Using Windows 7 Upgrade On New Build With OLD Hard Drive
Jan 4, 2012
So I'm building a new computer completely from scratch, save for the hard drive, which I'm recycling from my old system. The hard drive currently has Windows XP installed.
My question is, can I upgrade the system with this? [URL]
Also, I plan to eventually buy a new hard drive. This presents a dilemma, because at the moment I can only afford the OEM or Upgrade versions of Windows 7. I read an article on PC World that claims there is a way to do a clean installation of Windows 7 using an Upgrade license. Here's the article: [URL]
Anyways, is that method still valid? Have any of you guys heard of it before?
I'm considering buying the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium, but I do not want to make the purchase only to realize later that I can not use it.
Really, I'm just looking for a solution. The only thing keeping me from buying Windows 7 OEM is the installation limits (can only install on one computer per license). When I get my new hard drive, I'd like to be able to use whatever version of Windows 7 that I own on it.
I just built a computer for the first time and for the boot drive i have a ssd. With that i have a hard drive. Now windows finds it in device manager but not in "computer". the Bios finds it too. i re installed the driver and restarted still nothing.
I have not been able to find a straight answer for. Is it legal to buy a pre-built computer store bought and remove the hard drive with windows 7 already on it and put it into a custom built computer? Does it even work? I was wondering because I don't want to pay 200+ dollars for just a hard drive and operating system. kinda ruins the whole idea of a "budget" build.
I have just finished my first build and everything was going fine until I tried to install Windows 7. I got through the first couple menus, then when I get to the part where I have to save the OS in a storage device, it does not detect my hard drive.
Specs:
Gigabyte Intel GA Z77X-U3H Intel core i5 2500k WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA 3 7200 rpm Btw the HDD appears in the Bios.
I am currently running OS 7 Beta RC Build 7100. Were do I get this newer version, is there a big difference? And am I able to upgrade to the newer Beta?
I realize that October is fast approaching for the RTM but I plan to keep running the Beta for a couple of months past the Grand Opening.
Is it possible that all the updates that I have received equally add up to the newer build?
I would like to install Win 7 to a new Hard Drive. I have the Win7 Upgrade CD. I have XP running on an old HD that came with the original PC. how I can do this?
1. My sister has a Dell Dimension 5100 desktop computer with Windows XP from the factory. Can I put the Windows 7 UPGRADE version on a second hard drive in her machine? Is this OK or do I need the 'FULL' version?
2. Is this automatically going to create two options when booting the machine, giving her the options to boot either into XP or W7?
So let me explain my situation. I have a 15 month old laptop, with a dying hard drive. Quite frequently when it spins up, the hard drive makes a horrible buzzing/scraping noise. I decided I will invest the money and replace it for the $100 and get a faster one (7200 rpm).
Here's the catch. I have an upgrade disk on order, and only an OEM backup disk (Vista) to reformat.
Whats the best way to replace the hard disk and use an upgrade media to use 7 on my computer?
My PC's Windows Experience index rating is currently at 5.9 due to my HDD. It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB. Which HDD should I look at to get more performance out of the rig? All the other fields are in the 7.0 to 7.6 range.
i have a retail upgrade version of windows 7 professional x86 am i able to format the hard drive using the disk...i dont want to use it to install windows 7
I did an image backup to move my programs from one hard drive to another, this worked fine. But when i re-sized the partition to give myself extra room in storage, programs stopped working from the ati graphics software to google chrome,etc. also i got the message that my system is low on RAM.
My old hard drive sounds like it is about to die. So I am wondering, once I install my new HD (format and install windows) will it be possible to hook up my old HD and transfer the files from it to the new HD? I am using Windows 7 and both drives would be SATA.
I currently have Win 7 Home 32 bit installed. I will be upgrading my system and using a new Sata hard drive.I would like to install my Win 7 retail upgrade disk [ the 64 bit version ] on the new drive.Can I do this? If so what would be the easiest way to retain all information from my current 32 bit drive?
I have an HP s5-1200z computer with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. I have been reading and trying different things for the last three days trying to upgrade my hard drive. The computer came with a 500GB and I want to use my 1TB instead. The first thing that I did was create a system image and a system repair disc. I then restarted my computer and booted from the system repair disc. I selected my keyboard setup and then received an error stating �This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows�I can not figure out why I am getting this error message. Many post say that it is because 32 bit vs 64 bit. My computer is 64 bit and the repair disc that I made is 64 bit as well. With no luck on upgrading my hdd I decided to take a different approach. I then cloned my 500GB to my 1TB using Easeus Partition Master Home Edition. Everything seems to be on the 1TB HDD it stated it was successful. I then removed the source hdd and installed the 1TB destination hdd, I turned the computer on and received an error "bootmgr is missing press ctrl+alt+delete to reboot." I also spent many more hours researching this problem, I can not find a solution. Many articles say boot from system repair disc and click repair your computer" when I try to do that I still continue to receive the error "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows"I have read that having more than one hdd connected at once can cause boot errors. But I do not believe this is the case because my computer can only hold one hdd.I also downloaded the Windows Home Premium x64 from mydigitallife to try and repair my pc from there only to receive the same error.
I have a bit of a strange question about installing the Windows 7 upgrade. I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. Firstly
1: I currently have Windows XP SP3 Home Edition installed (and activated) on my 160GB WD Caviar Blue hard drive, which has 8MB cache. It's getting a bit full now.
2. This hard drive is one of the few remnants of a Dell machine I bought a few years ago.
Surprisingly, the restore disk still works and activates, even though I've changed the motherboard and a number of other things over the years. My last reinstall was about a year ago, and I had no problems reactivating whatsoever - I didn't even need to phone Microsoft.
However I doubt it'll install and activate on a new hard drive - particularly as I've also changed the DVD drive since my last activation (as the old one broke), literally the only things remaining from the old system would be the RAM and the processor.
2: I have purchased a 500GB WD Caviar Blue with 16MB Cache
3: I intend to buy Windows 7 Pro Upgrade from TheUltimateSteal for £30. I'm a student, but will be graduating soon, so it seems sensible to take advantage of this offer while I can.
4. Clearly I can install Windows 7 in the normal way onto my current drive and use the 500GB drive for backing up my files, which I'll do if that's the only option.
5. However, if I did that I would not be taking full advantage of the extra cache of the new drive. It would be nice if I could use that for my primary installation to speed things up a bit.
So here's my question:
If I start the upgrade process having booted from the 160GB drive, but during installation select my 500GB drive as the target for the installation, will Windows 7 install and activate correctly? Will it recognise the pre-existing installation, even though it was on a different drive?
If not, then:
If I install my Dell restore disk on the new drive, and don't activate Windows (which presumably I won't be able to), and then run the Windows 7 upgrade on THAT drive, will Windows 7 install and activate correctly?
Basically, is there a legitimate way of installing a Windows 7 Upgrade onto the 500GB drive, on the basis of there currently being a valid XP installation on the 160GB drive?
I have no intention of continuing to use XP after the upgrade, if I am able to install and activate Windows 7 to the new drive, then this will serve only as a backup for my files.
Has anybody tried something similar and succeeded/failed?
I've already read the tutorials on here about doing a clean install of Windows 7. I'd like to avoid dodgy workarounds, as I'd rather not run into problems further down the line when it comes to updates and that sort of thing.
I have a couple of questions pertaining to my new pc build that is being shipped to me. I am building a new computer using a Corsair Force GT 120gb SSD as my boot drive and a Seagate Barracuda 1tb drive for files and whatever else.When installing the SSD (my EVGA Z68 SLI has SATA 3) is there anything special I need to do? I assume there isn't, other than just plug it into the SATA 3 port and go. Now, once the computer is up and running, what must I do to get windows to install on it? I have read about changing from IDE to AHCI (not sure if my BIOS will have that or not but I will find out soon). Is there anything else? I also read that changing the boot priority to dvd rom first, SSD second, then the HDD third will help as well. Both drives are brand new so no partitions or anything, clean install. Second part, I bought the upgrade version of Windows 7 professional 64 bit and to install it, can I just pull out my old retail copy of Windows XP and install that first, then once it gets me to the desktop, reboot and do it all over again, this time installing the Windows 7 upgrade over it? In theory, I imagine this is how I would have to do it, but I am not positive so that is why I am inquiring.
I am building a new computer and my old one has windows xp on it. can i use the xp sticker on the old one to upgrade to windows 7 ultimate on the new one? if i use the old hard drive?
I have an HP desktop running windows vista that will soon be passed on to me. If I buy an "Upgrade" version of windows 7, is there a way to completely and totally wipe out the hard drive and upgrade, or would I have to buy the more expensive "full install" version of 7?
I have a dell inspirion 1505. I just upgraded my Ram and my hard drive. My computer came with a 80GB hard drive, but when i tried to replace it with a new 500GB hard drive my computer still only recognizes it as a 80GB. During the windows 7 upgrade where i would normally be able to clear my new hard drive and specify my new drives it still only showed 80 GB.
i have talked to dell twice now and i get conflicting answers each time. The first person said that my computer would only support 120GB and the second said it would only support 100GB. I have a hard time believing this because my computer came with a SATA harddrive, which shouldnt limit me.. At least i thought.
Can I use a Windows 7 Pro Upgrade DVD key to re-build my PC from scratch? I have Vista Business and want to get Windows 7 Pro but don't want to upgrade on top of. I want to format and install Win 7 Pro from scratch.
I want to format and 0 write and wipe the entire hard drive in an Asus EEEPC with no system disc and re-install windows 7 home premium. The windows registration number is on the back of the computer.
Did not come with a windows disc or recovery disc from the factory, IE windows 7 home pro was pre-installed.
I created a system recover boot disc/CD. This machine has no CD/DVD drive, but I do have a USB CD/DVD drive.
If I format and write the drive, but leave the partitions will I be able to re-install this version of windows that came with the machine ??
My old pc was lost in a recent move, and I decided to build my next one from scratch. Before it was lost, I had purchased a student version Windows 7 pro upgrade disc, as I was planning on upgrading from XP x64. My question is, is there a way to do a clean install from this upgrade disc, and if not, what is the cheapest windows I can install in the meantime?
I want to upgrade my w.7 from build 7100 to 7264 but I have photoshop and other programs installed on build 7100 and I want to know if these program will still work without any problems after upgrading.
I am curently running Windows 7 Build 7127. Then I dowloaded Build 7600 (should be). Tried to install it, there was opytion to upgrade. But, when I click upgrade it said that no possibility for it. means that I shoul install cleanly.
Can i upgrade from the 7000 build to a new buld without losing any installed program/drivers or anything like that? Currently, i can't get my computer to boot properly and i want to change to a later build of windows 7 anyway, so i can do it just by upgrading?
I have Vista x64 right now and I keep wanting to install the 7100 build beta that I downloaded a while back. I plan to buy the 3 pack of Windows 7 when it comes out but I am wondering if installing the beta build now will make upgrading harder down the road. Doing a clean install is just way to hard considering all the terrabytes of programs and data that I would have to either re-install or manually try to put back into it's original places.
I know a lot of people preach that doing clean installs is so much better. In my experience this has never really helped. I have on numerous occasions done clean installs and they never did seem to work any better or any faster than the upgrades that I have had installed for years. The only time I think you need to do a clean install is if you have stability issues with your hardware causing your OS to go flaky or if you neglect your OS and leave all kinds of crap floating around on it. We have one machine running Windows 2000 since 2000 and it is used daily without any problems or corruption whatsoever.
I don't post often, but I do read a lot, and there is a lot of good info here. Background: I am running a dual boot Win XP (32 bit) and Win 7 RC 7100 (32 bit). I have the Digital River WIN Pro Upgrade (32 bit). I have read the UNAWAVE downgrade scenario from Ultimate to Pro and the WIN XP to WIN 7 PRO upgrade here.
I am debating which OS to change. I really like the RC version and have been using it for quite a while. But since it is my main OS, I would hate to screw it up doing the downgrade as suggested by UNAWAVE.
If I upgrade the WIN XP OS, I am not sure If I would still be able to dual boot between WIN 7 RC and WIN 7 Pro.
If I do upgrade XP to PRO, would I be able to use WET to transfer my settings from RC to PRO. I am leaning towards the downgrade option, but wanted some more input from the "experts".
