Specific questions about moving from XP-32 to Win7-64

I did a bit of searching on here and on Google looking for anything related to XP-Win7 and FAQs on the subject, but I couldn't find anything that answered my specific question, so here goes:-

I've been holding off upgrading (as in full Win7 install) my OS for way too long, now I've finally decided enough is enough! Win XP was great, up until VERY recently its ran practically everything I throw at it regardless of how old or new, but I've started to run into a few brick walls that I'm 98% sure are due to my ancient OS (mostly game & hardware compatibility). Having access to more than 4Gigs of RAM, DX10-11 & going 64-bit are the other main reasons. I've spent a while looking into dual booting too, but it just seems WAY too problematic and long winded given what I've read, I'd rather just make the full switch.

The main question is this though: I know that my system drive will be wiped clean, but its been so long since I even formatted that I can't remember how this will affect my other 2 HDDs which have all my games & progs installed. So, will I have to reinstall EVERYTHING on all 3 HDD's (due to lost reg entries I'm guessing), or will it only affect my system drive? I do a lot of music production so I'd hate to find that after the switch, all my projects and VST/other associations are messed up because I wasn't prepared LOL! Also if this is the case, should I uninstall all programs & games from my secondary HDD's NOW, rather than after the switch?

Last question: Why is that all games & programs seem to require an extra GIG of RAM on Win7? Shouldn't it be the same if anything? It seems counter-intuitive that a newer, more capable OS needs more juice to do everything that used to require a lot less juice!

These are pretty much the ONLY things left holding me back from making the change! I'd REALLY love some help on this so I can get with the times!

If its important, here are my specs (custom built):-

-Win XP pro 32-bit
-3.0GHz Dual Core CPU, no overclock
-64-bit capable Asrock mobo
-4Gigs of RAM
-Nvidia GTX650 Ti Boost 2Gigs VRAM

Cheers fellas!

 

Personal data files on drives other than C will still be there after installing 7. Those on C will disappear. ALL software will have to be reinstalled, so as you have installed some of your software to drives other than C - not a good idea at all imo - it would be best to uninstall it first or you will end up with a bit of a mess on these other drives.

Apart from having your software installation media available the most important thing of all is backup, so you should create full images of your OS and other drives containing installed software before starting out just in case you are unable to get 7 up and running for any reason, such as lack of drivers. Should you need to restore those images you will also need the imaging program's rescue disk to boot the system and restore the images.

You should also check Asrock for the availability of chipset drivers for Win 7 and get them downloaded first.

The main reason that newer software requires more space is because it is 64 bit. 64 bit uses a lot more RAM and disk space than 32 bit and the only benefit it confers is the ability to address more than 4GB of memory. If you do not intend adding more memory then you would probably be better off installing Win 7 32 bit. I did that on an older machine with 4GB and it runs beautifully.

 

Thanks for the help! So I'll start uninstalling all the non-important stuff like games first, they'll be easy enough to reinstall and I have my saves backed up.

Hopefully reinstalling Ableton with all the VST's, Photoshop and other stuff wont take TOO long but if its gotta be done its gotta be done. All my tracks and projects are already backed up too, so the only concern is possible lost file associations when I reinstall.

I'll check for Win7 drivers on Asrocks site next then, fingers crossed they'll exist (the mobos not TOO old but it IS pre-SATA III)

Cheers for clearing up the RAM confusion too, it makes sense now. I'll definitely be thinking about going above 4Gigs, or as much as it takes to help certain progs run smoothly! I actually have spare RAM lying around just going to waste ATM LOL.

Just one question before I get to it: The things you mentioned about creating backup images and rescue discs have me a bit confused. Up until now, I've done all my backing up by just making copies of files on other media but I've never created backup images or rescue discs. I know how to create disc images and the like, but I've never used this particular method before so is there anything specific I should know, or should googling for backup images & rescue discs be good enough to get me going?

Thanks again!

 

There are several free imaging programs available and they all offer or have the ability to create a rescue disc with which you can restore your computer to exactly how it was when the image was created. I can safely recommend Macrium Reflect, Easeus Todo, and Aomei Backupper so take a look at their websites.

 

Dual booting 2 Windows OSes is not problematic. Install a program like Paragon Partition Manager Free in Windows XP, create a new partition, and install Windows 7 on that partition. When you turn on the PC, you'll have the option to select Windows 7 or 'Earlier version of Windows'. It's as simple as that.

You can then at your leisure install your programs in Windows 7 and check that they work. Then uninstall them from Windows XP.

I have been dual booting Windows XP & 7 for 3 years - no problems at all.

 

With what Eldon said about dual-booting XP and 7, you'll need to resize the XP partition first with Paragon or whichever partitioning software you use. Split the drive in half if you have enough space. Then create the new partition for Win 7 from the unallocated space created by resizing the XP partition. Win 7 will detect the XP install and give you a boot choice screen.

However, if you then delete the XP partition, you'll still have that boot choice screen and will need to choose Win 7 every time. I don't know how to edit the BCD to get the computer to boot to Win 7 exclusively.

 

I recommended Paragon Partition Manager because I have been using it since 2007.
All you do is use the 'Create Partition Wizard'. You choose the size and file system of the new partition, and the program will do the rest.

 

Since you are going to be doing a clean install of the OS, re-installing all of your programs and adding more RAM, you might consider adding an ssd boot drive to your system (provided you don't have one already) which will greatly speed up boot and program load times. Win 7 has built-in support for ssds that XP didn't.

 

Thanks for the information about dual booting. The main misgivings came from reading a few forum threads elsewhere which had people complaining about something to do with conflicting filesystems or something like that. IIRC they were saying something along the lines of:-

"every time I want to boot into the other OS, I have to replace these drivers, or change these BIOS settings, or some other long winded process". It made me dread falling into that situation myself and it just put me off, but maybe they were doing something different to normal duel booting, I just cant remember!

Anyway I'm in the process of uninstalling all my games & programs from secondary drives (creating the reinstallation todo list took ages LOL), backing up any irreplaceables, and I'm yet to create a backup image of my XP installation. I'm hoping I can choose to back up only the OS & certain drivers, otherwise I just wont have the space to store it anywhere in the long term! Anything around 10gb is fine though, IIRC XP was something like 4-5 gig, fingers crossed.

I'd love to get an SSD as my system drive (along with my others) but ATM they're just WAY too expensive for my budget. I just bought a 2TB HDD for £70, thats a good price for me, SSD pricing is insane IMO! Give it a year (we hope!)... My mate swapped his old PS3 HDD for a solid and he said the difference in read times was incredible.

I'll post back just before I begin the final countdown lol. Cheers!

 

Not to make light of your budget but I chuckle when someone tells me that ssds are expensive. They are more costly than a comparable hdd for sure but they are still pretty inexpensive in my book. I paid $500 for my first 20MB hdd in 1986 so paying $100 or so today for a 200GB ssd is not even close to being expensive. :-D

 

Well, I'm about 98% ready to go ahead with formatting my system drive and installing Win7, but I've hit a brick wall (maybe I'm just too tired...).

I'm at the stage where I'm trying to create a backup image of my XP installation that I can boot from if things go to cop with Windows 7. I'm using AOMEI Backupper, but as simple as the interface and operation seems to be, I'm getting extremely confused to the point where I don't feel safe to continue!

First of all it seems like a 'Rescue/Restore image' is a different thing to a 'backup image'. So I'm creating a backup image of my entire system drive (I WISH I could backup ONLY the OS files, rather than everything) which I originally intended to put on one of my secondary HDD's, but then it occurred to me: How will I access any of my drives if I can't boot windows? So I'm guessing this means I have to have 2 USB sticks just to restore my XP installation (one containing my backup image, the other containing the rescue image and formatted as a bootable drive).

None of this really makes any sense to me ATM, I've been reading over the instructions on their site and I'm still just as confused as before :confused... Can I not just store my 'system backup' ISO on one of my secondary drives then boot using the USB stick (even then, how will I mount the b/up ISO to extract it if theres no imaging software due to a fudged installation?). I only have 1 32gb USB stick, so I can't use it for backup AND booting. I think I'm making a pigs ear of explaining things too due to my frustration at being so close yet suddenly so far! Part of me just wants to forget doing a system backup, but I'd probably end up regretting it!

I really need some help, I've taken a wrong turn somewhere, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing anymore... It was all fairly straightforward until now!

Cheers!

 

The process is -

Boot the imaging program, either in Windows or by booting its rescue CD or flash drive

Select 'Backup'

Select the drive or partitions to be backed up

Select the drive where the backup image file is to be stored

Select any available options for excluding file types and/or validating the backup

Run it.

The resulting backup is in a compressed format and is NOT BOOTABLE.

To restore the backup -

Boot the computer from the rescue CD or bootable flash drive

Select 'Restore'

Find and select the backup you want

Select the drive or partitions you want restored

Select the destination drive or partitions

Run it.


This is not specific to Aomei or any other program but they all work the same way.

 

Shuriken UK...

Apologies if I am missing the core of your difficulty. Aomei should have a restore .iso you can burn to a CD/DVD that you could boot from to do the restoration, and you should have no problem inserting the flash drive and selecting the backup from that to perform the restoration.

Beyond this, Earthling's previous post addresses how to create the backup very well. One thing. Careful if you select to omit some file types as the OS itself (and programs) may have some, for example, jpgs or png files or mp3 and so on with video, also. Anyway, if you use this to get rid of your files, most of your program files would still be in the image. This could be a double problem, considering there might be some problems with the installation due to non-functioning programs. You might not be able to run some of the programs and then possibly not even normally uninstall them, and you might even end up with a blue screen. Even drivers could be affected by removing picture type files and so on.

Maybe you are confounded by imaging, because you don't get to deselect your files for the backup. I know this is true for the imager I use, but I do think it's possible that there might be one that will give you this ability. I guess the term imaging is for the most part defined practically to mean a full image of all of the contents of a drive partition. A testimony of this for me is that none of the imagers I have seen give the option to deselect files for an image backup. Again, I feel relatively certain there is probably one out there somewhere...

I'll take a look to see if I can find an imager that gives you the ability to deselect your files to save space, etc.

 

Shuriken UK...

Unable to find an imaging program that gives users the ability to remove their files from a backup image when it is created (if this is what you would like to do). However, if you have already backed up your files, you could just delete them from the XP installation before the backup. You could even go so far as to remove programs if you need to save a large amount of space...

 

I use AOMEI Backupper as well. I use high compression, smart sector copy and VSS. It creates a backup image of everything on the drive you're backing up. When you need to restore the drive, it will be bootable and if needed, you'll only have a few Windows Updates to install and some updates to the programs you have installed. It beats the heck out of having to spend all those hours re-installing the OS, configuring all of your settings and re-installing programs.

The only way you could simply back up the OS only, is if that's all you have installed (with updates and device drivers of course).

One thing about Backupper is if you have more than one system drive (I have 3) and you select System Backup in the backup options, it will create a single image of all of them. So, I always do a disk image and NOT a System image.

 

The best way to exclude your personal files from images is to create a data partition and move your personal profile folders - My Docs etc - into it. Then do a disk image of your OS partition only. Windows caters for this by providing a Location tab on the Properties of each personal profile folder. You use the Location tab to move it in a way that enables your programs to know where the data has gone. There is another benefit from this, in that should you need to restore an image you avoid the problem of all your data files being reverted to their state at the time the backup was created, as that can cause major data loss.

Alternatively you can use a paid imaging program such as Acronis or Paragon Hard Disk Manager, as these programs do allow you to specify file extensions to be excluded. Personally though I do not find that to be a practical approach to the problem.

 

Thanks to everyone for all your help and advice so far! I've succesfully created a highly compressed backup image of my system drive (after removing all non-essential programs & data to squeeze down the size) and have it stored on one of my secondary drives. I've also burnt a rescue disc (in Linux flavour, hopefully thats okay!) and have it stored in a hermetically sealed vault deep within a hidden arctic glacial site.

I chose the Linux boot-disc because I read on a few sites that WinPE doesn't support XP, only Vista & above, but then later I read that Linux recovery doesn't support 'hardware RAID'. After reading up about RAID it seems to be something you'd definitely KNOW if you had (most articles are about server systems or HDD arrays). I just have 3 HDD's in a bog-standard setup, not an array of them AFAIK. I checked 'device manager' & 'disk manager' and I THINK I'm in the clear.

I'm 100% ready now so I'm just about to format and begin final countdown! It might a good few hours, but I'm using Snappy Driver Installer to hopefully save the time taken fiddling with drivers and I've got all my driver discs on hand just incase lol.

I'll post back as soon as I can if things go smoothly!

Thanks again!

 

Shuriken UK...

Sounds like you have it all worked out. I do have a question for knowledge sake. Is the Linux rescue disk what AOMEI recommends for restoring the image (should you need to)? Just asking, because you will need a bootable program from AOMEI to restore the image. The image must be reconverted (uncompressed) using the same algorithm that was used to compress the image.

I use Paragon, and there is an option in the program to burn the restore utility, which is a bootable version of the program.

Don't think you have an issue with RAID. If you had RAID running, it would be fairly obvious.

Good luck. I am sure you won't have any problems. It really pays to go the extra mile when making this kind of change.

 

The only reason I'm using the Linux method is because I've read that the WinPE method (both are selectable options at the 'Create bootable disc' menu) is incompatible with Windows XP but is a lot more powerful & flexible. In AOMEI under the Linux option it states "you could create a Linux bootable disc without installing any toolkits", but then I read on another site here: https://www.winhelp.us/configure-aomei-backupper-in-windows.html that I should download another Linux recovery image from their own site...

It actually seems like I might have missed a really important step!

Thanks, I'm glad I made a last minute check!

 

Disregard this, duplicate post. Sorry!

Edit: I can't edit my last post to add this so I'll stick it here: Having checked out the Linux recovery image taken from the website I was reading through, it turns out to be exactly the same file I have already (identical in name & size), so I think everythings good for now.

Cheers!

 

The problem with Linux rescue disks is sometimes they do not detect all of your drives. You need to check this before going ahead by booting to the rescue disk and doing a dummy restore run to prove that the program can see both the disk containing the backup image and the disk to which the image would be restored. This doesn't ever happen with the WinPE version so that is normally the preferred version. I have never heard that WinPE cannot be used with XP systems but don't have an XP system I could test it on. Mdonah does though so hopefully he will pop up.

It's a good idea to do a dummy restore run anyway - you don't want to be having to find out how you do a restore when under fire

 

With AOMEI Backupper, both the Linux and WinPE versions of the Rescue Disk are just fine with Win XP. With the WinPE version though, you can back up individual files and folders if you're running Backupper from the CD although you can't with the installed version (I don't know why this feature isn't included in the installed version — EDIT: I haven't tried to do so with version 2.5).

 

Ah man, I should've just tried the WinPE option instead before opting for the Linux method. After reading on the site I mentioned earlier that WinPE might not be supported by XP, or that I'd have to download extra toolkits I just went straight for the Linux option because I'm an eager beaver lol.

The main reason I'm posting anyway is to let everyone know I didn't die trying to install Win7 (EVEN from a bootable USB stick!), everything worked out in the end. I'm just installing all the essential drivers right now with Snappy Driver Installer which seems to be a great little (or huge) utility! Its detected all my hardware and given me the latest drivers for everything, I cant believe I only learn't about this the other day! I'm itching to get Ableton back up & running and to see what some of these DX10 games look like after being stuck with DX9 for so long. Fingers crossed most of my retro games still work too thoughrolleyes

I don't know where I'd be without all the help you lot have given me (probably somewhere back in 2005) so I tip my hat to all of you, huge thanks for sticking with me for so long!!

One last question I forgot to ask: On my system information, it still says that only 3.5 of my 4GB of RAM is usable, despite now running in 64bit. Could this be something I've messed up without realising? Do I have to configure any other settings to allow the system to use the rest of the RAM?

Feels good to finally be reasonably upto date! Cheers all.

 

The problem is your graphics also require memory. Sounds like you have 512MB onboard graphics so only 3.5GB still available for RAM. To make matters worse, 64bit also uses far more memory for any given task than does 32bit, which is why I posted this earlier.

So the answer is to add more memory.

 

A couple of fresh memory sticks will be the next upgrade then ASAP. I only have 2 slots so I'll see if I can hook up two 4GB sticks. Memory is one of the few PC components that has a price range I'm comfortable with :-D!

As for my onboard GPU I'm not sure about its VRAM, it could be 512mb. I have it disabled in the BIOS though and I'm using my GTX650 which has 2GB. I take it virtual memory is completely unrelated to RAM too? I've always had 4gbs of it setup since XP IIRC.

Thanks!