Windows 7 Upgrade from Vista - fail

[ArmoredCavalry]

So, previously I have dual booted Vista with Windows 7 beta and RC. While I didn't notice a huge difference between Vista and Windows 7, there is some little piece of me that bought into all the "Windows 7 smokes Vista" talk. So naturally, as soon as Windows 7 Pro became available on MSDNAA, I downloaded it. Today I spent about 3 hours upgrading from Vista Business to Windows 7 Pro, and as I finally login to the Windows 7, I see a horrifying message "Windows Explorer has stopped responding" with an option to restart it/debug. If this was a one time thing I may have shrugged it off, but then the horrible message popups again, and again, and again. Although I removed any software that the installation said was incompatible, I decide that maybe this error could be caused by something I have running. So, I uninstall my A/V and firewall, and clean up anything in startup.

I reboot, and once again, am greeted with multiple warnings about windows explorer not responding. At which point I decided, screw it, and am now restoring Windows Vista from an Acronis True Image backup. 1 hour and 50 minutes to go, yipee.

Now I find myself sitting here wondering why I wanted to upgrade in the first place... :shadedshu

 

[newtekie1]

Don't do upgrades, do a clean install.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

Don't do upgrades, do a clean install.

If the option was guaranteed to break your pc, why include it?

 

[Meow9000]

what newtekie said, it takes what, 20-30 mins to install win7. same with programs and drivers, Never install over the top of old ones.

~meow

 

[mikek75]

This is why I never "upgrade" an existing OS, I always go for a clean install. Too many variables otherwise, too hard to troubleshoot.

 

[iStink]

If the option was guaranteed to break your pc, why include it?

LOL it's Ms dude, what can you do?

Even if it didn't break it, it's still not as good as doing a fresh install.

Sorry for your troubles.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Don't do upgrades, do a clean install.

Yeah like he said, and do a backup of everything b4 that with maybe an external drive, so you can keep your files and programs

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

what newtekie said, it takes what, 20-30 mins to install win7. same with programs and drivers, Never install over the top of old ones.

~meow

20-30 mins to install it sure, but about a week to transfer all my programs/games (there is a reason I have a 1.2 TB RAID 0 array).

Yeah like he said, and do a backup of everything b4 that with maybe an external drive, so you can keep your files and programs

If I was going to do that, I'd do the same thing as when I went to Vista from XP, which is dual boot, and slowly transfer stuff over from the old partition as I need it. Trouble with that is its a huge pain. If I had 20/20 hindsight though, I'd probably do it that way eh?

 

[Deleted member 67555]

20-30 mins to install it sure, but about a week to transfer all my programs/games (there is a reason I have a 1.2 TB RAID 0 array).

bet i'd be nice to have a 1.2 TB raid1 setup about now huh

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

bet i'd be nice to have a 1.2 TB raid1 setup about now huh

No?

 

[Deleted member 67555]

No?

I'm sorry i know your having a bad day, that shit happens though

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

I'm sorry i know your having a bad day, that shit happens though

I was more saying, why would I want a RAID1 setup right now? RAID1 just mirrors , it doesn't make backups.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I was more saying, why would I want a RAID1 setup right now? RAID1 just mirrors , it doesn't make backups.

absolutely true, I'm not sure how it works completely as i'm just learning about the different raid setups but say you took 2 drives put them into raid0 and then installed W7 wouldn't you be able to get whatever files you need from the other 2 drives, and please if i got that wrong I need to no,as i said just now learning that stuff

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

absolutely true, I'm not sure how it works completely as i'm just learning about the different raid setups but say you took 2 drives put them into raid0 and then installed W7 wouldn't you be able to get whatever files you need from the other 2 drives, and please if i got that wrong I need to no,as i said just now learning that stuff

No, the second drive would have exactly the files as the first drive. RAID1 is just for data security, aka, the first drive fails, you still have the second drive, with the same data. Sorta like, real-time backups if you want to think about it that way.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

No, the second drive would have exactly the files as the first drive. RAID1 is just for data security, aka, the first drive fails, you still have the second drive, with the same data. Sorta like, real-time backups if you want to think about it that way.

yeah exactly and W7 would see Vista as Windows old and allow you to import those files to be reinstalled on your new setup, then you could format the other drives that still had vista and copied those files to those drives to setup raid1 again, not sure yes/no

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

yeah exactly and W7 would see Vista as Windows old and allow you to import those files to be reinstalled on your new setup, then you could format the other drives that still had vista and copied those files to those drives to setup raid1 again, not sure yes/no

I don't know you'd have to explain better. How many drives, what partitions, etc. Not sure what you mean at this point...

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I don't know you'd have to explain better. How many drives, what partitions, etc. Not sure what you mean at this point...

say 4 750gb hd's 2 sets of 2 drives for 1.2 tb (not sure if it's still called raid 0 1 5 etc...)
I'm not peeing on ya, I'm just sick of the same poo to, and figured maybe i can get it figured out on your post since only I only got like 5 responses on my very similar post, basically asking how to avoid what you just went through, and basically got the same answer hoping maybe you or somebody will answer that knows for sure

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

say 4 750gb hd's 2 sets of 2 drives for 1.2 tb (not sure if it's still called raid 0 1 5 etc...)
I'm not peeing on ya, I'm just sick of the same poo to, and figured maybe i can get it figured out on your post since only I only got like 5 responses on my very similar post, basically asking how to avoid what you just went through, and basically got the same answer hoping maybe you or somebody will answer that knows for sure

Like I said earlier, the easiest way is probably just to make a new partition for Windows 7, then copy whatever you need over from the Vista partition. This can be done without RAID of any kind.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Like I said earlier, the easiest way is probably just to make a new partition for Windows 7, then copy whatever you need over from the Vista partition. This can be done without RAID of any kind.

yeah but i want setup like raid0 with raid1 and i need to no if it works like that, sorry like i said i'm kinda intruding on your post, but I'm thinking of 4 hd's in 2 sets of 2 with raid0 performance and raid1 security so when i update to W7 that doesn't happen to me

 

[newtekie1]

That is the beauty of a clean install, you get rid of all the garbage you have installed. I highly doubt you actually use anywhere near all 1.2TB of programs/games.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

That is the beauty of a clean install, you get rid of all the garbage you have installed. I highly doubt you actually use anywhere near all 1.2TB of programs/games.

Oh I wish the mrs seen it that way

 

[Deleted member 67555]

So can you just partition your drives on raid0 yes/no and just go with 2hd's and do what i'm thinking

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

That is the beauty of a clean install, you get rid of all the garbage you have installed. I highly doubt you actually use anywhere near all 1.2TB of programs/games.

No, only about 70% of it. Also, the only reason I even considered upgrading is because Windows 7 seems so close to Vista, you wouldn't think upgrading would be that complicated.

So can you just partition your drives on raid0 yes/no and just go with 2hd's and do what i'm thinking

Yes, that is what I did going from XP to Vista.

 

[newtekie1]

I can't imagine you have anywhere close to 1TB of programs/games installed. Are you including the disc images? Or just the program files themselves? And I really can't image you use them all either...

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

I can't imagine you have anywhere close to 1TB of programs/games installed. Are you including the disc images? Or just the program files themselves? And I really can't image you use them all either...

I have an o/s partition and media partition. The o/s partition is 650 gigs, of which I'm using ~70%.

Also, I've always frowned on upgrades, but like I said, I figured I'd give it a go, since ya know I thought maybe ms had made some advances. I have scheduled backups of the o/s partition, so I just manually made one. I even told my friend "I'm going to make a full backup first just in case Windows decides to be Windows".

So yes, in retrospect, I should have done clean install. I just figured I'd share my experience in case anyone else was considering trying an upgrade.

Update: Now posting from restored Vista, gotta love Acronis True Image (although it could be a little quicker).