Windows 7 Upgrade (smooth as silk)

I have just completed an "in-place" upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and I am very surprised to say that it all went without incident. The upgrade took a little over four hours and, sure enough, all my programs and settings were intact and usable when I was finally able to boot into Windows 7 for the first time.

I suspect that it all went so well because I took all the necessary steps prior to starting the process. This means scanning your Vista system using Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and updating where it advises that you should. In my case that was a webcam driver and two items from my graphics card which Windows "suggested" should be uninstalled and then reinstalled again after the upgrade was complete. Since these were classified as "suggestions", I let them stay as they were with no negative effects. All in all, a very uneventful operation if one has made the necessary preparations to ensure their system is ready for the upgrade.

Sadly, it's not so easy for those folks trying to upgrade from Windows XP to Window 7. In that case, it will require a "clean install" which means formatting your hard drive and losing all your programs and settings, so preparing a complete backup of those items is a godsend when you have to start re-installing them all. Make sure you have as many of the "install discs" as you can find and be prepared to redownload the rest from the internet.

That being said there is an alternative method (costing about $20). It's called "PC Mover" and the "Upgrade" version can be found here. It claims to be able to accomplish an "in place" upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows XP and several other Windows operating systems. I have not tried this out myself but I've been told that it works very well. I'd still most certainly do a complete backup (just in case).

Recycle or Renew?

If your computer has failed you and you're wanting to re-install your operating system OR you want to do a "clean install" of a new operating system (like Windows 7) OR you're getting rid of an older computer, then you will need to remove all the old data from your current hard drive. Removal of all the previous data ensures that there is no opportunity for identity theft from easily accessed "old" information. There are many programs that can do this, but one of the best and easiest is Darik's Boot and Nuke, a freeware program that is available online for download. DBAN, as it is called, can safely and completely overwrite a hard drive using the same data destruction techniques as the RCMP, for example. There are many tutorials online with instructions on how to do this. (Note- Be sure that you don't have any data on any connected hard disks that you want to recover because DBAN will delete all the drives it detects.)

If you don't feel comfortable using this program after reading all the "on-line" info, the next best thing is simple to remove the hard drive and destroy it manually. This, of course, means that you will have to acquire a new hard drive for your computer.