For you windows guru's out there

[Exfso]

I am currently running windows 7 pro 64bit on my desktop. It is running fine, but I would like to take advantage of the free upgrade. My thoughts are as follows.

I have a spare 500gb SSD and was thinking of disconnecting my current SSD that has all my system and associated proggys on it, and putting in the spare, doing a fresh install of my Windows 7 on that and then doing the free update.
Hopefully once installed, I would have windows 10 on my spare SSD and can then disconnect it, re-connect my current setup and continue on.
Later on if and when I decide to go to Windows 10, it should be all setup. I assume this would be ok as it is all machine specific I believe.

Any reasons why this would not work..advice appreciated.:thanx:

[RAJAH235]

Hi,
Why not do a dual boot?
I just completed the procedure & it works fine.
You then have the choice of starting either version.

Go to either the Win 7 or Win 10 forum for more details.
Brink has a nice tutorial for exactly how to carry it out.

[acropolite]

Peter, My understanding of the upgrade is as yours, MS identifies your hardware once installed , I did exactly what you propose on my laptop, I cloned the HDD then did the upgrade on the new HDD. Once installed it's possible to start afresh and re-install without the baggage that comes across with an upgrade. In my case at least the w10 upgrade had already downloaded in the background and was already on the HDD, a simple process to create an install CD for future use. Description of iso creation from the background download http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=1195876&postcount=78

[Exfso]

Yeah that thought crossed my mind for a fraction of a second. Being an SSD, there is not a lot of room, and in any case I prefer the idea of having a stand alone OS at bootup. In years gone by I have done the dual boot thing and it worked ok.

[Exfso]

Thanks Phil, at least seeing your response, I know it should work ok. Got to extract the digit, as the free upgrade finishes on Friday. :rolleyes:

[acropolite]

Peter, make sure you check your PC, if you've been getting the nag, you may well already have the download, it's then relatively easy to extract the ISO and make an install disk. Look for a file called Install.esd in a hidden folder called C:\$Windows.~BT, in a subfolder called Sources.

[RAJAH235]

Hi Peter,
I don't know if you are using a desk top but if so, just chuck another HDD in & install WIN 10 on that.
That's what I did.

WIN 10 & Brink's thread...
> http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2108-windows-10-dual-boot-windows-7-windows-8-a.html
I burnt the (~3.5 Gig), iso to a DVD & went from there.

[Exfso]

Thanks guys. I have downloaded the 64bit Iso to another external drive. I gather I can burn that ISO to a DVD and once I have 7 installed fresh on my spare SSD, I can then boot from that DVD and install 10. Let me know if I am wrong with this, as I do not want to stuff it up:rolleyes:

[acropolite]

Correct, that's exactly what I did on my laptop and desktop PC's

[Exfso]

Thanks Phil doing that now as I type this on my second computer...:thumbsup:

[RAJAH235]

A FWIW, Peter,
If you do the "recommended" installation, you'll have "everything" turned on.
Do the Custom install & select what YOU want installed.
Might save you some time in actually finding & un-checking all the unwanted "stuff."

Stay safe & have fun.

[Exfso]

Thanks, yeah I probably have everything turned on, will clean up that at a later date. I noticed when I re-connected my original windows 7 drive that on bootup, everything wanted to do a chdsk on all my external drives.:shrug:

[bojan]

Where did you get W'7 Pro?

I have W'7 Home on my Lenovo G570 and would like upgrade to Pro version.
I was even considering downgrading to XP Pro (which I have on other lap, it is only a matter of how to transfer the installation and license for Office 10....)

Thanks in advane for replies!

[Exfso]

Nearly all of my computers came with Windows 7 pro installed. I also bought a couple of el cheapo Dell OptiPlex computers for around $100 and they came with Win 7 pro installed, which was a bargain as the OS is worth more than that. Ok they are OEM and as such only applicable to the computer they are installed on, but I think one can get around that. I believe when installing on another computer you can advise when activating that there was a requirement to do a hardware change on the computer due to a component failure and the "new" computer will be the one associated with the Pro version. Something like this anyway, a google will probably help in this regard.;) I just did a quick look on this subject and legally the OEM is stuck with the computer it is installed on. Having said all that, I think you can do a paid upgrade from Home to Pro from within the system. I forget the actual name of the process. I had to do it with my Laptop that only had home installed, and I paid a fee to upgrade it to pro.
Back to OEM for a moment, one of the el cheapo computers I got had a vista license attached to it even though it was running a 7 pro 64bit system. I contacted the seller and they sent me an OEM sticker for windows 7 pro that worked fine. I noted that the key on the installed version was different to the key on the sticker they sent me. One can find the key quite easily even if it is not attached to a machine. I did a fresh install of 7 pro with the new key when I upgraded the small hard drive that came with the OptiPlex, it was 250gb and pretty well useless. So I installed a 500gb SSD and installed 7 on that using the fresh OEM key and the activation process worked perfectly.