I am anxiously waiting for my Home Premium, upgrade disk, to arrive, shortly after 10/22. Because I am new at changing OS, I am becoming a bit apprehensive and have a question. If I do a clean install from Vista to Windows 7, but after a short period, I feel that the install has corruption; can I do another clean install with the upgrade disk?
Why not make an image of the partition/drive, then simply restore it in case of an emergency ....
Rich
Hello good luck to you with your upgrade install. Have a look at this tutorial to see how to make a image backup.
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Thank you for the quick responses. I would still like to know if a second clean install is possible. I would prefer to cancel my order for an upgrade disk, and order a full install disk, if I cannot install a second time with an upgrade disk. I do not have a second hard drive etc, to make an image.
Keep the upgrade disc and spend the money you saved on the full retail disc on a 2nd hard drive...
You can do a repair install with your upgrade disc. Or you can install your vista back onto your drive then upgrade again.
Repair install tutorial is included here
Tutorial quick reference list for Installing Windows 7
No one will know for sure until Thursday.
The best guess, including some contradicting info from MS, is that the Upgrade version of Win7 will be required to be installed onto an activated Vista/XP equivalent version.
It is possible to do a second Clean install, but you will likely have to re-install Vista first, which might take a call to MS for a new key as the old OS key used to upgrade will be invalid afterwards.
If you do this procedure the first time, get everything loaded, drivers (most will be done during the install), updates, your programs (or load you programs after the backup), etc. activate it and then do an image backup, you can use this instead of a Clean install. With the money you save you can get a good external HD, I would get one with the eSATA connection if your XPS has one. You should be using a backup/restore plan anyway, It will take you 20-30 minutes to restore a backup versus at least a couple of hours to re-install via DVD, check drivers, install updates and reload all your programs.
It's you call in the end. Even if you decide to get the full version I would recommend getting a backup/restore plan started, for your personal data if nothing else.
I think the key to win7 upgrade media is to have a second drive and good backup software that can image a drive and/or partition byte for byte.
These two purchases will still be cheaper than buying a full version. If you are entitled to purchase the upgrade media, go for it....
I'm not sure if I am going to answer your question or not, but let me try. If I read your question correctly, I think it would be the same in me saying, I install windows 7, and then a month or so down the line, something goes haywire on my PC or it crashes and I have to reinstall the OS on the same PC. If that is the question, then yes, you may reinstall the OS.
Sometimes I have run into a scenario when I was testing something and did two installs in a very short period of time on the same PC with a valid license that I owned, and it gave me a message that this OS was already registered and I had to call an 800 number to validate it. If that is the case, just call the number and explain your situation, and more than likely they will activate the software. I've only had that happen once on me personally.
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