Solved Installing Windows 7 on new netbook

[magicaly]

Newbie here hoping you can give me some advice.
Last year I bought Windows 7 Pro x32 to install on a Toshiba laptop. My Toshiba has since gone belly up with an irrepairable motherboard fault and has been scrapped. I have now bought a Dell netbook with Win 7 Starter installed and would like to upgrade it using my Win 7 Pro DVD.
I'm aware that you cannot install the same copy of the OS on 2 computers but the first laptop no longer exists so Win 7 Pro would only be installed on the one computer. Am I able to do this or has my Win 7 Pro DVD died with the laptop.
Thanks in advance for any info and advice.

 

[richc46]

If your copy is and OEM, you cannot
If your copy is an upgrade, yes you can
If your copy is full retail, yes you can

An OEM key has those letters somewhere in the key number.

When you install do not give key number, untick the box that will notfiy automatically.
Install, then give the number. If problems speak to MS, they will allow it.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18715-activate-windows-7-phone.html?ltr=A

Check needed specs.

 

[mckillwashere]

..... Starter was developed for netbooks for the fact they are not made to the standard specs Installing Pro can make these computer intolerably slow.

 

[magicaly]

Thanks for both taking the time to reply. The netbook is high end and the spec is slightly higher than my old laptop and above Microsofts minimum requirements for 7 Pro so I will give it a go and activate by phone. I have created the recovery discs on a memory stick and backed up my content and settings to Dells Digital Vault so if I'm not happy with the way 7 Pro runs on the netbook I can return to 7 Starter.

 

[mckillwashere]

Alright... I will suggest getting 2 gb of ram and turning some features off.

 

[gregrocker]

If you have builder's OEM (cheaper) Pro then MS may make an exception and allow you to move it to another mobo, although normally the mobo cannot change once it's installed. There is no "OEM" in Product Key - it appears in the Product ID listed at Computer>Properties.

If you have retail or Upgrade Win7, you can migrate it as often as you want for life.

Keep in mind that it might be cheaper to use Anytime Upgrade to change Starter to a higher version, so if you find another place you'd like Pro to go you have the option to reinstall Starter at any time (or save an image of it now) to Anytime Upgrade.

It has now been well established that retail keys work in Anytime Upgrade, so type "Anytime" in your Start Search box and see if Pro is an allowed Upgrade path, then use your retail key to simply unlock the extra features and you're done.

 

[magicaly]

Many Thanks Gregrocker. Followed your instructions and it worked like a dream. Now running with 7 Pro as we speak. No Loss of speed and all the features I had on my old laptop. Cheers

 

[gregrocker]

Glad it worked.

Now save a Win7 backup image externally so you never have to reinstall Starter>Pro, just reimage from the booted DVD Repair console using the stored image: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

If you decide you want to migrate retail Pro to another machine, you can reinstall native Starter by running the Recovery partition if you have one, or by unlocking all versions in your Win7 DVD to reinstall with Product Key on the COA sticker: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html

 

[magicaly]

thanks for the links Gregrocker. cheers

 

[MarieEgan]

I have a Dell Mini10 netbook too

And I'm in a quandry. At the time I ordered the netbook, on the upgrade page I ordered the Pro upgrade, not realizing they were only offering it for 2nd PCs, not the netbook. When I opened it to install it, it was for an upgrade from Vista. I called Dell thinking it was a mistake, but they very curtly told me that 7 Pro was not supported on the netbooks, and if I insisted on installing it, the Intel Atom processor was not certified to run it and if there were any hardware issues, Dell would not support it. He then proceeded to try to sell me a laptop, which is not what I want. Obviously Pro can be installed, but I need to know that it does not cause any issues over time before I attempt to install it, and also since the disk I have is for Vista, is there a way to make that work? I saw on another site that someone wasted a whole weekend going round and round with Dell and Microsoft until they finally made the Vista upgrade work, but since they have on record that they told me not to install it on the netbook, I'm afraid I won't get any help, nor would they send me a new disk if I sent the Vista upgrade back for a full install. Any recommendations? If nothing else I will send the whole thing back and start from scratch with another manufacturer. Unfortunately, I get a Dell discount from work, but the time I have wasted has probably cost me the discount. Thanks, Marie

 

[magicaly]

I can only say that my Dell netbook has been running with 7 Pro for the past 6 weeks with no problems at all. I upgraded from 7 Basic very easily and have had no issues, hardware or otherwise. Everything runs sweet as a nut and behaves as it should. Sounds to me like a bit of hard sell maybe?

Carol

 

[gregrocker]

MS wants us to upgrade within Win7 using Anytime Upgrade. However most Anytime Upgrades will allow use of a retail Upgrade key, so you can try that by typing "anytime" in Start Search box to start the process of unlocking Pro features if Starter>Pro is supported.

It's also likely that Pro Upgrade is a bootable Win7 installation DVD. Check to make sure by booting it to see if it proceeds like these screenshots: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

So you have a path back I would save externally a Win7 Starter backup image , which can be reimaged to the HD using the Pro DVD Repair console, or Win7 Repair CD:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html


Then boot the Win7 Pro upgrade DVD to do a clean install following these steps. The DVD will scan the HD to see another OS to allow use of Upgrade version key, even if you use Custom>Drive Options to delete, repartition and format the HD: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Here are some tips for getting a perfect reinstall, based on hundreds done here: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

 

[strollin]

I installed Win 7 Pro on my Acer Aspire One netbook which originally came with XP Home. It's been running quite happily with 1.5G of RAM for about 6 months now.

 

[MarieEgan]

Thanks to everyone that replied. I will get a DVD r/w/rw player tomorrow and give it a shot. I just wondered if anyone knew whether Dell would have a leg to stand on if I had any issues say with the processor or chipsets. If you go to Windows anytime updates they say sure, no problem updating current equipment, but it makes me wonder if the manufacturer, Dell, and the software company, Microsoft, are somewhat at odds with each other, or like Carol said, maybe the Dell guy was trying to hardsell me to a more expensive laptop. As long as I can restore to the original set up, I will try it. I work in a hospital IT department doing application support and can spend hours troubleshooting my apps. The idea of coming home and doing more of the same on my netbook after working 10+ hours just makes me tired thinking about it, so I hope it all works OK the first time. And because I work in IT, I can't justify financially farming it out to have someone else do it. No one at work has any netbook experience, and they can get a little crazy when they are trying to get new things to work which is Ok if it is a work computer, or their own they blow up, so I will probably write back again if I have more questions. If this works out well, it will be sweet as it will make being on call much easier since I won't be dragging around an 8 pound work laptop in a huge case, and I'm on call for 10 days starting Monday.

Marie

 

[MarieEgan]

I got it to work really easy, I so am glad for all the good advice and that these forums exist, now I just have some bugs getting Citrix to work. I will look under some of the other forums to see if I can find any information about that. Thanks again so much.

Marie

 

[gregrocker]

Glad it worked so well, Marie. Be sure to now save a Win7 Backup image externally so you can reimage Pro to the HD (or its replacement) in minutes rather than having to restore Basic to Anytime Upgrade again.

If you still have problems with Citrix, I'd post a query in General Forum which is descriptively titled to attract those who know.