Need help with Windows 7 install on SZ

Hi-

I'm looking to install Windows 7 (32 bit) on an SZ360. I did some searching around here and there seem to be several instruction guides created by people on this site. The problem is, I'm not sure the best one to use for my particular computer model. Can someone with a little more familiarity with this please point me in the right direction.

Also, my copy of windows 7 says 32-bit x86 upgrade: Pre-existing OS License Required. I do have a pre-existing license, but can i reformat my drive and do a fresh install of the OS or do I need to install it on top of my current OS (XP)?

Thank you!!

 

You should able to upgrade from Win7 to XP just fine, Window 7 32bit should work fine unless you have more than 4gig of ram then u'll need 64bit to able to use all those ram.

 

Your model only supports 2gigs of ram.
Therefore, pass on 64bit, it is of no benefit to you (see the last paragraph for why).

Upgrading XP to Win7 will work, HOWEVER, it doesn't actually upgrade, it takes all of your old files and dumps them into a backup folder called windows.old. This leaves you with a fresh Windows install as if you installed on a blank drive but with a way to restore to XP. This means you will need to re-install all of your programs from before and possibly pull all of your old documents out of the windows.old folder as well.


Installing Win7 32bit is simple and straightforward. Let windows find all of the drivers itself (see my guide in my signature), then use the original Vista utilities. DO NOT use Sony Win7 drivers, you will end up with a crippled machine.


32bit allows for about 3.2gigs of ram, while 64bit uses all 4, it requires more memory to run, so much that in the end, it will run about the same speed. You really need 5-6gigs for 64bit to become faster in most cases. Also, in order to install 64bit from 32, you have to wipe the drive, you cannot upgrade from 32 to 64bit as the file table has to be replaced.

 

Great! Thanks for the advice!