Upgrade and Replace Hard Drive

[Extensa]

Hi guys,

So let me explain my situation. I have a 15 month old laptop, with a dying hard drive. Quite frequently when it spins up, the hard drive makes a horrible buzzing/scraping noise. I decided I will invest the money and replace it for the $100 and get a faster one (7200 rpm).

Here's the catch. I have an upgrade disk on order, and only an OEM backup disk (Vista) to reformat.

Whats the best way to replace the hard disk and use an upgrade media to use 7 on my computer?

 

[torrentg]

Pull the HDD out of the laptop. Attach it to your desktop, assuming you have one.

When new HDD for laptop arrives, attach that to desktop as well.

Use Clonezilla to clone the old HDD to the new.

Take new HDD out of desktop and put in laptop. Boot the laptop as normal. Enjoy. Remove old laptop HDD from desktop and phyiscally destroy it if there's sensitive data on it. Throw it out after.

Upgrade to Windows 7 on the laptop in any way you see fit.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If you have an external USB drive, you could clone an image of the old drive to it, replace it with the new drive, and pull the image back down from the USB drive. Most drive manufacturers seem to be offering a free version of Acronis TrueImage that would work for this purpose.

 

[whs]

I have just asked the same question to Microsoft. Should I get a sensible answer, I'll let you know. Here is the original text I sent to MS:

purchased the Win7 early bird upgrade for $49.95 from you via the net (and will hopefully get it after Oct.22). Since it is an upgrade, I understand it has to be installed on top of an existing Vista (or XP). I have an OEM Vista (HP) on my laptop's HDD. Before I install Win7, I will, however, exchange the HDD for an OCZ Vertex SSD. That means, there will be just a blank disk to install Win7. I have burnt the Vista recovery DVDs from the recovery partition and wonder whether they can be used to authenticate the upgrade.

 

[zigzag3143]

WHS

Hi and welcome too the dark side.

this has been floating around and there are many thoughts on it. The current thinking is that it has to be an activated OS (installed) to work. So restore dvd's, and even original vista dvds wouldn't work.

You may be able to make a backup of the vista, put the ssd in and do a restore from you HD (if you have the room for both OS and restore partition).

Hope this helps

Ken

 

[zone23]

I don't know if anyone really has the answer to this until the upgrade disk arrive. My thought is that when you pop the upgrade disk into your pc its going to ask you for your existing key instead of a disk. Since anyone can get a disk from anywhere that method no longer works (older upgrade used to ask for a disk). When you type in your existing key it will then probably ask for the new key. After that you will probably be able to do everything OEM and retail disk do. I would try avoiding installing vista at all. I want to do a clean install of 7 from the upgrade disk. If I have to I will install a copy or XP just to force a clean install. From what I read once the keys are entered you will be able to install the upgrade without typing in the original key anymore. In a sense it will bind the two keys together.

I would go ahead and install vista on the drive with the intent of doing a clean install of 7 when it arrives.

 

[Extensa]

So you can also upgrade from XP?

If so, could I just clean swap the drives, and install XP without cloning of any sorts?

I have a retail disk that isn't installed, so that may work as well.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
You can upgrade from XP but only "indirectly".

XP ====>VISTA====>W7.

This method is feasable if you are not sure about updating / obtaining drivers / apps in W7. In general go for a "Clean install".

The upgrade is viable for "compatable programs" where you no lomger have the install disks or the manufacturer no longer exists. All XP programs won't seamlesslly work however by this method but you *could* be lucky.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Extensa]

Hi there
You can upgrade from XP but only "indirectly".

XP ====>VISTA====>W7.

This method is feasable if you are not sure about updating / obtaining drivers / apps in W7. In general go for a "Clean install".

The upgrade is viable for "compatable programs" where you no lomger have the install disks or the manufacturer no longer exists. All XP programs won't seamlesslly work however by this method but you *could* be lucky.

Cheers
jimbo

I guess my post might have been confusing. Can I install XP on the new Hard Disk and straight install to 7? The XP disk is full retail, so I would just use it to "bridge" between itself and 7. This would prevent cloning the disks before replacing them I assume?

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi there
You can upgrade from XP but only "indirectly".

XP ====>VISTA====>W7.

This method is feasable if you are not sure about updating / obtaining drivers / apps in W7. In general go for a "Clean install".

The upgrade is viable for "compatable programs" where you no lomger have the install disks or the manufacturer no longer exists. All XP programs won't seamlesslly work however by this method but you *could* be lucky.

Cheers
jimbo

I guess my post might have been confusing. Can I install XP on the new Hard Disk and straight install to 7? The XP disk is full retail, so I would just use it to "bridge" between itself and 7. This would prevent cloning the disks before replacing them I assume?

question was completely clear. the upgrade paths are listed here and yes y ou can use XP PRO>win 7 as a custom but.....

see the upgrade paths Deciphering Windows 7 Upgrades: The Official Chart | Walt Mossberg | Mossblog | AllThingsD

Ken

 

[Extensa]

Okay, thanks for the chart.. I guess that answers my question.

Now the countdown is on. I will pick up a new hard drive (320 GB 7200 RPM WD Scorpio Black w/ Free-Fall Sensor) and await my Upgrade media to arrive.

Thanks for your help guys, this is the reason I love these forums ,

Extensa