Schwaa2 on 3/12/2009 at 17:28

---

Figured I'd document my OS upgrade if anyone is interested.

---------
Vista home basic 32 bit.
4 gigs ram (only 3 useable due to 32 bit windows) (2x2 dual channel)
intel 6600 cpu
nvidia 8600gts
2 hard drives. Ones a 10,000 raptor (80 gig), the others an old 7500 (40gig)
---------
Upgraded to win 7 pro 64 bit.
-----------
backstory...

Pulled my old hd out of an old tower awhile back and tried multiple systems on it (just unpluggin the power to my newer vista hd and plugging in old one)

Tried Kubuntu (had sound card driver issues, though it seemed nice overall)
Never used it much.

Tried the win7rc a bit (32 bit I think).

But found a good price on win7 so bit the bullet. Pretty unhappy with Vistas performance.
----------

So, I got the Win7 Iso and key. Decided to do an instal on my backup hd and wipe 7rc off of it just to see how set-up goes.
Intalled pretty quickly (less than an hour, maybe 1/2 hour). Registered clean so any worries about pirate copy are taken care of.

When you instal you get an option to update or fresh instal.
----------
So I plugged in my Vista Hd, rebooted, copied any files I was worried about losing to my old hd (with 7 on it now).
When I booted up it had to register the partitions on my vista hd. So C: became D: and could be accessed through 7. Had no effect on files.
Also I had to 'aquire permission to my old desktop' which was just opening it and waiting a few minutes. Funny.

So time for instal on my main hd. I tried to just update, but it said 'incompatible version' so I just did a full instal.

Luckily I had my hd partitioned for Vista. OS on C:, programs/games on D:
So I installed 7 over Vista on C:.
Everything on D (including steam, darkmod, all programs and games) still intact. :)

I did upgrade from 32 to 64, and the registry was probably cleaned out. So some programs like 3ds Max had to be reinstalled. Others like Photoshop work fine (even better than under Vista - major dds plugin glitchyness), though it did give me an error first start. But after that it's fine.

I also had to reinstal sound card drivers and update vid drivers to 64 bit.

Also updated DarkRadiant to 64 bit (though I'm not sure I needed to).
--------------------------

Issues:

1- not bad but weird, now my old hd is for Darkmod backups, music, video. Stuff I don't use much but want access to.
But when I boot up this hd is found as new hardware plug-in, like when you plug in a usb flash drive.
(This is after I formatted/erased it from Win 7)

2-Still trying to get T2 to work.I tried the ddx fix, but already had DX10 installed. Yet starting t2 with ddx fix installed gives me a 'you need dx6' (or 7 depending on which compatibility mode I choose) , and it tells me dx is not installed.
If I don't apply ddx fix it starts fine. BUT I have gotten blackscreens from changing the gamma in T2, which takes several restarts and inserting a bootable disc to get my screen back.
Without changing gamma I got a lock-up after Basso talked to me and I frobbed the gate.

I also tried it under XP mode and was getting the same results. (Trying to instal DX in XP mode gave me an error saying I can't instal DX on this installation (I guess that's all taken care of in the 7 instal).

perks:
1- I finally get my full 4 gigs of ram with 64 bit

2- my harddrive isn't constantly churning doing whatever annoying tasks Vista had it doing.

3- performance seems much better so far

4-More programs run without weird issues Vista had, making alot of my programs worthless.

5-The UAC is not quite as annoying, though still slightly annoying.

6-Copying files doesn't require making a temp copy first like Vista. That usually made copying files from one HD or partition to another or even from a cd a very long process.
---------
Still sore with MS for pushing Vista so hard, then just dropping it and releasing 7 as a new OS. Should be a free upgrade IMO as it is what Vista was supposed to be.

TBE on 5/12/2009 at 02:40

---

He probably has a Microsoft Technet account. For $349, you too can get an ISO for any of their operating systems, their business solutions, office products, etc. With legit key. As many of them as you'd like for 1 year. They remain valid forever, even after your year-long subscription has canceled, but you may not download any more ISOs til you buy another year for $249. The only thing is, that it's supposed to be for "testing environments" only. ;

(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms788692.aspx) Technet Plus Subscriptions

mudi on 5/12/2009 at 21:34

---

I have MSDNAA, but the Windows 7 ISO is corrupt. It did get me a legal key though, which is the harder part of the battle ;)

TBE on 9/12/2009 at 05:42

---

64 bit, huh? There is terrible driver support for 64 bit Windows 7 for wireless network cards right now. You may want to install 32 bit (x86) for now. Same key is valid for either edition. As long as you use same type, like Home Premium, or Ultimate. Whatever version you have now.

TBE on 9/12/2009 at 19:38

---

(http://www.partition-tool.com/) Easeus Partition Manager

A nice free tool with Windows 7 support. It will shrink, expand, move, erase, format, and do anything else you can think of doing to a partition.

I have Partition Magic 8, and this Easeus is just about comparable, and it's free to boot.