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    Studio XPS 1640 Windows 7 Upgrade questions

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by largefarva, Nov 17, 2009.

  1. largefarva

    largefarva Notebook Consultant

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    For those of you that have a 1640 and have upgraded from Vista to 7, how long did the install take you? And my second question is...did you run into any complications with the upgrade process that I should be aware of before I start it on my wife's laptop?
     
    largefarva, Nov 17, 2009
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  2. logitek256

    logitek256 Newbie

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    hello largefarva

    i jsut did it yesterday....well it all depends...will u do a clean install or an upgrade??

    upgrade was pretty quick and everything kept working fine.... had some intel driver that i couldn't remove and wanted to remove the restore function on the other boot drive... so i decided to do a clean install..

    i was stupid and formatted even the OEM section and now i cannot have access to the DELL DOWNLOADS software section...

    so make sure u download the fastaccess software and any other software u need before running the upgrade...

    as for the rest...everything seems to work ok....

    had one problem with google at first which i have now solved

    and a problem with a kensington mouse..
     
    logitek256, Nov 17, 2009
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  3. logitek256

    logitek256 Newbie

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    see above :)
     
    logitek256, Nov 17, 2009
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  4. Hayde

    Hayde Notebook Guru

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    Hmm that's odd, I removed my OEM partition as well on my reformat (given it's a 1645, but the models are identical and shouldn't matter too much) but it didn't affect my ability to go to Dell Downloads? When I went to their site, I just chose my model and it allowed me to log on.
     
    Hayde, Nov 17, 2009
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  5. chewyeong90

    chewyeong90 Notebook Evangelist

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    It will take like 2 hours and so. Probably 3 hours. Not much complications though. Just had to grab a couple of drivers from Dell site (Ricoh Memory Card, Quickset..) besides that, Windows Update took care of it.
     
    chewyeong90, Nov 17, 2009
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  6. largefarva

    largefarva Notebook Consultant

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    Ok thanks guys. I'll just be doing the upgrade...not a clean install since all we have is the upgrade disk from Dell. So three hours....that's quicker than the rumors of 20+ hours that were out there right before the release of 7. But still....even 3 hours seems like it would be too long. lol I've never had an OS install take that long. lol
     
    largefarva, Nov 17, 2009
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  7. Illegal Operation

    Illegal Operation Notebook Evangelist

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    I did a clean install on mine out of the box and it took maybe 20 minutes or so. It was surprisingly fast. Windows 7 is really good about finding most of the drivers you require. Any that were not found, I actually got from the driver disk that came with the system. Most vista drivers will work with 7.

    If you do have problems accessing the my downloads as someone else mentioned, it could be because of the Internet explorer 8. I had to run in compatibility mode to get mine to work properly.
     
    Illegal Operation, Nov 17, 2009
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  8. spud387

    spud387 Notebook Guru

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    Some confirmation needed here, the Dell Windows 7 disk that Dell gives us can't do a clean install? It can only upgrade Vista to 7?
     
    spud387, Nov 20, 2009
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  9. tahitisand

    tahitisand Notebook Enthusiast

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    tahitisand, Nov 20, 2009
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  10. chewyeong90

    chewyeong90 Notebook Evangelist

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    It will do a clean install, at the same time keeping your old stuff in a folder in C called Windows.old
     
    chewyeong90, Nov 21, 2009
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  11. entrance002

    entrance002 Notebook Consultant

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    I haven't upgraded yet (gonna do it winter break after semester ends), but does it not allow you to format the drive first before clean-installing? Thanks. =)
     
    entrance002, Nov 21, 2009
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  12. eblock12

    eblock12 Notebook Consultant

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    It does, you can even repartition it during setup.
     
    eblock12, Nov 22, 2009
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  13. spud387

    spud387 Notebook Guru

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    This is what I am hoping it can/will do:
    Clean install Win7 onto the laptop so that I have a clean Windows7 installed and a Windows7 recovery partition on my hard drive

    I am correct in that this is what it will do?
     
    spud387, Nov 23, 2009
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  14. entrance002

    entrance002 Notebook Consultant

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    Someone correct me on this, but using the Upgrade DVD from Dell to do a clean install DOES NOT update the Recovery Partition to Win7 if you originally had Vista...
     
    entrance002, Nov 23, 2009
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  15. tahitisand

    tahitisand Notebook Enthusiast

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    You are correct. The recovery partition will remain unchanged, unless of course, you delete it. You can however, burn a Windows 7 repair disk and back up your Win 7 system files once you have it installed.

    Hope this helps.
     
    tahitisand, Nov 24, 2009
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  16. spud387

    spud387 Notebook Guru

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    So essentially by using the Win7 disk, my Vista recovery partition becomes useless?
     
    spud387, Nov 24, 2009
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  17. fred2028

    fred2028 Sexy member

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    Took me under 30 minutes each of the 200x I did it. Clean install each time.

    And no, no complications. I just mounted my ISO/popped in the disc, and followed the on-screen instructions.
     
    fred2028, Nov 24, 2009
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  18. fred2028

    fred2028 Sexy member

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    If you have a Dell drivers disc then it's useless.
     
    fred2028, Nov 24, 2009
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