Two incredibly dumb SP1 questions

[brocks]

Now that SP1 is out, I would like to do a clean install of Win7 and then update it to SP1 via Windows Update. I have two dumb questions:

1) Since it's a clean install, I will have to activate it again. Will the new activation invalidate my old activation? In other words, if I take my old boot drive out and put a brand new hard drive in, and do a fresh install of Win7 onto the new drive, and activate it, and then I run into some problem, can I take out the new drive, put in the old drive, and boot right up, or will my old drive no longer be activated? Note that this is on the same PC, the only difference will be the boot drive.

2) I see a lot of articles about slipstreaming SP1 onto a Win7 DVD. I'm about to make a fool of myself, but --- it looks horribly complex, and when you're done, you still have a DVD that will take an hour to install. Why do that when you can just do a fresh install of Windows, then install SP1, and then take an image that will only take ten minutes to restore? Is it only for system admins that have to install a bunch of different machines with different serial numbers?

Thanks for any help on either question.

 

[Ponmayilal]

1.When you do a clean install, you have 30 days time to activate it, even assuming an activation request is triggered, which I consider most unlikely. So do not enter your product key and activate it till you are sure that the clean install is good to go.

2. As for your second query, I am against slipstreaming using some third party utility. And in any case not for the less-experienced. That is why I insist and question why MS is not making available the integrated Windows 7 SP1 ISO to all genuine Windows 7 users. You can always get the leaked versions of the same and use it for a clean install. Only confirm that the MD5 checksum and hash checks match with that of original official version.

And finally why do you assume getting into problems with a clean install? A clean install is the best way to avoid all problems and you will be successful. Any mistakes committed during installation can always be taken care of by reinstalling and starting from the scratch. I had installed and reinstalled the OS several times in the first instance, till I was sure that I had made no mistakes or realised that I should have chosen different settings during install.

 

[1Bowtie]

For people that don't like slipstreaming go the the MS store and buy the SP1 disk $6 US. That way you can clean install put SP1 in without going online and waiting for all the updates to install

 

[brocks]

And finally why do you assume getting into problems with a clean install?

I don't assume it, but there are quite a few posts here from people who had things break when they installed SP1. Also, I might have problems that are related to the new drive, rather than Windows itself.

General comment: while all responses are appreciated, I was kind of hoping for answers to my questions.