I was quite sure you don't understand. I was right. You have given no wrong information, I was referring to this:
I criticed you because of this remark you've since posting it already deleted:
So when the OP asks about HP Pavilion laptops and I tell him about HP Pavilion laptops in my answer, I am either a HP employee or amateur? I still can not understand the logics of that.
Kari
Which is why I rewrote that knee-jerk reaction, apparently at the same time you were responding to it. I have that reaction to bullies.
You implied that HP laptops have no bloatware. I just spent an hour pulling the bloatware out of an HP laptop at a friend's request, only to have System File Checker find unfixable corruption. So I am clean installing from an HP OEM disk right now.
I myself did delete Toshiba's EISA (recovery) partition but only because I was provided with a Toshiba Recovery Disk which will perform the same function. Otherwise I would try making that disk myself, or keep that partition if I couldn't do that..
It's always wise to retain the ability to turn your laptop back to the fresh original 0-day state.. suppose, say, you wanna sell it?
Ok kari a few more questions,
Will 7 come with a free version of office 2007 ? I decided I am going to do a custom install will my programs be preserved ? I am now not sure if I should go with an upgrade if it means losing my programs I prob. should back them up? but, drivers I know I need to back up ? also this windows.old file that will be created does this contain only windows files OS system files?
EDIT: My mistake I mean Microsoft works (all I really need is powerpoint viewer and word processing)
No. To my knowledge the only way you can preserve your free Works included in the original OEM bundle is to do an upgrade installation. Backing up your programs doesn't help you; without some really heavy registry editing only a few so called portable applications work after restoring them to a new OS. Normal applications like Works, Office, Photoshop, Firewall and AV programs etc. have to be reinstalled with appropriate code or key.
This next is my subjective meaning, based only in my own experience and the HP know-how I have. Clean install is normally the better alternative. However HP has been very slow to publish Win7 drivers. That is the reason why I use a mixed upgrade/clean method. I've done it now on several HP Pavilion and HDX series laptops and am still waiting the first issue to occure.
I'm repeating myself now but I think this is an important subject. Simply put, this is the method: (Remember this is one users subjective meaning. I've tested it during the last four months on half a dozen HP laptops; it's not so much but enough to tell me it works.)
- Use Windows Easy Transfer to backup your personal files and folders
- Do a full system recovery using the discs you burned
- Update the Vista until Windows Update tells there are no more updates
- Do a upgrade installation of Win7
- Use Windows Easy Transfer to restore your files and folders
- Install the additional software
This takes a lot of time, this method is suitable when time is no problem. My record was a HDX laptop, a bit under 5 hours. A Pavilion dv9 took almost 11 hours. But the result has always been worth of the time and effort used. I like it when my computers work without problems.
Kari
Sounds good I will follow this path, can't I only use my recovery discs once ?
Ok well The recovery discs worked perfect and I now have a fresh install of vista on my laptop.
OK now I should update update update but I am wondering do I need service pack 2? I have heard that some people have had probs with sp2 and windows 7 upgrade
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