Laptop drives/ram/possibly OS upgrade advice needed please

[SandeepP]

Hi b52,

It is not as confusing as it seems. You have Windows 7 Home Premium installed on the system. Now as you have taken the clone image it would be for Windows 7 Home Premium only. So once you install the clone image on the new harddrive it would be also Windows 7 Home Premium.

If you wish to have Windows 7 Ultimate you purchased from Ebay then you need to clean install it using the disc provided by them and use the COA provided by them.

As, Windows 7 Home Premium disk was provided by us and it is an OEM disk and your system has a COA for Home Premium so it doesn't ask for the Product Key. However, if you use any other disk or version of Windows like Ultimate then it would ask for the COA and you can use the COA provided by Ebay.

Once Windows 7 Ultimate is installed you need to transfer all your required data from the old harddrive and install any required software of your choice.

You cannot upgrade with the Windows 7 Ultimate install disc as you can upgrade either online or using an upgrade disc.

So, in all there are two simple choices left. One is load the clone image on the new harddrive which would have Windows 7 Home Premium. Other one is clean install using Windows 7 Ultimate using the disc and COA label provided then transfer the required files and software.

Hope this answers your queries. And if you have more then feel free to ask us.

 

[b52]

Thanks to both you Sandeep, and gregrocker, (and Anak for the earlier input)

I've decided to abandon the idea of upgrading to Win 7 Ultimate, I've lost £38 to sillier things in my time and don't want to waste any of my life considering it any more.

So, I have done two further backups since cloning, and am therefore inclined to clone the laptop's hard drive again (probably in a couple of days when things are quiet again temporarily and so that everything will be as up to date as possible) - a couple of hours are no problem and I can begin thinking of my next project whilst cloning. (Which you will all hear about in due course no doubt, by all means emigrate to another site temporarily - or just ignore me if you wish ).

I hope therefore that I'm right in assuming that once the clone is successfully completed I can swap the drives and upgrade the RAM, then clone back to the new drive without problems, and without having to reinstall all of the software and copy all files and folders?

And just as importantly for speed, without the necessity for a clean reinstall, however advisable it may be?

I'd be delighted to hear a resounding YES, but open to anything I may have missed.

 

[Anak]

My preference would be to install the new ram first. Then check to see if your machine boots up and runs okay, then install the new drive and clone.

It is an extra step and will take a little more time, but what if the new ram doesn't play nice with your laptop?


As a side note...It would be a courtesy to notify any of your contacts before you start this upgrade. Let them know you will be down for a few hours, and if your back sooner, that's gravy on the "bangers"

You may also want to have a backup internet connection in case (heaven forbid) there's a problem with the upgrade and you can get back here for further advice.

 

[SandeepP]

Thanks to both you Sandeep, and gregrocker, (and Anak for the earlier input)

I've decided to abandon the idea of upgrading to Win 7 Ultimate, I've lost £38 to sillier things in my time and don't want to waste any of my life considering it any more.

So, I have done two further backups since cloning, and am therefore inclined to clone the laptop's hard drive again (probably in a couple of days when things are quiet again temporarily and so that everything will be as up to date as possible) - a couple of hours are no problem and I can begin thinking of my next project whilst cloning. (Which you will all hear about in due course no doubt, by all means emigrate to another site temporarily - or just ignore me if you wish ).

I hope therefore that I'm right in assuming that once the clone is successfully completed I can swap the drives and upgrade the RAM, then clone back to the new drive without problems, and without having to reinstall all of the software and copy all files and folders?

And just as importantly for speed, without the necessity for a clean reinstall, however advisable it may be?

I'd be delighted to hear a resounding YES, but open to anything I may have missed.

Hi b52,

Yes it would be a better option to leave the upgrade right now if you not sure of it. So just add the RAM as Anak suggested and then boot the system if it works perfectly then swap the drive. Once the harddrive is detected load the clone image to the new harddrive.

Once cloned image is loaded you don't have to spend anytime to load the folders or softwares on the system it would be already done.

Hope it answered your query.

 

[b52]

My preference would be to install the new ram first. Then check to see if your machine boots up and runs okay, then install the new drive and clone.

It is an extra step and will take a little more time, but what if the new ram doesn't play nice with your laptop?


As a side note...It would be a courtesy to notify any of your contacts before you start this upgrade. Let them know you will be down for a few hours, and if your back sooner, that's gravy on the "bangers"

You may also want to have a backup internet connection in case (heaven forbid) there's a problem with the upgrade and you can get back here for further advice.

Well, it is quite a quick process to swap the RAM with this laptop, so I could just test it out first although I went to extended lengths to check that it's suitable and it is brand new - doesn't take much time though as you say.

My contacts are already braced and waiting, no problem there. Backup internet connection is though, the desktop is still sitting in its box and the only other means I have is with a cheapo (slooow) android tablet, hmm - something to think about that, curses.

I might just chance it, will have a ponder. Thanks for the fast response!

 

[b52]

Yaaaay - thank you!

 

[SandeepP]

Yaaaay - thank you!

Hi,

Great to hear that we were able to answer your queries. Please let us know once the upgrade is done and if you have any queries feel free to reach out to us.

 

[Anak]

Well, it is quite a quick process to swap the RAM with this laptop, so I could just test it out first although I went to extended lengths to check that it's suitable and it is brand new - doesn't take much time though as you say.

My contacts are already braced and waiting, no problem there. Backup internet connection is though, the desktop is still sitting in its box and the only other means I have is with a cheapo (slooow) android tablet, hmm - something to think about that, curses.

I might just chance it, will have a ponder. Thanks for the fast response!

IMHO, Brand new ram with an older machine is always a 50/50 proposition no matter how careful one is. There are just too many permutations out in the field.

But, preparation is the key, my thoughts are with you.

 

[b52]

At long last, and after some big problems with my HP printer, I'm back.

Changed the RAM modules over to 2 x 4GB - they ran like instant clockwork once I'd managed to get them to connect properly (it takes a surprising amount of shoving to get them right). The laptop also seems to run quite a lot faster - I wasn't aware that a memory upgrade would have this much effect!

So now on to the hard drive swap, in the end I decided to buy a 1TB drive, the exact equivalent of the 750GB I was going to use but a lower rpm, which I thought might suit the closer confines of a laptop better.

But when thinking about the swap, it occurred to me that I would be taking out the existing hard drive and putting in a completely empty new drive. Does this not mean that I would have no software to load the cloned copy back with? In fact, there wouldn't even be an operating system on the new drive??

So I'll ask again why exactly can't I just clone the existing drive directly to the new one, which would be put into an enclosure just for that purpose?

To me, this is the simplest way to do it, the new drive would already be populated with os, software etc etc - and in the event of a problem I would still have the original drive ready to go back in if necessary?

Will appreciate help when anyone has the time.

 

[gregrocker]

You can use Windows Imaging to back up externally an image to apply to the newly installed HDD. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery

Many here prefer free Macrium - Image your system

If you have any WD or Seagate HD's in the mix, you can use their premiium Acronis cloning app which works perfectly. The Manual is on the Download link and easy to understand: WD Acronis free cloning app
Seagate Acronis cloning free util

If you don't have a perfect install yet, then I'd invest in a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

 

[b52]

Oh of course gregrocker, I should have thought of that (the System image bit, though I wasn't aware that you could backup complete computer!). I'll have a look at the links you've given, thank you.

So where does the cloned hard drive come in? Earlier in this post, I was advised to clone the laptop's hard drive to an external one, then clone it back again.

And you probably don't remember, but I use HD Clone - I find it easy to use and am accustomed to how it works. Plus I don't want to do a clean re-install, same as before. Actually the laptop runs pretty well now, not much wrong with the setup or the hard drive except that it's only 500GB (451gb actual).

 

[gregrocker]

The point of cloning is from the source disk to the target disk, not to an intermediary. That's how imaging is done.

If you've got a perfect install then use your choice of cloning app to clone it to the new HD. After cloning if it won't start then unplug all other HD's, make sure the Win7 or its 100mb System Reserved partition (preferred if you have it) is Partition Marked Active then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts.

 

[b52]

Thanks gregrocker for an excellent straightforward reply.

I'm hopeful of course that the cloned drive will function perfectly when swapped for the existing hard drive, but your links to 'marking a partition active' and 'system repair' are very useful just in case the worst happens - thank you.

I do a full backup of the laptop daily and create a system repair disc as and when necessary anyway so I understand how the repair disc in particular can help - and I always have one ready to use whenever it may be needed.

Only trouble is I'll have to print the 'activate partition' link out as I won't remember the guide if anything does go wrong! Got a couple of busy days coming up so I'll clone, swap and see what happens early next week - and hopefully mark all as solved