Need advice - upgrade from windows XP to Windows 7

galadial

galadial

galadial

Associate
Joined
5 Jan 2004
Posts
663
HI All,

It's been quite some time since I've delved into computer hardware and sofware issues and I need a bit of advice from the end users - that's you - as you all seem to know what's what ;)

My computer won't boot anymore. This was caused by my BT home reuter which needed resetting several times (in order to get it to work) resulting in my computer that was attached to it by an ethernet cable first losing the internet signal (even though it was hard wired to the reuter), then reporting a significant hardware change necessitating a revalidation of my windows XP OS, and finally it won't boot :(

SO, I was going to bite the bullet and buy a new hard drive for a fresh install of windows 7. THe old hard drive will be used as a slave to retrieve old files should my external drobo (which is nicely backed up - yippee for that!), fail in some way to restore critical files.

MY questions are:

what version of windows 7 do I need? I game and use my PC for digital editing (50Mb TIFFs)?

Do I need the 32 bit or 64 bit version? Will both 32 and 64 bit allow my to use 4Gb of RAM?

will my old software work fine with windows 7? I could list the software if that helps - but obviously I have a lot and that would take quite some time!

Thanks for your help!

Pete
 
Last edited:
galadial said:
My computer won't boot anymore. This was caused by my BT home reuter which needed resetting several times (in order to get it to work) resulting in my computer that was attached to it by an ethernet cable first losing the internet signal (even though it was hard wired to the reuter), then reporting a significant hardware change necessitating a revalidation of my windows XP OS, and finally it won't boot :(
Click to expand...

Router settings will not cause Windows to need reactivation! I have no idea what you did, but I doubt it was the router. In any case, a machine that needs reactivating wont stop booting either. You just get nagged to death and get randomly shutdown. Which begs the question - what's wrong with your machine?

SO, I was going to bite the bullet and buy a new hard drive for a fresh install of windows 7. THe old hard drive will be used as a slave to retrieve old files should my external drobo (which is nicely backed up - yippee for that!), fail in some way to restore critical files.
Click to expand...

Good idea. Though I would be inclined to find out why my machine doesn't boot before I go splashing out on hardware. Still, any excuse to get rid of XP/Vista is a good thing.

what version of windows 7 do I need? I game and use my PC for digital editing (50Mb TIFFs)?
Click to expand...

I assume you aren't going to be connecting to a domain, so Home Premium should fit the bill nicely. There are umpteen guides out there that describe the major differences between the versions, so you can always take a look to see if you are missing out on anything you think you may need.

Do I need the 32 bit or 64 bit version? Will both 32 and 64 bit allow my to use 4Gb of RAM?
Click to expand...

If you have a 64-bit CPU, then you should install the 64-bit version of Windows. 32-bit wont see 4GB [depending on your hardware, you will see between 3 and 3.75GB]]. 64-bit will see far more than you could physically install on a typical motherboard.

will my old software work fine with windows 7? I could list the software if that helps - but obviously I have a lot and that would take quite some time!
Click to expand...

Most software should work with Windows 7, though obviously if you have some software you obsolutely cannot do without you should check compatability. Any decent/popular software should be compatible by now - Windows 7 is almost a year old [not counting BETA/RC of course].
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom