Format clean install using upgrade win7 disk?

Hello,

I want to format my Vista 1 yr old computer. I bought the computer during the available get win7 upgrade disk. I installed the win7 disk when it came in the mail. Now I want to format, after installing games, betas, etc.

Can I just use the win7 upgrade disk? Or do I have to go through the whole reinstall Vista again, then the win7 upgrade disk.

Any helpful suggestions or replies would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

I can't be absolutely certain about this without trying it myself, which I am not able to do, but with all previous versions of Windows you could do a clean install with an upgrade disk, but before it actually went ahead it would ask you to insert your full retail previous version disk first. If you don't have such a disk it may or may not succeed.

I suggest you try this, but before doing so you should use an imaging program to capture and store an image of your present setup just in case it doesn't work. If you do not have such a program at present then you could use the free version of Macrium Reflect. The image can be stored on DVDs, but if you have an external disk or another networked machine you could store it on then that would be much better. It is essential to create the Macrium Rescue CD in case you need to reinstate the image later

 

Thanks for replying, I'm getting conflicting infos.
I have the Windows Vista Home Prem SP1 recovery DVD distributed w/for Asus.
I guess it depends what kind of upgrade disk too?
Mine says, Win Vista HmPrm - Win 7 HmPrm UPG Fullfill Asus w/ a product key.

It's about time to format and thought wouldn't be cooler to just start form win7, but thought to ask.

 

Well that's the position I was in when I bought a PC with XP and a free Vista upgrade. I did a clean install with the upgrade disk and it was successful, so although it may or may not work for you, as long as you protect your present setup in the way I have described you have absolutely nothing to lose.

A clean install is so much more satisfactory than an upgrade, but you should check first that the Win 7 drivers you may need are available on the Asus site. Win 7 is very strong on drivers though so you may not need any.

 

This aticle might be helpful.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/clean-install-with-windows-7-upgrade-media-get-the-facts/1505

Do let us know how you get on, as I'm sure there will be a lot of interest in this.

 

The licensing rules are there,
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
and I have found that windows 7 will not always load, if the hard drive was blank- occasionally, I had to put the original OPERATING SYSTEM ON THEN DO AN UPDATE (where you can load , and keep the old system as windows old, and access your old files through that), or, choose advanced and then format and clean install.