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#221
Puhleeze, never use the blunderbuss word "crack" when speaking with MS, or here.
A crack is a way to illegally use a key or program. MS has said themselves that as long as there is a qualifying previous OS, then there is no illegality in utilizing this convenience to not having to reinstall Vista/Xp.
Millions were using 7 beta and were owed the convenience. Neverthless it was a pleasant surprise.
It is a "registry workaround" which Paul Thurrot offered and MS was giving out en masse in the days after release.
Thank you.
Last edited by gregrocker; 26 Nov 2009 at 04:17.
I didn't use the word with MS they did, and thanks for the warning on this site, my point was the rep who was supposedly talking to the W7 tech team made this judgment. I have no intention of breaking any licensing issues now or in the future. I am primarily a open source user I only have a MS OS because it came with my net-book and I was offered a 29$ upgrade. But I like W7 it is fast and responsive so it was a good purchase.
I'm slowly going through all this thread to find if it's already been answered, but 23 pages!?!?
Anyway,
I've got Vista Home Premium on a 300GB HDD formatted into a 40GB OS partition and a 260GB data partition.
There is now only 5GB left in the OS partition but Windows 7 needs 16GB.
If I get an Upgrade Windows 7 Home Premium can I reformat the 40GB partition on installation or will the installation just tell me I haven't got enough room on the OS partition?
Thanks,
Steve
Boot into the WIn7 upgrade installer and select Custom>Advanced drive tools to delete the Vista partition, create a New one, and format it before install.
The upgrade installer will see Vista before formatting and allow you to insert your key.
Perhaps I had better be more descriptive then.
Do I have to reformat the Vista partition before trying to install the new OS or will the installation allow me to format it within the installation program.
I'd rather be certain that I can just put the Windows 7 Upgrade disk in, run the installation program, let it format the OS partition, then load Windows 7 onto it.
Thus leaving my data partition fully functional.
I can't seem to get that guarantee from the 1st post.
Steve
Steve, you need to boot from the Win7 DVD in order to get the Custom>Advanced drive tools to delete the Vista partition (only), create a new one of same size, then format and install.
If you run the disk from Vista, you won't be given the tools to delete and format the Vista partition. You will only have the choice to do an in-place Upgrade of Vista (saving your programs, files and settings) or a Custom clean install which overwrites Vista and saves your files in a windows.old folder - this is not as clean of an install than booting the DVD, but close.
If you don't select the data partition, nothing will be touched in it.
That said, we are always advised to back up our data before installations of any type.
I followed the tutorials on this site, and got through the Dual Boot tutorial and rejoined the Clean Installation tutorial at step 9. I was not able to see step 10 however. After a reboot I saw the screen where the choice is made to boot 7 or the previous version, and I chose 7. Then the screen went black and stayed that way, with not apparent activity. About a half hour later the lights went out and the PS light went to blinking like standby mode. I had disabled all power saver options prior to starting the installation. After about 5 minutes off I pushed the start button. The lights came on and the disc read, but nothing else happened until just now the lights went back out and the PS light went to blinking again.
I'm certain this isn't what is supposed to happen....