Windows 7 freezes after upgrade install

[livichops]

Hi Karlsnooks,

Sorry if this sounds a bit dumb but are you saying that all the information stored on all 3 partitions have nothing to do with my basic laptop functions and only contain data that is windows OS specific. Same as you, I couldn't give a hoot about keeping vista on my laptop and would much prefer to keep it simple and just use windows 7. When the guys at Geek Squad installed windows 7 at the same time that I purchased my laptop they heavily stressed that I needed vista (it is pre-installed) to make my laptop function and HAD to install windows 7 over it. I am now beginning to see that that may not be the case at all.
I would like to try the way you suggest and Greg initially suggested as it sounds (at least you make it sound)the least complicated. But you know what it's like with these things..it's easy when you know how.
To put it plainly, if I proceed as you suggested, without using the partition wizard, is there ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that I will kill my laptop. I don't care about vista it's the laptop I care about.

Hope this makes sense to you! (I'm almost confusing myself to be honest).

Liv

 

[gregrocker]

Liv there is no way wiping the HD could kill your laptop. The disks they gave you are Recovery disks that will restore it to factory condition so you have a path back to start out with.

I also wiped a friend's Toshiba to reinstall Vista for him. He didn't lose anything important except the crapware they load in there. Without it and with the clean reinstall, he had instantaneous performance and a connection that started with the laptop instead of waiting til the useless connection manager started up.

This is the same with all makes I've encountered. Sometimes there are EISA or other partitions besides recovery but their usefulness is pretty much limited to the pre-installed OS and mainly bogging it down with redundancies.

If you're unsure you can wait for other's to weigh in, too.

 

[karlsnooks]

livichops,
Yep, you can 100% wipe you toshiba clean. Since I don't worry about "public relations", then, in my opinion, the most incompetent group has been and iis the Geek Squad. Take your laptop to anyone but not to them. Now that is my personal opinion of their incompetence level and doesn't represent the opinion of anyone else or any organization.

As Greg pointed out, you will free yourself of the Toshiba bloatware.

Your system will take off running, smoothly and without excess baggage.

What I do recommend is that after you've settled in to your new Win 7 then go to the toshiba site, (I'll add the link here in a second.) and download the "utilities" package and the touchpad driver. The MS driver works but the one you get from the Toshiba site has a couple of more features AND the driver has also received the Win 7 compatiblity logo. Only download that which you need. Also at the same time check to see if the latest bios version is more recent than your own. Very possible is that there is a bios update which will give you improved power management. But let's wait until you've got a working system. Now let me look for the links.

Toshiba Support - Content List for my laptop
Toshiba Support - Download List
Toshiba Support - Homepage
Toshiba Support - Ask Iris® Online
Toshiba Support
Model Content Page
Toshiba Support Forums Forum Home

 

[livichops]

Hi Greg,

What if the recovery discs gave me are vista recovery discs NOT toshiba recovery discs.
Does that make any difference?

Thanks again!

Liv

 

[livichops]

Hi Karlsnooks,

Wicked! With the combination of both your and Greg's sound advice I finally feel I am starting to see the forest through the trees. I also feel a lot smarter than I did when I woke up this morning. I didn't even know what a partition was yesterday!

I now am actually very excited about potentially having a laptop and OS without all the excess baggage you guys are talking about.

Right then....time to get started! Wish me luck

Liv

 

[karlsnooks]

Livichops,

May all go well. Let us know how things go.

Enjoy

Life is a banquet and most poor fellows are starving to death. (quote from "Auntie Mame")

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Greg,

What if the recovery discs gave me are vista recovery discs NOT toshiba recovery discs.
Does that make any difference?

Thanks again!

Liv

If you ran the disks before and they recovered the computer with the Toshiba utilities intact then it was a Recovery Disk set, probably the same one you can make yourself off of the Recov partition.

Anything less would only be a single DVD anyway labeled Vista and have no Toshiba utilities.

Did the Recovery wipe the HD when it was run, or did you notice? If so, it resinstalls the Toshiba utility partitions as most Recovery Disks do.

 

[livichops]

Hi. Just finished the deep clean of my HD and I am now back at custom install. You mentioned creating new partitions using drive tools. I have pressed the 'new' button ( I hope that was correct!?) Now there is the word Size and a box with a number in it. Is this how I determine the size of the new partition and if it is, how big do you think I should make it?
The size option seems to be measured in MB but my hard drive in GB, and I don't know exactly how to get the right proportion. The default number in the option window is 305245 MB and my total HD space 298 GB.
I'm almost there, I just a little push...!
Thanks.

 

[livichops]

Hi. Just finished the deep clean of my HD and I am now back at custom install. You mentioned creating new partitions using drive tools. I have pressed the 'new' button ( I hope that was correct!?) Now there is the word Size and a box with a number in it. Is this how I determine the size of the new partition and if it is, how big do you think I should make it?
The size option seems to be measured in MB but my hard drive in GB, and I don't know exactly how to get the right proportion. The default number in the option window is 305245 MB and my total HD space 298 GB.
I'm almost there, I just a little push...!
Thanks.

 

[gregrocker]

Depends on how many partitions you want. Some prefer one large partition choosing the default size given, others want a partition for OS and programs (best kept on same part), then another one for files so they won't be lost if OS becomes unbootable.

Or consider 3 partitions of roughly equal size for OS/Programs, Files, and storage or backup - tho backup is best done on external.

Whichever you choose, Win7 will create a 100mb System Reserved boot partition which adds the Repair CD console onto the Advanced Boot Tools accessed by tapping the F8 key at bootup.

 

[livichops]

Thanks a lot Greg, installing windows now. Fingers crossed it will work! I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all your help.
Liv.

 

[karlsnooks]

livichops,
Was away for awhile. If it's not too late, then 1 GigaByte = 1024 Megabytes.

Thus 100 Gigabytes = 1024 x 100 = 102400 Megabytes.
150 gigabytes = 1024 x 150 = 153600 megabytes.

At your experience level then I would recommend a maximum of two parttions.

one of 153600 megabytes and one the rest of the size.

 

[livichops]

Hi again,

So...Windows 7 is installed, I connected to the internet and installed all updates and got to the bit where my upgrade product key does NOT work (am following the winsupersite tutorial link u posted earlier).

At this point, it states that I have 2 options left. Option 1 being the non microsoft supported registry hack (seems straightforward enough), option 2 being the double install option. As option 2 suggests that I would have to reinstall vista all over again and essentially be back at square one, I really don't fancy that way around. I am determined to have my system running as adroitly as possible from here on. And after everything you guys have stated I can assume that re-installing vista is going to be detrimental to that goal.

So this leaves me with the registry hack option. Although it does say that it has "100% success rate", it also states that it may (albeit unlikely), cause complications thereafter. Do you have any idea what kind of complications could potentially arise? It's important to me because as you may have guessed, I am merely a pupil when it comes to anything beyond the regular handling of a P.C. I don't want to get myself in a situation that will be arduous to put right.

Thanks for reading.

Liv

 

[electrotune1200]

Call Microsoft support. Explain to them your situation, and they should be able to activate your key.

 

[livichops]

will they activate my copy even though it's just an upgrade version without vista underneath?

 

[electrotune1200]

Yes...

Explain you were having poor performance with 7 upgraded over Vista and you decided to do a clean install.

Microsoft licensing support are pretty reasonable to deal with.

 

[livichops]

thanks..
i'm going to call them right now

 

[CarlTR6]

Check this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18715-activate-windows-7-phone.html?ltr=A

 

[livichops]

Called microsoft and they absolutely refused to give a new product key that will work. They also told me it was IMPOSSIBLE to get an upgrade version to work on a clean HD. Not very helpful 'support' .
Should I use the registry hack are does anyone know what the potential problems may be?

Thanks again

 

[electrotune1200]

I really don't understand why Microsoft wasn't any more helpful than that.

Maybe try calling again and getting someone different on the line.