? on installing windows 7

Hi eveyone. In about a week I'll be getting my disc of windows 7, home premium, sp1. Have looked at two sites on how to do this. I have right now XP on C&D drives. D drive ( recovery ) , Compaq will not let me open it. Will that be deleted by the workings in the disc ? Or should I use a program to do the "cleaning " of both C & D ? Also , will I have windows 7 on only one drive? And , if something goes wrong, (I know that I can not go back to XP after it is wiped off the computer) can I use the disc's I made when I first got this computer, to again put XP back on the computer Thanks for any help or tips on doing this. Have a week to get it all straightened out in my mind. Have the instructions all printed out, but still have questions.

 

I think, thats think,,you will have the option on which drive to format, go with Windows 7. All support for XP ends before you will even get use to7. Then trying to downgrade will cause issues on getting drivers that may not be obtainable anymore. I personally would clear the whole disk ,install 7 and enjoy the fact that I can install all the newest software I want. Always be free and move forward!!!!

 

I would leave the D drive alone and install W7 on C with a format. The reason being that it's an older machine and I would want to make sure that 7 works on it before I burn my bridges. You can always expand into D after you test 7.

 

Good Morning. Thanks for replying Nick T and augiedoggie. Nick T, love your words at the end of your reply ,"Always be free and move forward ". I did the Win 7 advisor and will be getting one more ram stick (1 gb ), beside my printer it said something about Windows Aero. Whats that ? Don't use it so I guess I'm okay to go ahead with installing 7. What I'm hopeing for now is that someone who as upgraded from XP to Windows 7 will chime in with what happened when they did it. Yeah augiedoggie, this Presario 1200nx is getting on in age. Had it since 2003. So, if any thing goes wrong, guess I'll be buying a new PC, or be calling on you guys for help in fixing the computer. So , now I'll be looking for someone who has done the switch. "Thanks again "

 

Hi DavidGP. Aero looks nice but I'm using Windowsblind on the computer right now. Think I'll stick with what I have. On looking and updateing the drivers, I'll just have to wait until I see if my upgradeing to Win 7 will go well for me. If not, as Arnold said, " I'll be back ". Thanks for the sites to check my compatibility. Will look further into that.

 

David GP -Hi. Now I guess this is where I'm confused on what will happen. I am to do a clean ( custom ) install to get Win 7 on this computer. Yes, that I know. What I'm unsure of is does the disc do that for me or do I need a program like DBAN? Can I use CCLEANER to do that? It says it will delete all data on a drive with a wipe of space. When I Googled upgrading XP to Win7, it gave me Microsoft, and others,. So I printed Microsofts instructions. Like you said to uninstall my security, Microsoft says to turn it off. Now I need to know is what does a clean install wipe off the computer. I'm thinking I will have nothing left on the computer to interfere with install Win 7. I was hopeing someone who has done the XP to Win 7 would tell me what to expect when doing this. I really don't mind doing this myself-love to learn more. If I do crash this computer, no biggie. It's like augiedoggie said, it is an old machine. I also just sold my other home (after 5 years on the market ) so I have a few bucks left to buy another computer. Just thought I'd like to see if I could do this without to much trouble.