Windows 7 Windows Vista to Windows 7 using backup disks

[Jim Richardson]

Hi all,

My fiance has a Dell Inspiron 15" laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium currently on it. She got a trojan (heur.html.maliframe) and instead of trying to go through the hassle of removing it, I thought it'd be a good time to wipe the HDD and go to Windows 7.

My questions are:
1. I have Windows 7 Professional backup disks that I purchased from Microsoft. Would I be able to use that DVD to do a clean install on the Dell? I would obviosly need to purchase a key from MS, but in terms of the actual software, would that be feasible?
2. If that even worked, would getting the drivers for the Dell be an issue? Or would Win7 automatically find them?


Any help would be great.

 

[patcooke]

I would expect the term "Backup disk" to be applied to an oem recovery disk which is produced for a specific manufacturer and model incorporating all the appropriate drivers so would not try to run it to install on another pc. Windows 7 is most likely to find drivers and I have always found the Dell website excellent for driver download support so that is unlikely to be a problem but given that you have to buy a key anyway, why not just download and buy a clean installable version online?

 

[Pauli]

If you have some malware aboard, I would strongly recommend that you clear the disk(s) thoroughly by zero format, because the bad ones won't disappear with a mere re-installation.