Upgrading from Vista to Weven?

Christopher Duncan

Okay, I have a bright and shiny little Windows 7 disc and am giving serious consideration to upgrading a box in the studio that's currently running Vista (the only one in the house that is). The thing is, I actually need this box up and running, and don't want to spend the entire weekend doing a wipe & reinstall if Weven hoses me. And so, with some trepidation I ask, "Is it safe to go back in the water?" Seriously, any of you hit any snags upgrading from Vista to 7 or has it been smooth sailing?

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
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modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

Dalek Dave · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I had a horror story, but that was because I did an upgrade rather than a clean install. SERIOUS ADVICE>>>> Copy all that which you feel important, and do a clean install. DO NOT UPGRADE!!! There are people yet unborn that would tell you that.

------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave

Christopher Duncan

Thanks, man. Yeah, that's where I've been twitching a bit. I really don't want to have to resinstall the entire box, but neither do I want a complete freakin' disaster. Of course, I could just leave well enough alone and let the box run Vista. But... but.. it's shiny! :)

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
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martin_hughes · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

Christopher Duncan wrote:

The thing is, I actually need this box up and running

You've answered your own question there :) I say leave it well alone. If you want to move to W7, buy a new box and replicate everything the Vista machine currently does. If it all work out ok retire the Vista box and migrate to the W7 machine - if not, well you've lost some time and effort and will potentially spend more of both getting it to work on W7, but you won't have compromised a working system.

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Christopher Duncan

Leaving well enough alone has never been a personal strength. :rolleyes:

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services

realJSOP · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

Wipe and reinstall from scratch. It'll take 14-20 hours to do the "upgrade", and even then, you'll be sitting on pins and needles wondering what's going to break. You can have a running system in less than an hour if you simply start over. If I were you, I'd do a complete system backup with a backup program that will let you get to the files one at a time (without having to do a restore). That way, you can retrieve documents, images, and other crap.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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realJSOP

The box having Vista on it is enough of a reason to change - to ANYTHING.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001

Christopher Duncan

Seems to be the conventional wisdom. Glad I asked!

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services

Scott Serl

Is there a way to do a clean install from an upgrade disc? It used to be possible, but my upgrade copy of 7 ultimate would not let me do a clean install like you could in the old days (clean installs of upgrades used to ask you to insert the original media of the product being upgraded). Since I had never installed the Vista copy before, I did a clean Vista install followed by a 7 upgrade. All went smoothly, but I wouldn't bet on it for a system that has been running Vista for awhile.

Dan Mos · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

A clean install of W7 64 bit took about 3 hours but that included everything I needed such as Ofiice, Visual Studio, SqlServer ... An update took about 9 hours and it is not as smooth(a little slower on startup...) as a clen install. DO NOT UPGRADE

Andy Brummer · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I've used the windows migration tool for vista -> vista and it worked well. It copies all the files from the standard user locations + anywhere you tell it into an archive file on an external drive and then copies them back in the new install. Even includes basic settings, though nothing app specific, so you still have to install applications, and set them up again, but any documents should be there in the new os.

I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon

realJSOP

If that's all you have, I'd still wipe and install Vista from scratch, and then immediately upgrade to Weven before installing anything else.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001

J Dunlap · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I upgraded from Vista to Weven because I was very short on time and couldn't afford to reinstall the myriad apps I depend on for work. Upgrade took 3 hrs - longer than it should have and much longer than a clean install would have, but much shorter than reinstalling all my apps. The only actual issue I had was that after the install, SQL Server Management 2005 (SSMSE - another MS crazy-long name) wouldn't work. I tracked it back to the fact that I had .NET 4 Beta 1 installed (I know I know, no beta software should be on your dev machine), and you're supposed to uninstall it before upgrading. I managed to fix it with a removal tool. I guess it comes down to whether you prefer a faster, cleaner new install with the need to reinstall everything, or to have everything already installed, but have the same cruft and a longer base install time. (Of course Weven will be faster than Vista no matter which option you choose.)

realJSOP

I had to reinstall today, and decided to put all my dev environments into their own VMs (using VirtualBox), and just use shared folders to access the source code.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001

Chris Maunder · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I've not heard of anyone having a bad time when upgrading Vista to 7. Well - as long as you don't include "waiting 9 hrs for the upgrade to complete" as a bad time. (no, not exxagerating). Upgrades were always a nightmare but from what I've heard it's a different story this time round. Still - I've never actually done an upgrade, preferring a reinstall because it has so many other benefits (mostly: trimming down my hoarding mentality by nuking anything I can't easily find and therefor don't actually need)

cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP

Christopher Duncan

Chris Maunder wrote:

waiting 9 hrs for the upgrade to complete

Honestly, does anyone ever test this stuff before it goes out the door? Oh, yeah, I forgot. They're a monopoly dominant company. They don't have to care.

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services

Christopher Duncan

Oh, I don't know. I still haven't found it necessary to buy one of those bunny hugging Macs. :)

Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services

leppie · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I did an in-place upgrade months ago, no issues yet. In fact I have not migrated to my clean 64-bit install yet. If it ain't broken, no need to fix it :)

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Phil J Pearson · modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 1:49 PM

I did several upgrades on non-critical systems and all except one worked perfectly. The only problem was with a test system that had done XP-Vista-W7Beta-W7RC. (I had to resort to hacks to upgrade from Beta to RC). The final upgrade (with hack) from RC to RTM failed. I think it was entitled to ... I was finally brave enough to upgrade a critical system and then eventually three critical systems (with appropriate backups and so on) and all has worked excellently. The result is in every case a far better system than I had with Vista. While I agree with all the cautions and "it's better to do a clean install"s that others have expressed there are times when you just want to go for it... (The critical systems I am talking about are only critical to me ... I am not risking others' lives, safety or livelihood.)

Phil

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