I recently got a new laptop and I want to install windows 7 on my old one just for kicks, but I really don't want to do a clean install. I've done a clean install on 2 of my desktops, but I'd like to upgrade directly from XP pro on my laptop. I saw a post on ZDNet that this wasn't a good idea, but I don't really see why there should be any big problems.
Has anyone tried to upgrade directly from XP and if so what were your results?
Hi, Yamaki, and welcome to the forums.
You'll more than likely run into compatibility issues regarding your laptop's hardware and trying to run Windows 7. In addition, the upgrade facility it pretty easy to use, so it has not been 'tweaked' yet for folks trying to upgrade from XP (or Vista, for that matter). This is, after all, a pre-Beta - meaning that not all things work.
But, on the other side of the coin, ZDNet is warning more those users who are going to try to upgrade production machines - since this is an old laptop for you, I am sure that you really don't care about it and it will be somewhat of a learning experience for you - and you'll be able to report problems as well.
If it were me, I'd do the exact same thing - backup the HD< then upgrade - and see what breaks.
Welcome to the forums Yamaki
zdnet's stance is more of a cautious type meaning if things can break they will (i know im going too far but still)
they ADVISE on not doing it they are not telling you its not possible or impossible...
id rather upgrade from vista but even then you are going to run into incompatibilities as some of us know......lol
Thank you all for the warm welcomes :)
After playing around for a while, I learned that it is indeed not possible to upgrade from XP to windows 7. So, I backed up all of my important stuff and did a clean install of Windows 7. To my surprise, everything worked right out of the box without installing any drivers! In fact, it breathed new life into my old laptop. Everything was very speedy -- a full reboot clocked in at 56 seconds using the tool posted on these forums! The Aero interface looked beautiful even despite my integrated graphics. Let it suffice to say that when Beta 1 comes out, it will become my main OS for both of my laptops.
Here are the specs in case anyone's curious:
Dell E1405
Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
Hitachi 60GB 5400RPM HDD
Hello Yamaki, welcome to Se7en Forums!
I'm pleased to see that you have it running. Windows 7 is very stable for a pre-beta. The public beta release is do in as little as one to two weeks; stay on the lookout for it.
LaterTed
damm speedy laptop...lol
i get 70 seconds i believe....
good to hear that you took the plunge like the rest of us and got it working....
I tried to do a direct upgrade from xp to build 7000. But the problem is, you need to have vista to "upgrade" (if you don't have vista, you WILL get an error message at the very beginning of the upgrade process) otherwise you're going to have to do a clean install which I just did on the same partition... Still working on getting some of my files out of windows.old ...
Welcome tb1080 to the forums
6956 and below i believe let you upgrade from xp....
thanks for the tip though...
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