Should i do a clean WINDOWS 7 install or just upgrade?

1. If i do a Windows 7 clean install will this delete the vista recovery partition on my hard drive as well as my music and files and games i have installed?
2. If i choose not to do a winodws 7 clean install and just the upgrade option will I have to uninstall all asus VISTA drivers programs and install asus WINDOWS 7 drivers?
3. If I do a clean WINDOWS 7 install, all I have to do after this is just install asus WINDOWS 7 drivers and do not have to uninstall VISTA driver programs.

 

anyone can help me with this?

 

1. The recovery partition should be fine as long as you don't use advanced install and select to delete it. The rest of you data will be lost. You would need to backup everything and reinstall all your programs and then restore any music, videos or documents.

2. Since I did not upgrade my vista partition I'm not sure how well the upgrade will proceed. Generally I've had mixed success upgrading Windows. Windows 7 will install some new drivers but many of the Vista drivers will still work.

3. As mentioned above, a clean install will wipe everything, you will need ASUS Windows 7 drivers once the install is complete to get all the features of your laptop working again. Since this wipes your Vista partition, you will not have any Vista programs/drivers to remove.

If I have time this weekend perhaps I'll clone my Vista drive and run the upgrade just to see how it works.

Cheers,

 

thankyou, anyone else?

 

Never had good luck upgrading OS's. Best way to go IMHO is a clan install. Wipe everything and restart from scrach. There is always something left over from the old OS, and even if Vista and Windows 7 are pretty similar OS's still I don't completely trust an upgrade.
Now, unless you want to go back to vista some day, I suggest to wipe the recovery partition and gain some hard drive space back.
Use an external hard rive and backup all of your data. If you have saved games, backup your save folders, so you can keep going from whatever you left. Save the browser favorites and your e-mail contacts and folders as well, and what else you think is important.
Going this route will be a longer process because you have to reinstall all the drivers, programs, games, settings, ect., but you will have a nice and clean system.

And that is just the way I think... never did an OS upgrade since DOS 3.3.

 

I'm also thinking of whether should I upgrade/ clean install.

But Im more tempted to do a clean install to keep performance at the highest, however there is one issue. I have for example an anitivirus installed on Vista and would like to somehow "copy" that software onto my new clean Win 7. I cant install it because there is only 1 CD-key. Anyone know how to do that?

 

You should be able to find a copy of that CD key using a keyfinder program and reinstall it to the new OS without any difficulties. What AV is it?

 

Most software companies will help you reinstall once you certify it's been removed from the prior system/install. Just contact them and explain what u need.

Cheers,

 

I have the CD key, but Im guessing that when I'll try to install, it will give me a message cd-key already in use. The AV is NOD32 Antivirus 4.

I might try that, but how can i prove that the soft has been removed?

 

That could probably happen if you try to install the same program with the same key in two different computers, but you're not.
There will be only one key, the one you have, no matter if you keep reinstalling the same program with the same key over and over. What it counts is the fact that their system will only show one key.
I don't think AV programs are like OEM OS's where the key is somehow tied to the specific hardware where it was installed the first time. Plus... you are installing it in the same machine/hardware.

 

anyone else?

 

1. IDK
2. After you upgrade to win7, use the asus driver disc. If you do not have the asus driver disc, WINDOWS UPDATE.
3.

 

The first thing I did when I got my laptop w/ WinVista was to remove all the asus partitions, format and reinstall with Win7 Ultimate x64.

If you have stuff that you need to back up I'd suggest buying an external usb hdd and backing it up. Its a good investment, in general. If you want to invest in an online backup try carbonite (unlimited storage for $$ per year).

Re-installing software is really not that big a deal as most of the hardware is natively supported in Win7 and you just need to go to the asus support site to download the drivers and software for Win7 that you need. You can just burn a cd with that software once you download it for future use.

As far as existing software, like av, goes, as long as the hardware is "mostly" the same and you name your machine the same thing when you re-install with Win7, your licenses should just continue to work. Most software has some wiggle room for re-installs and minor hardware modification. I have never had an issue with this.

 

I found this guide on installing Windows.

I know that a clean install would give the best performance, but there is an option where you install Win7 but you keep the old files (C:\windows.old). They call it "Custom installation" method.
Would there be any degradation in performace installing Win7 using the "Custom install" method compared to the clean install?