I'm having nightmares about losing everything important to me on my hard drive, or having to re-install EVERYTHING in steam. Before I pull the trigger on this tomorrow, what's the procedure I should follow? I have the HDD space on an external drive, how should I utilize it?
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Upgrading WinVista 64 to Win7 Pro 64 - What's important before starting?
- Thread starter zleuth
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GushpinBob
2[H]4U
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I usually just utilize the Windows Easy Transfer tool to dump all of my documents, settings, and personal stuff on an external drive, then recover it all after the upgrade or re-install. Prior to the actual Windows installation process, I take note of what software I have installed (Belarc Adviser is a good app for finding installed software and some minimal keyfinding) and revoke authorization/activation from any software that requires it e.g. iTunes and many games that use SecuROM. For Steam games, I just copy the steamapps folder over to the external drive then copy them back once I have Windows and Steam reinstalled (just be sure to remember your User ID and password for Steam if you regularly use auto-login). Lastly, I download the latest drivers for network and video so I can get my computer up and running with a fresh install of Windows.
Now if you're really paranoid, do that stuff above and make a verified image of your hard drive. If you have a Western Digital or Seagate drive (even if it's your external drive) then you'll be able to aquire a basic version of Acronis TrueImage for free from either of the manufacturer's sites (NOTE: the Seagate version is rebranded as DiscWizard, though it retains the same functionality). Great for those OH SHI- moments when you realized you didn't back up a file for program xyz because it uses it's own program directory for saving files (A lot of programs and games from the late 90s do this and it irritates me to no end).
Now if you're really paranoid, do that stuff above and make a verified image of your hard drive. If you have a Western Digital or Seagate drive (even if it's your external drive) then you'll be able to aquire a basic version of Acronis TrueImage for free from either of the manufacturer's sites (NOTE: the Seagate version is rebranded as DiscWizard, though it retains the same functionality). Great for those OH SHI- moments when you realized you didn't back up a file for program xyz because it uses it's own program directory for saving files (A lot of programs and games from the late 90s do this and it irritates me to no end).
MrGuvernment
Fully [H]
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you can copy your steam folder anywhere you want and it will run, just move it to another drive, partition.
i suggest, dont upgrade, fresh install.
i suggest, dont upgrade, fresh install.
You can still do a fresh install with the media. Just put the disk in format the drive, install, and activate. As long as setup can see that vista was on the drive before it will count it as an upgrade install. There's a good guide on it here.
You just made my weekend!
grss1982cvg
Limp Gawd
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- Feb 10, 2010
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When you do an upgrade do the following:
1) backup your data. Two things happen when an upgrade fails: (1) reverts back to Vista or (2) you end up with a computer that cannot boot and will be force to do a clean install.
2) Run the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor and if tells you to uninstall some stuff DO IT.
3) Clean boot (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796)
4) In extreme cases you might actually need to uninstall the anti-virus application and not just disable it. I've seen this countless of times happen with specific anti-virus applications wherein they are disabled the upgrade fails to push through. However, when you uninstall the av application the upgrade proceeds without any problems.
5) Another extreme measure to take is to create a new administrator account in Windows Vista and then do steps 2 through 4 above and start the upgrade from that account.
Since it's the student version, I assume you did not get a disk. If that's the case download the appropriate ISO from this link (http://techpp.com/2009/11/11/download-windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links/) so that you'll have your very own Windows 7 installation DVD.
That was already posted in post #5.