Before I back up everything and upgrade to Windows 7

jgallcash

I'm about to back up everything in terms of music/video/personal files onto my new Portable HD with a view to upgrading to Windows 7. It's going to be a clean install because I'm upgrading to 64 bit version

I have heard and read that I need to back a back up of my whole computer as it currently is before doing so. How do I do this for free? Is there a program that will take me through it?

Also, I have what I think is a partition in my laptop HD with recovery files on from HP Will these files stay where they are during a clean install? Do I need to do anything further?:

Basil1234

right backup personal stuff to external then thats safe.

as to backing up the whole of your computer i think is daft if doing a fresh install as all should be new. i would select advanced install, delete all parations then format then install. computers always run better on a new install. also only have to install what progs you actually use now rather than stuff thats been stuck on by hp slowing system down.

Just make sure you have driver devices downloaded on a usb key first just incase win7 doesn't have them i only had 1 missing out of whole lot for a dell which wasnt bad at all.

also when installed it all up and running as you want with software then create a backup disc alot of people forget that.
start>
control panel>
backup restore>
create a system repair disc>

also every so often same as above but last step is
create system image>

hope this helps
basil

JasX

if you have all the personal files you'll ever want off the computer you've backed up enough.

you'll get the option to leave the recovery partition intact if you like (or could delete and reclaim the space) both approaches have their merits. Basically you install to the main C partition and all the others will be left alone. or you manually delete all existing partitions and install to one big new one (minus a 100mb bitlocker partition win7 will create unless you object to that enough to go hunt for the work around)

Your bluetoooth id is marginally objectionable

jgallcash

Sorry guys should have stated that I'm not massively knowledgeable computerwise

Basil1234 wrote: »

i would select advanced install, delete all parations then format then install.

Will I get this option when I start the install of windows 7?

Basil1234 wrote: »

also only have to install what progs you actually use now rather than stuff thats been stuck on by hp slowing system down.

But isn't the partition useful in case I need to recover the Laptop?

Basil1234 wrote: »

Just make sure you have driver devices downloaded on a usb key first just incase win7 doesn't have them i only had 1 missing out of whole lot for a dell which wasnt bad at all.

Do I just search for device drivers and copy the to my memory stick or is there a specific place I can find them to copy them?

JasX wrote: »

you'll get the option to leave the recovery partition intact if you like (or could delete and reclaim the space) both approaches have their merits.

Briefly what is the merit of leaving the recovery partition? Any other merits to removing it other than freeing up (a small) amount of space?

JasX wrote: »

Your bluetoooth id is marginally objectionable

Err it not mine it's my girlfriends :eek::eek::eek:

BillScarab

If you're doing a clean install of Windows 7 there is no benefit to keeping the recovery partition unless you're ever likely to want to restore the machine to it's current state, i.e. how it is before installing Windows 7.

JasX

basciallly only reason i'm keeping the old OS partition on OHs laptop is so i can revert it to vista if i want to sell it or give it away with an operating system in future, allowing me to keep the copy of win7 for something else.

If you plan to keep the laptop till it dies probably little benefit as you can re-use your copy of windows 7 on another machine after the current laptop is junked (assuming you didn't get the duff OEM edition).

also if you end up screwing up the software and need to restore it you'd just need to reinstall windows 7 from your DVD

only merit to removing it is the extra 5% disk space you'll free up

Basil1234

jgallcash wrote: »

Sorry guys should have stated that I'm not massively knowledgeable computerwise

Will I get this option when I start the install of windows 7?
Yes but you will need to select correct option

But isn't the partition useful in case I need to recover the Laptop?
no don't need it anymore so bin it when changing to new version

Do I just search for device drivers and copy the to my memory stick or is there a specific place I can find them to copy them?
get from hp
http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/welcome.html#Support

Briefly what is the merit of leaving the recovery partition? Any other merits to removing it other than freeing up (a small) amount of space?thats what they created backup dvds for if the harddrive corrputs at that section your up the swanny a bootable dvd will mostly always work




Err it not mine it's my girlfriends :eek::eek::eek:
is she into beastailty? if so how much for the photos :rotfl::D:rotfl:

have fun with it all fairly quick with win 7 now anyway

jgallcash

I think that just about sorts out my plan of action. I'm going to get rid of the partition.

Just the question about device drivers now.

jgallcash wrote: »

Do I just search for device drivers and copy the to my memory stick or is there a specific place I can find them to copy them?

JasX

jgallcash wrote: »

Just the question about device drivers now.

hunt around on the HP website, tap in your PC model and it should point you in the right direction.

for the particularly paranoid/diligent you could hop into device manager, expand all the lists and save a few screenshots to USB to help work out what any 'yellow' unknown devices you end up with are.

Basil1234

answer above get from hp for your model puter put files onto usb stick.
so when you need them after installing win 7 you may need to install some of them check in your device manager for any items with yellow triangle and means that item not working. install driver for that device and check again when yellow triangles gone all working ok. if you need to do it you may not it may all just work if you are lucky.
right i goto shoot of to work laters

JasX

PPS those shiny window edges take up a moderate amount of processing power, if you ever plan to do anything demanding on it and/or gaming and/or it starts to feel a bit slow switching to the 'basic' theme&colour scheme is a pretty standard tweak

-I had games regularly crashing and causing my graphics card to overheat after about 2 hours, turned the fancy window edges off, temperature monitor came down a good 12 degrees and it hasn;t complained since