# Upgrading from XP to Win7 does it go smoothly?



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

There has been some banter around work that they may upgrade to win7 and that got me thinking, What hurdles does one need to go through in order to upgrade from XP is it as painless as it was upgrading from Vista?


----------



## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

It really depends on the hardware of each machine. If their are Windows 7 drivers available for all of your hardware and devices then the upgrade should be smooth. 

Matt


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Thats my fear (I would like to upgrade my home PC), I have a SCSI controller and an older ATI all in wonder 8500 graphics card But the Dell is 64bit compatible.


----------



## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

Just look on each SCSI card and video card website for windows 7 64bit drivers or....
What you could do is install windows 7 in vmware (the free version) to make sure it works with your hardware or buy a second hard drive and install it on that.


Matt


----------



## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

It does not look as though your video card is supported in Windows 7.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

So you would have to buy a new video card. 

Matt


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I guess I would be better off just staying the way it is with XP. I dont have any space on the SATA controller for another drive as all three that I have are already in use so not able to duel boot.
I like win 7 allot as our laptop has it installed and its great to use.


----------



## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

You could put windows 7 on your xp machine using vmware. That would be pretty trick.  

Matt


----------



## recruit (May 9, 2009)

I upgraded to Windows 7 and it was a painless experience and they seem to always be offering updates oh and my PC boots up very quickly although I went from Vista 64bit > W7


----------



## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Windows 7 is worth the upgrade if you can do it. It's just a lot better than any windows before it for stability.


----------



## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

tonyvdb said:


> Thats my fear (I would like to upgrade my home PC), I have a SCSI controller and an older ATI all in wonder 8500 graphics card But the Dell is 64bit compatible.



Personally, I would first experiment with a dual boot configuration and see how well that goes. 

Which SCSI controller do you use?


----------



## myoda (Jul 17, 2009)

8086 said:


> Personally, I would first experiment with a dual boot configuration and see how well that goes.
> 
> Which SCSI controller do you use?


I'm dual booting with a Asus P4P 800E Deluxe. Has an onboard Promise SATA controller that Windows 7 does not support, but I found some drivers for the controller that work with 7. Not setup in a raid configuration, just IDE. Can't remember the last time I booted to XP.


----------



## zryder (Apr 13, 2009)

The one thing I always suggest is rather than "upgrading", make sure you do a complete re-install. I have always found better results by copying whatever important data to a backup source, and starting fresh.


----------



## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

zryder said:


> The one thing I always suggest is rather than "upgrading", make sure you do a complete re-install. I have always found better results by copying whatever important data to a backup source, and starting fresh.


Dual booting accomplishes pretty much the same thing. Except you can still use your old XP install should something in Windows 7 not work properly.


----------



## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

myoda said:


> I'm dual booting with a Asus P4P 800E Deluxe. Has an onboard Promise SATA controller that Windows 7 does not support, but I found some drivers for the controller that work with 7. Not setup in a raid configuration, just IDE. Can't remember the last time I booted to XP.


One thing I have found is that a lot of manufacturers are not posting Windows7 drivers on their site because Win7 already ships with a large library of drivers for legacy devices. Chances are good that Promise hasn't posted a driver on the web for 7 because it's already on your Installation Disc or Hard Drive.


----------



## MixxMaster (Jun 25, 2008)

going from XP to 7 required me to do a clean install (I prefer that anyway, less possibilities of errors/config issues). It was the fastest install of an OS I've done, and I didn't need to install a single driver. Everything actually runs smoother and faster, overall. So far, thumbs up!


----------



## recruit (May 9, 2009)

MixxMaster said:


> going from XP to 7 required me to do a clean install (I prefer that anyway, less possibilities of errors/config issues). It was the fastest install of an OS I've done, and I didn't need to install a single driver. Everything actually runs smoother and faster, overall. So far, thumbs up!


I did the upgrade option as I just have too much data to backup on my HTPC and it still runs fast but would love to see it running on a clean PC without all the clutter, I bet it would fly though :bigsmile:


----------



## cfelliot (Jan 15, 2010)

1) Run the Windows Upgrade advisor available on the MS Site. This will check both your hardware and running software for compatibility with Win 7.

2) There is no real in-place upgrade from XP to 7. The upgrade installation verifies that you currently have XP installed, but after it is done your old windows and program file folders will be renamed and you must re-install all programs. Everything else may be trashed - backup first!


----------



## dougsmith (Aug 21, 2008)

Win7 is a definite improvement from XP I think, although some things are different and take a bit of getting used to. I went from XP to Win7 by doing a clean install on a second drive (there is no direct upgrade path). That made it easy to transfer documents and application data from the old install (it might also be a good opportunity to upgrade your C drive), and it also got rid of the excess clutter (programs that I really didn't use anymore). As others mentioned, you will have to reinstall all the programs you do use, though. So plan for a week or so of inconvenience until you get everything moved over the way you like it. After that it's smooth sailing.


----------



## Jusbegood (Dec 24, 2006)

Whatever software programs you have on Windows XP is moot, you need to go to apps help file, and ask if there is any compatibility problem upgrading to Windows 7. 9 out 10 applications you have on your hardisk drive will be incompatible.


----------



## dougsmith (Aug 21, 2008)

Many programs will run without problems (as long as you use the 32 bit version). But yes, you will need to get updates from some vendors to enable proper operation under Win7 and you will probably need new drivers for certain things as well.


----------



## Senn20 (Jan 5, 2009)

recruit said:


> I did the upgrade option as I just have too much data to backup on my HTPC and it still runs fast but would love to see it running on a clean PC without all the clutter, I bet it would fly though :bigsmile:


In the future you might want to consider using separate partitions (if not drives) for operating system files and media. This way you can wipe the OS drive and re-install without having to worry about backing up anything. I've been doing this since the Windows 95 days and it makes things _so_ much easier. 

The only consideration here is making sure you create a partition large enough for your OS drive to expand. As large as drives are these days though it's pretty easy to give yourself some breathing room there.


----------

