Just had a few questions....I'm updating my PC with a new motherboard and Processor, adding some RAM as well, along with upgrading my OS from XP to Windows 7. What is the best method of making this upgrade? Do I need to do anything with the Hard Drive? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
Just to be clear: to upgrade from XP to Win7, you have no choice. You are not allowed to do an upgrade-in-place, so all of your software will need to be re-installed.
Be sure to save all of your files onto another hard drive before proceeding. I also recommend imaging the XP installation from the old machine, although that won't be of much use in the upgrade.
During booted install following the illustrated steps Jay provided above, be sure to delete all partitions at Steps 6 and 7, create new one(s) as you wish, then format before continuing with install.
Win7 will provide the drivers in the installer and afterwards during several rounds of Important and Optional Updates when you enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3).
Put your wireless or ethernet driver on a stick in case it isn't provided so you can get online quickly to do all of the updates. You can also plug in by ethernet wire during install which does provide the driver in about 75% of installs. Any wireless driver will then likely come in with Updates.
After all rounds of Important and Optional updates are done, any drivers still missing in Device Manager should be imported from the Support downloads webpage for your model PC or device.
Other tips to get and keep a perfect install are the same as these for Clean Reinstall.
Last edited by gregrocker; 19 Feb 2013 at 22:02.
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