Help with Windows 7 please

[I love sky]

Hi all

Please be nice to me as ive just joined this great site and would like to know a couple of things about Windows 7 before i download it from windows.

I have Vista home basic on my laptop so will it work with that?

Also i see on the windows 7 website that we can only use it till Aug 1st 2009 so what will happen after that date??

Will I have to buy the Retail disk after 1st aug for my laptop to work??

Is it any better then the Vista home basic that i have??

Any help please as im new to vista as well.

 

[I2aMpAnT]

Hi all

Please be nice to me as ive just joined this great site and would like to know a couple of things about Windows 7 before i download it from windows.

I have Vista home basic on my laptop so will it work with that?

Also i see on the windows 7 website that we can only use it till Aug 1st 2009 so what will happen after that date??

Will I have to buy the Retail disk after 1st aug for my laptop to work??

Is it any better then the Vista home basic that i have??

Any help please as im new to vista as well.

First off it's still a beta, so there's no way to tell whether or not it will work or not work on your hardware specs. If you can dual boot that would be best but if not you're taking a great chance not having a 100% working computer until August 1st unless you reinstall Vista.

After August 7 they may have a closed Beta but for users of this Beta your OS will stop at the Windows Startup Screen Saying that your Copy of Windows is no longer Valid or some such. The retail disks are not projected to be out until at least 2010.

Personally I think this Beta is a great chance to start getting used to how Windows 7 (Might) looks and feels when it releases. It's stable enough for a basic install and Windows Media Player and Internet use but don't count on every program or piece of hardware you own working 100% or at all.

 

[hethoofd]

You can choose wether to upgrade your Vista to 7, or do a clean install for 7. It's most wise to do a clean install, simply because it's a beta (which contains bugs) and it will expire in August. After the expiration date it will probably become unusable after a while.

To do a clean install, you don't want to remove your Vista installation, since it's important to have something to fall back to in case 7 fails. You should create a new partition and install Windows 7 on that partition. After the installation you'll have a dual boot: on starting your computer you can choose between 7 and Vista.

 

[I love sky]

You can choose wether to upgrade your Vista to 7, or do a clean install for 7. It's most wise to do a clean install, simply because it's a beta (which contains bugs) and it will expire in August. After the expiration date it will probably become unusable after a while.

To do a clean install, you don't want to remove your Vista installation, since it's important to have something to fall back to in case 7 fails. You should create a new partition and install Windows 7 on that partition. After the installation you'll have a dual boot: on starting your computer you can choose between 7 and Vista.

Thankyou for that,

Have to say i have never done that before so if anyone can advise me on how to do that please that would be great.

 

[I2aMpAnT]

Thankyou for that,

Have to say i have never done that before so if anyone can advise me on how to do that please that would be great.

How big is your hard drive on your laptop and how much of it are you currently using?

Also do you have any external drives or USB drives you can backup your important files upon?

 

[I love sky]

How big is your hard drive on your laptop and how much of it are you currently using?

Also do you have any external drives or USB drives you can backup your important files upon?

Yer I have a Cd and Dvd drive on my laptop and my laptop is a Fujitsu siemens Amilo if that is any help?

 

[hethoofd]

... and my laptop is a Fujitsu siemens Amilo if that is any help?

Well, not really We need to know the size of your hard drive in gigabytes, and much you're using of that.

 

[I2aMpAnT]

Well, not really We need to know the size of your hard drive in gigabytes, and much you're using of that.

What he said!

 

[I love sky]

Well, not really We need to know the size of your hard drive in gigabytes, and much you're using of that.

Is a 69.3gb hard drive and ive got 43.8gb left on it.

 

[I2aMpAnT]

Is a 69.3gb hard drive and ive got 43.8gb left on it.

Backup your stuff and create a new 40GB Partition on it.

Let me know if you need help with this...Via PM

 

[hethoofd]

I'd go with 35GB. Give Vista some space to live

 

[I2aMpAnT]

I'd go with 35GB. Give Vista some space to live

I'd go with 40GB, I guess it's just personal preference.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello all.

Se7en Forums has this new video about dual booting; feel free to show it to anyone asking about this.

Windows 7 Forums - How to dual-boot Windows 7 BETA on a Vista computer













Later :shock: Ted

 

[hethoofd]

Hello all.

Se7en Forums has this new video about dual booting; feel free to show it to anyone asking about this.

Windows 7 Forums - How to dual-boot Windows 7 BETA on a Vista computer













Later :shock: Ted

Nice video, but I wouldn't recommend Vista's disk management to shrink the partition. If you have Volume Shadow Copy enabled it won't allow you to shrink that much. I could only shrink mine 4GB, so I used third party software.