Moving from Win7 Pro to Win7 Enterprise

[MrADeV]

Hello everyone,

I have a question for anyone that can help me out. At my office I am trying to move several machines from Windows 7 Pro to windows 7 Enterprise. I know that there is no direct route from Professional to Enterprise, so I am out of luck when it comes to keeping all of my OEM applications and drivers from Dell on the machines I have. I end up having to do a clean install of Enterprise and lose all of the OEM software/drivers. Unfortunately the dell driver site has really been hit and (quite a bit) miss when it comes to getting everything back the way it should be. Does anyone know of a way for me to grab everything that was installed on the machine from Dell then do my Enterprise install and put it all back?

Thanks in advance.

 

[theog]

How to order Microsoft official Dell OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks from the website.
May be up to 5 DVD's
DVD 1) Windows 7 DVD.
DVD 2 to 5) Drivers & Utlilties.

 

[AddRAM]

May I ask why you have to go from Pro to Enterprise ?

 

[MrADeV]

How to order Microsoft official Dell OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks from the website.
May be up to 5 DVD's
DVD 1) Windows 7 DVD.
DVD 2 to 5) Drivers & Utlilties.

Ive tried getting Dells assistance with that before, they just direct me back to their drivers and downloads page. When I get all of the recommended downloads form their site 17/29 of them will actually work on the device I'm working with. Using the disks, when they send them, yields pretty much the same result; some work, some "Aren't for this device." or "Such device is not installed."

May I ask why you have to go from Pro to Enterprise ?

I'd like to use Enterprise for it's Encryption abilities, I build mobile user systems for administration in health care. I know that Ultimate is in the upgrade path for windows, however my offices agreement with Microsoft doesn't allow usage of Ultimate.

I'm really curious if Dell just has a specific location(s) that I can grab their stuff from, copy it to a USB and drop it back onto the system once I've installed Enterprise.

 

[gregrocker]

THese steps should help you prepare for and get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
even if changing versions as you wish. Pay special attention to how drivers are best handled in Win7. If you need help with Enterprise volume licensing I'd ask at Technet which specializes in IT issues.