Windows 7 Upgrade or Full?

You would probably need to reinstall Vista 64 bit and then upgrade to Windows 7. Earlier today, while upgrading from Vista 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit (in my case using the "custom" install option since it can't go directly from 32 bit to 64 bit) the whole thing crashed and shut down. I restarted the process by installing Vista 32 bit and then updating to Windows 7 64 bit and it works fine now.

I installed my downloaded Digital River files over a new computer with no OS after using the USB Key method found here:

How to Make the Student Discounted Windows 7 Upgrade Bootable | Notebooks.com

The Digital River files are called, "Upgrade" but they WILL install as a full version if you make the bootable key and choose "custom install" then format the drive in the menus. It also accepted my key with no problems. You don't need Vista or XP at all!

My computer is living proof.

ulises48 said:

Now lets say that my HD crashes and I have to buy a new HD and do a clean Windows install...
What happens in this scenario?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

You lose any data thats not backed up to usb, dvd or another drive. You'll need a bootable win 7 install disk and your keycode to get installed to a new drive. The activation is connected with numbers on your bios.... so you can have as many drives activated on one computer as you want.. and they all use the same keycode..

tblount said:

You lose any data thats not backed up to usb, dvd or another drive.

Click to expand...

This may be a stupid question, but if I were to do a clean install (as I may have to do since I've now went 4 times trying to do an upgrade install with it BSODing right when it's about to finish...two wasted hours), and I backed up my files to my D: drive (C: is my master, D is slave), would they still be deleted, or would they be fine?

darkpowrjd said:

This may be a stupid question, but if I were to do a clean install (as I may have to do since I've now went 4 times trying to do an upgrade install with it BSODing right when it's about to finish...two wasted hours), and I backed up my files to my D: drive (C: is my master, D is slave), would they still be deleted, or would they be fine?

Click to expand...

As long as you leave the partition or drive alone with your backup you will not lose your backup. I do NOT use partitions so when I'm about to do anything that can wipe out my backup I simply unplug the power to the backup hard drive so that the system can't find it and won't possibly delet it.

Here is the risk.... I'm running my OS on drive c: but when I boot from the install cd and go to the command prompt my drive c is now my 3rd hard drive because that's the order my system sets up my hard drives. I have to be VERY careful about formatting or fdisk (disk manager) because c: is now my backup.

You'll find dozens of "help me" messages here from people who have partition problems.. mostly because the install placed the boot files on another partitoin.... and when they formatted that partition they couldn't boot... even though their entire OS is still intact. They either have to reinstall or learn how to recreate the boot files on their C: drive.

My advice... backup your MOST important stuff to a dvd or pen drive. You can get a 32 gb pen drive for about $15 from eBay... it's slow but it works. Or you can get a huge hard drive for about $50 and just install Win 7 to it and leave your backup alone.