Upgrading from Vista to 7, fresh instal, will i need to back up my data?

Sorry if this is a repost, but kinda need to sort this out tonight. I currently have 32bit vista running on a 2GHz duel core and 4GB RAM. I now have Windows 7 and thinking of installing the 64bit version, am i right in thinking this will require a fresh install? If so, will i need to back up my data to start with? My OS is on partition C while my data is on partition D.

I know that with and upgrade install you dont have to, and all your data and apps are retained.

Also, is it worth me installing the 64bit OS?

Many thanks

 

If all of your data files are on your D: drive then you'll be fine. When you install Windows 7, simply delete your C: partition and create a new one. Your D: drive should stay intact.

It's worth it to install a 64-bit OS if you are using 4GB of memory or more. Don't worry about drivers as most companies are releasing drivers for both versions.

 

ok cheers mate, to start a fresh install, do i put the CD in while in Vista, or do i need to boot from the windows 7 64 bit CD?

 

How do you make a new partition?

 

make sure you save your emails that are most likely on your c drive.

and it depends which version you have... an upgrade version must be launched from vista but if its a full copy then either is fine but seeing as you have vista i guess its an upgrade copy...

 

there r two ways u can either use disk managment feature and shrink existing disk volume and create new partitions
or
u can use a bootable disk and format the hard disk or any partition and then repartition it accordingly
ipersonally like the second way as it allows u to create partitions with ur choice of size

 

emails, contacts , bookmarks are stored on the C:/ drive i.e. windows drive back them up , or u can backup the folder called users it will backup ur emails, contacts , programs settings that may work afterwards.
if u have 2 partitions u don't need to create a new partition ,

 

Even after clean install, 7 creates 'Windows.old' folder which should contain all your files from the old C: partition. At least that's what I found and I was able to retrieve saved MSN conversations and such.

 

Are you sure? Because I have no way of backing up my files at the moment and I want to clean install.

 

Yes, when you do a clean install it askes (if you have two or more partitions) which partition you want to install into. You can either choose to format it which is a real clean install, or choose to put old files into a Windows.old folder which you can access later. I was surprised myself, I backed-up about 40gb worth onto DVD's but it was just a waste haha. Not saying you should go ahead, I'd say create an image of your OS partition into your other partition just in-case. hope this helps!

sweetStyles~

 

What if you only have one partition?

 

I just want to share this information. I did an update from Vista 64 home premium to Windows 7 home premium. Not only was it slower to install, but the system seemed sluggish compared to a laptop that I clean installed Windows 7. The upgrade system was an i7 desktop....so....my recommendation is back up your data and do a clean install to get the most out of the OS.

I did that for the i7 system and nows its running like a speed demon.

 

Even with one partition, if you choose to put your old OS files into the a windows.old folder then you can choose to do so~

 

So it'll take everything currently in my one partition, and place them in one folder? Correct?

 

A clean install will format the partition you're installing on. This means ALL files and programs will be lost!

Back up any important documents/files to a separate partition or to an external medium.

 

Although upgrading and so forth should work fine without having to back up your files and normally does work fine, IMHO it's pretty foolish to voluntarily take that risk.

My advise is either wait until you're where you can back up your system, or buy/borrow an inexpensive external drive. With 160-200GB external 2.5" drives selling for ~$50 there's really no excuse not to back up your important stuff.

 

Not necessarily the case in Windows 7. With the Win7, there are two varieties of "clean install". If you tell it to format the partition it will do so, but otherwise the clean install moves everything to a \Windows.old folder and installs a fresh OS.

Now this is speaking from my experience installing Win7. Have you installed Win7 yet and know this for a fact that they've changed this, or are you guessing?

Regardless, the advise to back up your stuff is spot on. Any sort of operating system install without doing a backup of your files is foolish IMHO.

 

I did an upgrade from Vista 32 Ultimate to Win7 32 Ultimate and it worked great. Machine runs a few degrees cooler, no sluggishness at all, nice and speedy and I recovered over 6gb in the process. I know that some folks like yourself are not have as smooth a transition, but I am recommending folks first TRY an inplace upgrade. If it doesn't go as smooth as mine did, then revert to a clean install.

An inplace upgrade is a lot less time consuming, especially if, like me, you have lots of applications that would otherwise need to be reinstalled and configured. I was looking at several days to accomplish that versus the couple of hours it took to do the upgrade.

Because the architecture of Win7 and Vista are so similar, I approached this as more of a service pack than a new OS. In the past I have ALWAYS done a clean install. But this time the results, for me at least, have been excellent.

Gary

 

Can I get an "amen", brothers and sisters? My data (all of it including Outlook files) are on a separate partition and backed up to an external drive. So I had no worries when applying the Win7 upgrade.

Gary

 

go to contol panel ,administrator tools ,computer managment ,disk management
u will see the partition there and right click on it select shrink volume and this will help create a new partition on your hard drive format this partition and then install new copy of win7 on this partition.ur data on old partition will remanin saved after installation u can transfer ur data to this new partition and format the older one.
u can further create more partitions also on drive using disk managment.

 

I'm sorry, but anyone who questions taking the time to back-up their data deserves to once in their life lose it; a lesson learned the hard way.