Windows 7 Yes,I have installed Windows 8 on my netbook. But it has wiped out my Windows 7 completely. What sho

[Andrea Borman]

Link RemovedLink RemovedLink RemovedSee images above and as you can see Widows 8 is installed on the X drive that used to be my C drive. And the Windows 8 E drive partition I created is empty. So my Windows 8 install has wiped out my Windows 7 and replaced it with Windows 8. And it has also deleted my data on my recovery partition.

Readers of this forum may know me from the thread I posted 2 weeks ago about Windows 8. Well I decided to test Windows 8 out for myself and I installed the developers preview. And as you can see from above,these are pictures from my desktop from my netbook that is now running Windows 8.

The netbook used to have Windows 7 Professional,and installed Windows 8 by following the step by step instructions on the How To Geek website.

But because I have a netbook with no CD drive,I installed Windows 8 by mounting the ISO file on virtual clone drive. And I downloaded the windows 8 ISO file from the Microsoft website.

I though that it would just install Windows 8 on the spare 19GB partition that I managed to create by following the instruction from the How To Geek website. But instead of this the install has upgraded my Windows 7 to Windows 8. And Windows 7 is no longer on my netbook. It has been overridden or replaced with Windows 8. And not only that but it has wiped out data on the recovery partition. So now if I had any problems,i cannot do a factory restore to get back Windows 7.

But Windows 8 is working and as you can see from my pictures I have disabled the Metro theme after reading your tutorials on the Windows 8 forums. And I now have a Windows 7 desktop and start menu. And also all of the Windows Vista and XP software i used on Windows 7 works on Windows 8. Except for Windows Mail.

But the problem is that Windows 8 is only a developers preview and I have just read that it will expire some time this year.And that after this time we will no longer be able to carry on using it,after then. But because the Windows 8 install wiped out my Windows 7 completely and it also wiped out the data on my recovery partition. That is needed to do a factory restore.

This means I cannot do a factory restore and go back to Windows 7 after the Windows 8 developers preview expires. Also when I looked on my hard drive the install has changed my drive letters from C drive to X drive. And all that is left of is my Windows old folders that have some of my old program files from Windows 7. But the data on the recovery partition is gone.

I know that other members of this forum have also installed Windows 8 developers preview. But I don't know if they installed it over their Windows 7 or just alongside of it.

I have limited experience with computers and on the websites I read it said that.You could install Windows 8 on a netbook using virtual clone drive and that if you created a partition of your hard disk,which I did. That it would install Windows 8 alongside Windows 7.
But on my computer it did not do that.It installed Windows 8 OVER my Windows 7. And I did know this was going to happen.

And although I can still carry on using the Windows 8 at the moment and it seems to be working okay. What am I going to do when it expires. As know that you cannot use the developers build permanently. And that after this time,you have to either upgrade or go back to your previous version of Windows. As I have read that Windows will no longer be activated after the preview expires.

And as the install deleted the data on my recovery partition. How do I back up my operating system in case something goes wrong? I do not know how to do this.

What do you advise me to do. As I have asked my friends and they don't know what to do. Andrea Borman.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Cat, you know that if Microsoft gets too much deeper into hardware they are going to get hit by some stupid *** law suit. Like the crap about the Messenger and Media Player. Then something like you have to make a version that is designed to run your systems and a seperate version that is made to run on anything else. pffffft. It's is gays ifs you asks me's....My Squizgar impersination...did it sound right? LMAO

 

[Joe S]

I've got a HP dt5000 that came with Vista 64 bit and 8 G ram. It wasn't that bad but the beta of Windows 7 was noticeably more responsive. Looking at a resource monitor showing core activity Vista was like a hyperactive child with to much sugar. It never seemed to settle down in comparison to W7. A lot of programs were much slower opening in Vista. I only see a minor amount of difference in ram usage and speed with W8. I got W7 shortly after it came out. I don't see anything in W8 to excite me enough upgrade at this time especially the metro mess.
Joe

 

[catilley1092]

Cat, you know that if Microsoft gets too much deeper into hardware they are going to get hit by some stupid *** law suit. Like the crap about the Messenger and Media Player. Then something like you have to make a version that is designed to run your systems and a seperate version that is made to run on anything else. pffffft. It's is gays ifs you asks me's....My Squizgar impersination...did it sound right? LMAO

I see what you're saying. But how does Apple get away with the very same thing?

Cat

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Because it is very proprietary. On top of that back not so long ago Macs ran completely difernet archatectures. G seriese Processors and before that it was Modarola MCG, I think is what they where called, processors. So without something like a Virtulization software, Mac OS and Linux was the only thing that would run on a Mac natively. Now that Macs run Intel processors, with boot camp, to make up for not having a BIOS, it is possable to run Windows natively on a Mac. The big thing that kept Mac out of court about antitrust laws is that they made the hardware and software. So they controled both sides of it. I dont like that they can tell me I have to buy a new computer to run the new OS just because the graphics card is not a supported card. Or that I cannot watch DVDs because I didn't install an Apple supported DVD drive. I'm getting a little off subject about this question. Like I was saying, the main focus is that they do both hardware and software, thus they are in complete control when it comes to what practices the use.

PS I know I need a spell checker. I am looking in to it. Please just bare with me LMAO

 

[catilley1092]

You're OK, I can understand you. I know that PC's would cost more if MS made their own, not counting any other legal issues.

I feel that Windows 8 will be a success, no matter what. It will take business away from Apple, not only because it's a great OS, but the cost factor. Apple will only allow an upgrade on older hardware so far. Not the current version.

But with Windows, many computers that running today will run Windows 8/7/Vista. In many instances, all that is needed is a low profile video card, which is what I'm going to do with this Dell Dimension 2400 that my mother-in-law gave me yesterday. Many 512MB & 1GB low profile cards can be had for less than $50, there was a 1GB card on Newegg for $9.99 after rebate.

It's time for me to learn to do these things anyway, so now is better than ever.

Cat

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Cat, you are just getting started with computers? If so that is so cool. I'm so happy for you and can hardly wait to have more conversations about stuff with you.

One of the big issues comming up with the new 10.8 is that, from what I found on Wikipedia, OS X Mountain Lion no longer supports ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600 or Radeon X1900, Intel's GMA 950 or GMA X3100, or NVIDIA's GeForce 7300 graphics processors. That is some major bullcrap. I mean, even 7 still supports GeForce 6000+ and that is running Aero. Then most of the newer software is going to be requireing that you run 10.7 or better and be optimized to run better on 10.8. In my opinion another example of forced upgradeing.

 

[catilley1092]

I'm not just getting started on the software end (was a TechNet member a year ago), and have done my own HDD & RAM changes for years. But video cards are new to me, as well as having a tower PC. I've always had notebooks & this one HP AIO that I bought with Windows 7 in 2009.

This being my first tower, and really a spare PC, would help me to learn.

Cat

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Didn't mean for that to sound like I was calling you a n00b if it sounded that way. That is cool you are widening your spectrum. Towers can be fun to play with. Just remember, there is no real wong way to do things, just better ways. If you combine how others to things and your own twist on it, that will make for a killer combination. Happy modding to you.

 

[catilley1092]

Nah, you're OK. I'm going to take this thing apart & clean it this weekend. From what I've read, doing this not only serves the cleaning purpose, but it also allows one to see where everything is.

Too, it has a 40GB HDD, and I have a faster 80GB one to replace it with. I'm going to do that while in there. And as soon as I can get my hands on two 1GB RAM sticks, I'm upgrading it to 2GB RAM. It has 768MB now. Who would have thought of placing mismatched sizes of RAM in a computer?

It's not like it's that expensive. I recently bought 8GB (2 x4GB) DDR3 1333 (10666) GSKILL RAM kits from Newegg for $29.99. This is only DDR RAM.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

The prices for RAM was so much different then. Not only that but paired stick where as uncommon as single sticks are now. One of the practices that was common was to just add on to what was there. So in your case it had a 256 MB in it, and a 512 MB was added.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

I remember the first time I bought ram, it cost $300 for 4 megabytes.

I had to discard the 1 meg stick I had in the computer.
And that was about as much as anything could use then.

Plus $300 was a lot more money then, then it is now.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

Do you remember the good old days, MikeHawthorne remembers. Remember when gas was $0.0035 per gallon, MikeHawthorne remembers. Remember when certain people could not drink from water fountains, Mikehawthorne remembers.

LMAO

I'm just giving you a hard time Mike, you take it so well. That's why I like you. So laid back and cool. And besides I couldn't resist doing a Pepperidge Far Commercial LMAO

Reference this if you don't know what I'm talking about.

 

[whs]

Cute commercial. I wish they would make them like that today. I might even go back to watching TV - which I have not done in years.

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

For real. There are a lot of TV show, movie and advertisement makers that are just getting really lazy. Need more new ideas. Don't get me wrong, in the example of the X-Men and Heroes. X-Men came first, but heroes was more realistic and had a more what it would really be like quality to it. You know looking back on the subject, I would say that is why 8 is going to be successful. It is not really like anything most people have seen. I believe that Microsoft took a little inspiration from Gnome and started thinking outside the box. Getting rid of the fimiliar to open up what is going to be the "normal". I say normal because this same interface is supposed to stretch out across all platforms.

 

[catilley1092]

The prices for RAM was so much different then. Not only that but paired stick where as uncommon as single sticks are now. One of the practices that was common was to just add on to what was there. So in your case it had a 256 MB in it, and a 512 MB was added.

That's exactly what happened. It was my mother-in-law's computer, and her son added 512MB of RAM to it. But in doing so, he lied to her. She thought all along that she had it's max, 2GB, & didn't.

Today, I ordered the RAM from Newegg, it was a little over $50 for that 2GB.

Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Green 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model 991372

And to think, I paid $29.99 for 8GB DDR3 1333 (10666) RAM in November. But that 2GB RAM will speed up this PC, most of my older notebooks ran fine with that much memory, on a lesser CPU. This one is 2.4GHz. Should perform decently with the RAM upgrade.

Cat

 

[catilley1092]

I remember the first time I bought ram, it cost $300 for 4 megabytes.

I had to discard the 1 meg stick I had in the computer.
And that was about as much as anything could use then.

Plus $300 was a lot more money then, then it is now.

The first that I bought was two 512MB sticks to bring my Latitude C640 from 256MB (128MB x2) to 1GB. Made a huge difference, both on the computer performance & my credit card balance. $180 for those two sticks, from Crucial Technology. Didn't know of Newegg back then.

Cat

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Actually I can remember when gas was 17 cents a gallon!
And my first BMW cost $3,500 brand new!!!

Now I can't afford one. LOL

But you can get a lot more computer for the money now then you could then.
Actually you couldn't get a computer then.

They hadn't been invented yet.

Mike

 

[whs]

But you can get a lot more computer for the money now then you could then.
Actually you couldn't get a computer then.

They hadn't been invented yet.

I don't know what time you are talking about. But the first computers were built in the 30's and I worked on Zuse computers in 1958 and then on those in the 60's.

Link Removed

 

[NaiyaShamiso]

LMAO

You are so awesome Mike.

A couple days ago I used that line old people use...When I was young I had to walk three miles in the snow, to have the privilege to ride an open side bus another five miles to a one room school house that didn't have electricity. Then walk the ten miles back to my house...in shorts with no shoes, up hill both ways...Then the little snot nosed punk said I should have been home schooled.

LMAO

 

[Highwayman]

I don't know what time you are talking about. But the first computers were built in the 30's and I worked on Zuse computers in 1958 and then on those in the 60's.

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I don't think stuff in the pre-transistor age really count as computers they were way too slow... it's like comparing Windows 7 to XP...lol