upgrade question, don't have vista disc

1) my HP laptop didn't come with a vista disc. do i need it to upgrade to win7?

2) what happens if i need to reinstall win7 or get a new hdd? do i have to install vista first? and how would i do that if i don't have a disc?

3) i have truecrypt. do i need to uninstall that before upgrading?

thanks.

 

was just about to make a thread about this also.

 

If you have a pre 26.Jun.09 notebook, I would not be bothered with it. Vista up to date on previous comp would perform just fine.

The upgrade disk, as I understand, would allow you to perform a clean install, as long as you have the appropriate Vista official license.

Not sure about this part. I would say yes to allow access to every single aspect of the pre-installed OS.

cheers ...

 

Yeah, vista performs fine. i just hear so many good things about win7. if it would make my notebook a snappier, then it would be worth it. $50 is not terribly a lot.

i'm assuming i have an official license because it came from HP. technically i should be good to go.

 

so if i buy a new hdd, i dont have to install vista on it to upgrade i only need the key?

 

I've been told is all you need is a Vista DVD as proof of Vista ownership.

 

what about if i installed Windows 7 on my Dell then a year later i'd buy a new laptop, will i able to install Windows 7 on the new laptop with the old windows 7 disc?

 

We might be touching on the OEM licensing here. I am not sure if MS would consider upgrading an OEM license as an "after" OEM. If this is the case, the OEM license will go where the notebook goes - aka NO transfer.

cheers ...

 

wat do you mean by ''upgrade'' is it something that they can do it by itself or do i have to buy the patch that is not OEM licensing?

 

You do not need any patch to upgrade your Vista installation. What I was referring to is that I am not sure that after the move to W7, this license is being considered OEM W7. If it is, then you cannot transfer this to another comp.

cheers ...

 

The problem with that is that anyone can get/borrow a vista DVD. It does not prove anything as far as licensing is concerned which is why this method was removed in Vista. It used to be that way with XP Upgrade but MSFT changed it with Vista's arrival for the reason I mentioned above.

The only way to clean install Vista using an Upgrade Key is to install Vista first, clean install without entering any keys (preview mode - valid for 30 days) and then right after the install, you then run the Vista installer from within the just installed Vista preview, only this time when it asks for a Key you enter the Upgrade Key - in essence this is done by installing Vista twice, back to back, first clean install then an upgrade install.

Now this is a loophole as it was never sanctioned or endorsed by MSFT. My guess is that they'd remove this loophole from 7 Upgrade but no one really knows since we're not even RTM yet and the final disk/images for the Upgrade process haven't even started production yet. So, again, no one really knows.

I would caution against people saying that you can do a clean install with 7 Upgrade because there's a very good chance that you won't be able to.

 

You can do a clean install with the upgrade media.
MS link (scroll to the end of the page)
http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Windows-7/category/102?WT.mc_id=winonline_win7promo

 

That's the first official info regarding clean install using Upgrade keys that I've seen. Thanks.

I think this might cannibalize sales of the non-upgrade version.

 

awesome. that answers 1 and 2. now i just need to know 3. i guess the safe route would be to uninstall.

i think i read that the vista upgrade to win7 is pretty smooth. is that true? i don't want to go through the hassle of finding the right drivers for my laptop... or should I not worry about that.

 

Yes, I'd say smart thing is do an decrypt/uninstall. I had to decrypt my BitLocker drive when I did a clean-install of Win7 RC so I figure it'd be smartest to do similar with TrueCrypt.

 

Yes, but....indications are that the W7 upgrade disk will check for a valid prior version (XP or Vista) before proceeding with the "clean" install.

 

There are so many un-answered questions on this that it kinda makes me wonder why MSFT is being so cryptic about the whole thing.

For one, if you do a clean install using the upgrade key, what happens the next time you need a clean install? Do you have to reinstall XP/Vista first? If that's the case then that would suck IMO.

 

The ad says " Running earlier versions? If you have Windows XP or Windows 2000, you can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade versions. But you must back up your files, clean install, and reinstall your applications."
It does not say that the operating system has to be in the computer
But is clear that you can not upgrade from within XP or 2000, you most do a clean install to upgrade from these operating systems.

 

Exactly. The source of all the confusion is from what they're not saying. It would be nice if you just have to enter the previous version's key and clean install but we'll have to wait and see how they implement it.

It would royally suck if you have to reinstall a previous version first.

 

According to:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com.../7d5552ab-530a-4885-8add-af68bc1903e8?lc=1033

You need to reinstall vista/xp if you want to do a clean reinstall of windows 7.

 

Don't think Microsoft cares. They're making a profit even off the lowest priced pre-order upgrade prices.

I think I may go ahead and pre-order a professional upgrade. Looking at the features list home seems to be lacking a little for my tastes but ultimates offering doesnt really seem to warrant the extra cost to me either.

The random speed lockups with vista are getting a little annoying. Generally it's not that bad but time to time the performance just halts.

 

Just make another partition for Windows 7, so that your old files will be not deleted. You can still use vista..