XP to Win7 for a Beginner

[RogerC]

I am very uncertain when it come to clean-installs. So I have decided that
for the moment I will keep my XP.

But that is not to say that I may have to bite the bullet at some time in
the future and install Win7. Which brings me, rather tediously, to my
questions.

Please bear with me.

I have 3 partitions on my HD. Approx. C: 35GB, D: 25GB, E: 10GB.

XP SP3, AMD Sempron 1.66GHz, 1.5GB RAM.

I have tried to keep my C: just for operating. With the exception of Quicken
2000 all my other programs and files relating to them are on my D: and E:.

Should I install Win7 is it possible to install onto the C: partition or
must the entire HD be reformatted? If I do clean install Win7 onto my C:
only, will it affect the information data on D: and E:? Can I then restart my
programs from my D: as I do now?

I have had Windows from 95, upgrading over the years to XP. Will I need any
of these discs as my original is 95 and the others upgrades?

And finally! I had thought that when installing is inevitable I would
install the 32 bit as I am not into gaming or CAD etc.

Any thoughts or hand-holding will be appreciated.

 

[R. McCarty]

Your secondary partitions that hold apps won't run under Seven. All
apps install dependant components in the Windows volume which will
not be present while running Seven.

Actually your specs are a little on the low side for Seven. Specifically
disk space. I would probably not even attempt Seven on this setup.
With the cost of hardware today, you could buy a replacement desktop
for less than $325 with Seven pre-installed.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Friday, September 18, 2009 5:26:03 AM, and on a
whim, RogerC pounded out on the keyboard:

I am very uncertain when it come to clean-installs. So I have decided that
for the moment I will keep my XP.

But that is not to say that I may have to bite the bullet at some time in
the future and install Win7. Which brings me, rather tediously, to my
questions.

Please bear with me.

I have 3 partitions on my HD. Approx. C: 35GB, D: 25GB, E: 10GB.

XP SP3, AMD Sempron 1.66GHz, 1.5GB RAM.

I have tried to keep my C: just for operating. With the exception of Quicken
2000 all my other programs and files relating to them are on my D: and E:.

Should I install Win7 is it possible to install onto the C: partition or
must the entire HD be reformatted? If I do clean install Win7 onto my C:
only, will it affect the information data on D: and E:? Can I then restart my
programs from my D: as I do now?

I have had Windows from 95, upgrading over the years to XP. Will I need any
of these discs as my original is 95 and the others upgrades?

And finally! I had thought that when installing is inevitable I would
install the 32 bit as I am not into gaming or CAD etc.

Any thoughts or hand-holding will be appreciated.

Hi Roger,

You can't install Win7 "on to" XP. You can create a new partition or
overwrite the old XP install. Looks like you need more disk space
anyway, so you might want to add a new drive and install Win7 to it.

I have 6 OS's on this workstation, and I keep my data on a D: drive and
install all my programs to an E: drive (onto 3 hard drives). When I
installed Win7, I just pointed the program installations to the E:
drive, in the same location of the same programs, just so the registry
and files that need to be in Win7 can get installed. And yet I only
have one program install for all the OS's (which all point to E, which
keeps the OS partition size down considerably.

So I would suggest adding a new hard drive to install Win7. Just make
sure you have a current and "verified" copy of all your data, which you
should have anyway.

Good luck,



Terry R.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am very uncertain when it come to clean-installs. So I have decided that
for the moment I will keep my XP.

But that is not to say that I may have to bite the bullet at some time in
the future and install Win7. Which brings me, rather tediously, to my
questions.

Please bear with me.

OK, I'll provide some information and ask you some questions. See
below.

I have 3 partitions on my HD. Approx. C: 35GB, D: 25GB, E: 10GB.

Why do you have three partitions, and how is each of the three used?

XP SP3, AMD Sempron 1.66GHz, 1.5GB RAM.

I have tried to keep my C: just for operating.

You mean operating *system*? Windows?

With the exception of Quicken
2000 all my other programs and files relating to them are on my D: and E:.

Why did you do this? Most people who install their programs on a
different partition from Windows do so because they think that if
something happens to Windows and they ever have to reinstall it, at
least they won't have to reinstall their programs.

If you are one of those people, I'm sorry to tell you that you are
wrong. There's almost never any advantage to separating installed
programs from the operating system. If Windows gets reinstalled all
the many references to almost all your programs, in the registry and
elsewhere within \Windows will be lost, and the programs will cease to
work.

Except for those dual-booting, it's almost always best to have no more
than two partitions.

Read my thoughts on partitioning at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

Should I install Win7 is it possible to install onto the C: partition or
must the entire HD be reformatted?

You're talking about a clean installation? No, you don't need to
format any part but C:.

If I do clean install Win7 onto my C:
only, will it affect the information data on D: and E:?

Data? No, if you do it correctly, the data should remain. But the
programs will be useless.

Also bear in mind that problems can occur, so it's always wise to
first take the prudent step of backing up any data you can't afford to
lose.

Can I then restart my
programs from my D: as I do now?

No! See above.

I have had Windows from 95, upgrading over the years to XP. Will I need any
of these discs as my original is 95 and the others upgrades?

No. And you can't upgrade from XP to Windows 7. You'll need to do a
clean installation (or instead upgrade to Vista and *then* to Windows
7--expensive and hardly ever a good choice).

And finally! I had thought that when installing is inevitable I would
install the 32 bit as I am not into gaming or CAD etc.

Your choice, but as far as I'm concerned, whether you are "into gaming
or CAD etc." is irrelevant. Here's my standard message on 64-bit
Windows:

The advantage of running a 64-bit version of Windows basically exists
only if you also run 64-bit applications under it. Bear in mind that
there are very few such applications available yet. If you are
presently running 32-bit Windows, you don't have any 64-bit
applications, so to achieve any advantage, you not only have to
replace Windows, but also your applications, *if* (and that's a big
"if") 64-bit versions exist.

Also note that you will need 64-bit drivers for all your hardware.
Those drivers may not all be available, especially if some of your
hardware is a few years old. So it's possible that you might also have
to replace things like your printer, scanner, etc.

So the answer to your question is that it may not be a great idea
right now. That will undoubtedly change in the near future, but for
now, 64-bit Windows mostly means some extra trouble and expense for
little or no benefit.

On the other hand, installing 64-bit Windows instead of 32-bit Windows
makes you able to buy 64-bit software as it becomes available, instead
of the older 32-bit versions. That means that installing 64-bit
Windows--even though it may do very little for you at present--puts
you into a better position for the future.

One additional point: the 64-bit version lets you use more than the
approximately 3.1GB of RAM that the 32-bit version can use. Very few
people need or can make effective use of more than 3.1GB, but if you
are one of them, that's something else to consider.