Installing W7 Retail

Hi guys, I just bought the W7 retail version through my university bookstore and have a quick question before I install.

My laptop came with Vista installed and I partitioned it several months ago to install the RC (64 bit) on the 2nd partition and it worked fine. Now I want to install the retail version over my Vista partition since it has way more hard drive allocated to it than the parition I used to install the RC on. Do I have anything to worry about since this was the original OS that came on my system? I plan to upgrade Vista to W7 as opposed to the clean install which I did for the RC. Do I need to back my files up for this? Because my external broke and I don't want to go buy a new one if I don't have to. Will all of my files and programs remain in tact after upgrading the Vista partition to W7? I didn't have any troubles when the RC installed so I just wanted to make sure its safe to assume this will work just as well and that I shouldn't have to worry about it not working for whatever reason. Advice would be greatly appreciated! Can't wait to finally have the real thing set up!

Thanks

Best thing to do is:

1. back up any personal files you want to keep from both partitions
2. Boot to windows 7 dvd
3. When it asks which partition you want to install it on delete both partitions.
4. Select the unallocated space (dont create a new partition) and click next, windows will format and install on the new single partition.

   Warning

Deleting partitions will destroy any data you have

Interesting. What is the retail version colleges are offering (is it Ultimate) and how much was it (if you don't mind me asking)?

fair point barman

It's Ultimate offered for $20. Not a bad deal :) but like I said I'd really prefer not to do the clean install since I don't want to buy a hard drive to back all my stuff up on. So basically my question would be, does installing it as an upgrade on Vista rather than a clean install keep all of my files and programs? I will back up my important files on an 8gb flash drive either way, but like I said I really don't want to shell out more money for this if I can keep my files. Thanks again!

Wow $20 is a great deal considering it will sell for around $300

yes, if you do the upgrade all of your current files and programs will be left intact.

yaco

Yes you can do an upgrade, and 99.99% of the time you will have your settings and files intact. If the data is worth backing up you should just is case.
Its not recommended by MS, and most of us but I understand real world considerations

ken