Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7...

[Jason]

So I'm thinking of upgrading my PC from Windows XP to Windows 7 since I've been playing around with it on my brothers PC today, and I bought a copy a few months back for only £15 (College were having a special offer on it, yay me), and it was pretty good, although some things I didn't like. My main reason would be in order to play some of the newer games since I'm still running Windows XP (Obviously), the rest of my settings are high enough (Overpowered PC for the win, quite literally), but some of the newer ones require you to have Vista/7, so you can see my dilemma...

I've got a couple of questions for anyone that's done this before;

Everywhere says I need to do a custom install, which in essence would erase all my files etc., however, some people claim to have kept all of their files in a windows.old folder, is this true?

Following the previous question, people have said that you don't need to click the custom install option, you can click the upgrade option (Which is intended for Vista > 7 upgrade), and when the error message or whatever appears, you can just ignore it and it still works while keeping your files, is this true also?

The reason I'm asking is because I have a 1TB HDD on this machine, over 400GB has been used so far, and I don't have any external HDD, just some USB drives which are 4GB each (Got 3, lol...) and I'd rather not lose all of my music files, images, work files, films etc. etc.

Thanks to anyone that can answer, I'd prefer more than one answer on this actually.

 

[Toams]

Everywhere says I need to do a custom install, which in essence would erase all my files etc., however, some people claim to have kept all of their files in a windows.old folder, is this true?

yes, doesnt even matter what you do
the install wizard will guide you through the install, and it'll ask you to do this at some point
dont worry
just do it

 

[Jason]

So you mean I won't lose any of my files, they'll just be sent to that newly created folder?

'cause if so, then just about every website I've checked on the net has been lying... although apparently some people haven't had this happen...

 

[Toams]

well its only the system partition that you format, and only that one you'll be able to transform into a windows.old directory
anyway, if you want to be on the safe side, add a data partition on D:// or WHatever://, copy all your files to that partition, and just reformat and install windows on C://

also the windows.old will contain your program files and stuff, but obviously your registry entries will be lost so most programs dont work

also sorry for dumbing down but idk how much you've researched and know so just to be safe xx

 

[Toams]

yeah i mean C:\ and D:\ and whatever:\

 

[Jason]

oic, guess I better make a partition then, but at the moment I can't be arsed, I'll do it tomorrow, lol...

But thanks for answering anyways haha :thumb:

 

[Alexander Morou]

Or you could buy a new hard drive, install on that, and make your current drive a slave. :P

 

[Jason]

Yeah I could, but I spent the rest of my money on this monitor because my old one died on me y'see... all I have now is uhh... a fiver?

 

[Ellie]

I went from Vista to Win 7, expecting it to wipe everything (didn't choose upgrade) and it made Windows.old.

 

[silver wind]

Win 95 is best.

Seriously now, I may install windows 7 too. I say 'may' since microsoft's stupid 'UpgradeAdvisor' won't work for me, so I can't tell if my computer meets the requirements. with my crash-happy computer I'm afraid to try installing anyway XD

 

[Xilef]

Windows 7 halved my game's framerates, I went through 3 weeks of a forum discussion and most people told me it would improve framerate as it's optimised, oh how I regret that now.

Building a new PC from scratch now anyway.

The only game that comes to mind that needs Vista/7 is halo2:PC, but you can download a quick-patch that enables it for XP.
Not sure if it's legal, I mean, you buy the game, you want to play it, right? Not pay potentially hundreds just to play this one game.

 

[Zeriab]

@Xilef:
Computer->Properties->Advanced system settings->Performance
Select Adjust for best performance

Also running in fullscreen typically gives a performance boost. Particularly if you have all the fancy stuff enabled.

 

[vgvgf]

If you have a 1TB disk, just make partitions and install windows 7 on a new one or in C: after moving all files you want to conserve. You should have at least 4 partitions anyway, the less gb the partition has the faster the files will be read. Also, I recommend to do a clean install of win7, don't do the upgrade, a clean install is always better.

I have myself installed win7 on a new partion I made, just 20gb, and I still have the old winxp partition there with 15gb. I have made a clean install on the new partition and I haven't had any problem with my files on other partitions.