Windows 7

[Forseti]

Thanks for all the feedback guys - very helpful. I'll spend time (when available) over the next week going through my PC with a fine tooth comb making a note of what plug-ins I have etc and where they are located exactly. Although the W7 Upgrade Advisor did a good job of reporting any possible conflicts I have quite a few little programmes that weren't reported on at all so the associated web sites need to be visited first.

Good points regarding the Home v Pro editions: I guess that I've just got used to having the Pro version of XP on my three machines but looking at the comparison chart I think the Home Edition would serve me just fine.

32 v 64 bit: again good points and I shall probably continue to run with the 32 bit version that I currently have.

Mail programmes, address books and the likes: have never used them so not something that I shall miss. Thanks for the tip though.

One final question (hopefully  ) I currently only have the OS (XP) and applications on Drive C (250GB) which is also mirrored to an identical drive. All data, backups of small applications and plug-ins etc are installed on Drive D. All images are on separate EHD's. Upon doing a clean install of W7 will it leave these partitions as is and simply install W7 on the same Drive C?  Also, concerning these mirrored drives of which I know absolutely nothing about other than the fact that they are software mirrored apparently, would the install of W7 respect the mirrored drives?

[picsfor]

A mirrored drive is created at the boot level with raid drivers (software or hardware) and is very much controlled by the computer independently of the O/S.
Of course there is the obvious point of note - to make sure your raid drivers work with Windows 7!
But i do not see that really being a problem.

Data drive D and EHD's are just that - sources of data that will be mapped to by Windows 7.
Installing any software whether it be application or O/S will require you to tell it where to save data and other bits such as plug ins to etc.
Some of the folders might get "over written" whilst configuring software (Adobe Plug Ins for instance) so it might be a good move to have such things backed up on a separate drive or DVD where as MS Word documents would not be touched. You would just go into MS Word after the install and configure that drive and folder as the data back up point etc.

You have a wealth of people on here that can offer help, i'm sure if you let us know we can take it in turns to be available to answer questions. I am of course assuming you will do 1 computer at a time thus allowing yourself something to remain connected to the internet with. To be honest, i would do the 1 machine and get familiar with windows 7 before attacking the other machines - or at least leave 1 with XP on until you've got to a point where you're happy to abandon XP.

I've got to help a friend update to Windows 7 over the winter months when it is quiet. Her needs area as critical as yours in that her computers "are" her work. She is a mobile worker so has to have 2 laptops to cart around in case of failure and a third at home in case of car theft - and they all have to synch all data to each other and back up to an EHD which can be accessed via the net. The beauty this time is i get a chance to plan this instead of reacting to a crisis such as system failure (she took a single laptop abroad for a week and worked furiously on it without backing up via the net, just to have the H/D fail on boot up back in England - example of crisis).

[Forseti]

A mirrored drive is created at the boot level with raid drivers (software or hardware) and is very much controlled by the computer independently of the O/S.
Of course there is the obvious point of note - to make sure your raid drivers work with Windows 7!

If I understand you correctly Andrew, what you're saying is that an install of W7 onto Drive C (where XP is currently) will ignore the fact that this is a mirrored drive as this is controlled at boot level. Correct? I'm somewhat confused by you going on to say 'make sure your raid drivers work with W7' which seems to contradict the first part of what you say, namely '........controlled by the computer independently of the OS. Follow on question - where on my system would I locate these drivers and how would I recognise them?

I am of course assuming you will do 1 computer at a time thus allowing yourself something to remain connected to the internet with.

Yes you assume correctly.  With such a big jump I shall give myself lots of time to adapt to W7 and no doubt it's foibles before committing it to the other 2 machines.

On another note, the German government yesterday released an advisory warning users against using the Firefox browser - typical, just when I've got used to it.  The BBC have also published it on their website and you can read it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8580716.stm

[picsfor]

OK, to try and explain a bit more clearly.

Mirrored drives are a feature of a RAID Array.
The point being you have an array of multiple HD's of duplicate size etc and with the help of RAID drivers (either via plug in hardware or motherboard software) you can choose utilise these drives in a way that provides extra system redundancy. In your case - you have 2 drives, 1 of which is configured to mirror the other.
As always with drives, the BIOS is where the full picture is found, and if your RAID system is software based there is a good chance it will be shown in the BIOS and that is where you will see the mirrored drive.

BUT!!!

You do not need to make any changes - do not fiddle with some thing that is working. Have a look to see what RAID drivers you have but you do not need to do anything else in that area.
If one HD is configured to mirror another HD, it will mirror the drive exactly - so that if your main HD has been partitioned to contain 2 separate virtual drives (C and D) then the mirrored drive will also contain that formatting.
This is all done by the computer BIOS and RAID drivers and Windows does not really get involved at all.

Where Windows gets involved is at the boot process. If the original drive fails Windows has to know that you have a mirrored drive and to bring about a swap to the mirrored drive either by rebooting your machine or seamlessly swapping over to it without your knowledge. In either case you would get a warning telling you your primary drive has failed, as would you get a warning telling you your mirrored drive has failed as well.
Hence the statement that you need to check that Windows 7 recognises your RAID  drivers.

I hope that helps a bit.

Firefox 3.6
If you read the additonal blurb on the BBC web site it also tells you to stick with it because swapping browsers on a whim could cause more damage than sticking with the known weak spot. As you are building a new machine - what are the potential hackers (who have probably never heard of you  ) going to do? Wipe out your installation of Photoshop or Office on your new computer? Hardly a disaster at this stage!

[Forseti]

Thanks once again Andrew - it's a lot clearer now. Just for info, I actually have 3 physical drives within the PC's housing. Two of these three drives are mirrored and only show in the system as being Drive C and at system boot (although it happens very quickly) the mirror is shown and checked. It is this drive (Drive C) that contains the OS and applications and nothing else. All personal data files, Lightroom/Photoshop plug-ins etc are located on the third drive (Drive D) and further backed up to an EHD.

The way I see it at the moment, a new install of W7 will go onto Drive C and be automatically be mirrored onto the second drive. I anticipate (and hope) that the third physical drive (Drive D) will play no part in the installation of W7 which of course will make things a lot easier for me. All I then need to do is reinstall the applications (LR/PS etc) onto Drive C and point them in the direction of where the various plug-ins etc are located i.e. Drive D.

If the very worse happens I shall not really lose anything as all the contents of Drive D are backed up onto one of my EHD's anyway including the original .exe files for various applications. For instance, I use Qimage for printing and whilst it is installed on Drive C I actually keep (backup) the .exe files onto Drive D and further backed up to the EHD. Backups I've got a plenty of as you may have gathered  . This is also why I chose the option of having Drive C mirrored which I know isn't the norm, but aside from viruses etc should one physical drive fail I wouldn't then have to reinstall everything from scratch.

Unlike Vista which copies everything over, from this thread it has become clear that the XP > W7 route requires a clean install. I suppose in this instance a few telephone calls will need to be made to MS upon reinstalling applications such as Office etc onto the new OS. It might just allow me to re-enter the licence numbers but somehow I doubt it - time will tell.

[picsfor]

Your assumption is correct.
A clean install of dive C from Win XP to Win 7 will only impact on drive C and it's mirrored counterpart.
Driver D which is a separate physical should not be touched - and i would be extremely concerned if it were.
When performing a clean install you are asked which drive you wish to use (C) and that should be the only thing touched. I've never heard of other internal physical drives ever being affected. You configuration is the best recommended for a home machine for redundancy etc.

With respect of installing MS Office - you just re-install form your CD/DVD as usual and install the licence key at the appropriate time. That applies also to LR and PS hence the de-activate of PS licence key for that computer prior to uninstalling. I would certainly have another computer to work on whilst this is happening because otherwise it really will be a case of watching paint dry 

Go for it girl - be a PC and make Win 7 your idea 

[Forseti]

Ordered  - and now to the business of giving this current set-up the once over making sure that all those little out of the way plug-ins etc are backed up and to go through the Windows Add/Remove programmes list double checking exactly what's installed. Thanks once again, you and other contributors to this thread have been a big help. 

[Forseti]

Just a quick update folks. The custom install of W7 went problem free thank heavens only taking 50 minutes  - reinstalling applications was another matter of course.

A few initial observations:

(a) The installation packaging advised, as did the W7 advisor, to back up all your data and applications etc onto removable hardware e.g. EHD's. What's strange though is that once the installation began I received the following message - 'The partition you selected for the installation (C) might contain files from a previous Windows installation. If it does, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You will be able to access the information in Windows.old but you will not be able to use the previous version of Windows'. Sure enough, a Windows.old folder was created (several gigabytes large) containing all my applications and data files etc and which were accessible. What I can't understand therefore, is the reason for the advisory for backing everything up when Windows 7 did it anyway. Strange!!!

(b) Start up and shut down are now lightening fast and whilst I still have only 2.75GB of memory available (same as XP) the CPU usage appears to be a lot lower. That said, trying to find the system performance shortcut in the first instance proved a bit of a nightmare as pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del now brings up the shut down options for the PC.

(c) Overall, first impressions are favourable although it's going to take a while getting used to the new layout. For instance, I still haven't found a way or place to type in for instance D:\setup.exe when a CD/DVD doesn't run by itself.

[stevebedder]

Hi Forseti,

b) just right click on the Windows task bar (usually at the bottom of the screen) and select Start Task Manager and then select the performance tab to see the system performance, memory usage etc.

c) just type whatever you want to run in the search box on the Windows start menu (the one with the magnifying glass). Even though it looks like a search bar it also acts as a run tool. You can add the traditional Run.. tool to the Start menu by right clicking over the Windows icon on the task bar, selecting properties, then Start Menu, then Customise and then puting a tick in the Run option in the list.

HTH

Steve

[Forseti]

Thanks Steve - easy when you know how isn't it? 

[Oldboy]

What I can't understand therefore, is the reason for the advisory for backing everything up when Windows 7 did it anyway. Strange!!!

That's because the installation may fail before it has created this backup. It's also possible that not all applications may be saved so they always suggest backing up before installation. 

[top totty]

Evening all, I would just like to know what people think of Windows 7. I bought a laptop at the end of October which ran Vista (which I hate,don't know anything about it, still using XP on other pc) I have only just found out that I was entitled to a free upgrade which the muppet of a salesman forgot to tell me about. They will send me the upgrade but I will have to do it myself.....that's the problem, how easy is it to do

[hssutton]

I ran Windows 7 Beta for several months, but found it to be essentially the same as Vista (in the 2 years of running Vista ultimate I've never experienced any problem), so I'm not going to bother with it.

As for ugrading, well that is childs play, at least it was with the Dell upgrade disk that I did for a friend. The downside being it took approx 6 hours.

Harry

[top totty]

Thanks for that Harry I may not bother withit then.

Janet

[Trickee]

i have still not upgraded i increased the ram in my laptop instead which increased the speed of my vista system and i am happy with that. i will wait until i buy a new laptop