reinstallation DVD you can indeed get a clean reinstall.

If you are forced to use a torrent to download Photoshop Elements 9 installer, read all of the comments and listings to make certain before downloading it that it is not cracked or anything added, but an untouched installer.

I was referring to the Win 7 partition and whether I should keep that after re-installing Win 7 HP on my new machine?


Thanks for the tip on the torrent. So far I have had no luck finding media or download for PSE 9.

I'm having a hard time keeping up. You are going to reinstall Vista on the Pro machine, but now want to reinstall Home Premium on the new Home Premium machine?

I would make your Recovery Disks and possibly keep the Recovery partition until after reinstall to see if it will still cue up from it's hotkey at boot. If not, you can delete it then and Extend Win7 into it: Partition or Volume - Extend.

Here are other steps for getting a perfect clean reinstall of factory OEM: Reinstalling Windows 7

Sorry for the confusion.

I am doing a fresh HP install on the new machine so that I can get rid of all the bloatware.

I was hoping to use the Vista copy that the old machine came with and install that on there. And leave the Win 7 Pro alone and may use it for something else or give to a family member or friend.

I ran into another issue where the lid of the new laptop doesnt close properly, one side is overhanging 1/8" and doesnt contact the keyboard frame. Looks like either the new laptop is getting replaced or repaired.

Thanks very much for the help.

Glad to help. Keep us posted and ask back any questions as they come up.