Help with installation please

kausikdatta · 02 Dec 2009

Bow to Brink and others! :)
I just joined this forum, and finished browsing through the tutorial and 18 pages of comments! It was painful

but now I am more confident about upgrading my two computers to Win 7. Thank you.

I have purchased and downloaded the ISO files for two Win 7 Pro 64-bit upgrade licenses. I have also burned them to two different DVDs (and have two different product keys). I think I should be able to use one each for each of my two computers.

For my old Sony Vaio with Vista Home Premium 32-bit, I shall follow the advice for a custom install. May I ask how to backup the drivers? Should I just copy the entire System 32 folder to an external HDD or a DVD?

My spanking new HP came with Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit. This, I am afraid, may be more tricky. I would be highly obliged if someone could give me pointers as to how I should proceed.

Thanks in advance.

Brink · 02 Dec 2009

Hello Kausikdatta, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, you must use a different license key number for each new installation.

What model is your Sony VAIO? You might check at it's manufacturer's website to see if there are any Windows 7 drivers that you can download and save to use instead after you have finished installing Windows 7 on it. If no Windows 7 drivers are available for your devices, then you can use Vista ones instead. Just save the driver installation files.

For your HP with Windows 7 Home Premium, you can either do a upgrade install, clean install, or custom install as well. Which ever one you feel is easier for you. :)

Hope this helps,
Shawn

gregrocker · 02 Dec 2009

The Win7 installer is driver-complete except for exotic drivers. Windows Updates follows up quickly with later drivers.

This is because MS funded the partnership with manufacturers (WHQL) to develop Win7 drivers, so they have them first.

If you want to be sure, besides Brink's suggestion to check the Support Downloads page for your model on Sony's website, back up Windows/system32/drivers and driverstore files where you can later browse from Device Manager for any missing drivers.

kausikdatta · 02 Dec 2009

Thank you both, Shawn and Gregrocker. My Vaio model is VGN-CR320E. I shall look up the support website to find if they have win 7 drivers. I still have my original question, though - as far as the Vista drivers are concerned (if I don't find all at the website). What do you mean by the driver installation files? Would those be the .ini files?

EDIT: Just realized that Gregrocker has mentioned the system32/drivers and drvstore folders! Sorry about that.

I just looked up the HP website. Not very helpful, I must say. I checked against my computer's model (Pavilion p6240f) for softwares and device drivers. They only have driver updates and original drivers for a handful of things - the audio, the LAN, and two for the keyboard.

Anyway, the Vista-to-win7 I shall attempt later. Tonight I try (hopefully) the win7 HP to win 7 Pro. Let's see how it goes. Wish me luck. I am going to read once again all the three tutorials that Shawn indicated in his reply, before I start.

EDIT: Forgot to add. I could not find the original HP programs and stuff that came with this computer. I have made a set of recovery disk. I wonder if I could use them to reinstall some HP programs once I am done with the Home Premium to Professional transition.

kausikdatta · 02 Dec 2009

After reading through all the tutorials, it appears to me that my best option (for Win7 HP x64 - Win7 Pro x64) would be a custom install, rather than a clean one. If I understand correctly, the clean install completely erases the drive and puts in the fresh OS, whereas the custom install saves the old OS files to a windows.old folder which can be easily removed later. Am I correct?

kausikdatta · 02 Dec 2009

I am doing a custom installation finally. The tutorial is open in another computer, of course...

I left the 100MB system partition alone. I am hoping that Win 7 Pro would be able to use up that partition to put its own system files, but I don't think it will happen that way. Let's see how it goes.