Will my files be saved if I place it inside a hard drive?

How did you do a Upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows7 Ultimate??
I could or might not be understanding you correctly.

Upgrade to another edition of Windows 7 by using Windows Anytime Upgrade

Notes

• Windows Anytime Upgrade will only allow upgrades from a 32-bit version to a 32-bit version or from a 64-bit version to a 64-bit version. You can't upgrade from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version with Windows Anytime Upgrade, for example. For more information about 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, see 32-bit and 64-bit Windows: frequently asked questions.
• Windows Anytime Upgrade isn't available in all editions of Windows 7, such as Windows 7 Ultimate edition.
• Windows Anytime Upgrade is only available for online purchase in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Anything you saved on Drive D if done properly will still be there and you should be able to retrieve them when need be.

If you have done anything to Drive D to format or the such you got problems.

At this point I would recommend doing another backup of all data you want to save to a external hard drive. Better safe than sorry.

Now I'm confused.

As far as I can remember a proper Windows 7 DVD has either Windows 7/32 or Windows 7/64 but not both on the same DVD.

Where did you get these DVD's and do you have the proper COA keys?

What is the Windows Certificate of Authenticity?

Why in the world would someone repairing a PC take off Ultimate and install Starter?
What say you.

Well I think we are dealing with a proper install and activation.

Problems in that area will cause all kinds of problems.

This tutorial will help us help you. Post log here.

By Brink:

Windows Genuine and Activation Issue Posting Instructions

As long as you don`t touch or format the D partition during the install, your data is fine.

You should really add more memory to your laptop.