Hi, I have HP dv6910tx laptop which came with Windows Vista Home premium. Now I want to upgrade to Windows 7. I checked with Windows upgrade advisor and found that my laptop can be upgraded to Windows 7 home premium or ultimate edition. Now the question is that should I opt to upgrade it or install Windows 7 from scratch. This laptop came preloaded with several softwares/settings like HP softwares, DVD RW/other drivers, movie editors and other softwares/hardware drivers. Now when I upgrade to Windows 7 will it pose a problem. (As per Windows upgrade advisor report, softwares installed in my laptop has a update available which I need to install so as to make them work with Windows 7). Will I able to use the recovery option (from Drive D) to install all preloaded softwares/drivers? How to go about it? I feel opting for installation from scratch would be the correct step. Should I opt for upgrade or fresh install and how to proceed further? Should I install Windows 7 in drive E (second partition of my drive) and keep Vista as it is? I will be basically working only on one OS (Windows 7) so second one is waste for me. So in this case if I keep Windows Vista in drive C and Windows 7 in drive E will my softwares/drivers still work in the same way? What is recommended? Thanks Saurabh

Hi, A clean install is usually the preferred method when possible. Check with HP Support, their on-line documentation and drivers, and ask in the HP Forums for known issues. HP does have a lot of support and help for upgrading compatible models to Windows 7. If you do a clean install then all programs will need to be re-installed. Also you data will have to be restored from backups so be sure you have them using redundant methods - safety in numbers. If you upgrade then the programs (those that will run) and data will be in-place however there are some issues that sometimes affect performance though some have no issues. If you Dual Boot the applications from the Vista install will not be available in Windows 7 so you would have to re-install those. The data on the Vista partition would be accessible to Windows 7. ================================================================== HP Support & Drivers http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html Contact HP http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html HP Forums http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/ ================================================================== How do I Perform a Clean Installation of Windows? http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/f/clean-install-windows.htm How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7 - this wipes ALL programs and data out http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Windows 7 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html What are the system recovery options in Windows 7? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-7 How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html How to Do a Inplace Upgrade Installation from Vista to Windows 7 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1818-upgrade-install-windows-7-a.html Installing and reinstalling Windows 7 (Upgrade - keep programs and data OR Clean Installation which deletes them) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7 Hope this helps. Rob Brown - Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows Expert - Consumer : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

According to HP's support site http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&tool=&query=dv6910tx&product=3761339& there are no Windows 7 drivers for your notebook. If you have the ability to create a disk image, I would try the upgrade rather than a clean install. I found on my Gateway M6850-fx (which doesn't have any Win7 drivers either) that the upgrade was perfectly happy with using the already-installed Vista drivers when there were no Windows 7 drivers to install. I have no errors, and the laptop is definitely faster than it was with Vista installed. The reason I mention the imaging is in case the upgrade doesn't go well, then you can always restore the image and be right where you are now. I did two important images (although they all are) on mine- one right before I upgraded to Win7 and the other right before I installed SP1. So far, so good. I haven't had to look back at all :-) SC Tom

Thanks Rob Brown and SC Tom for your reply. It is really helpful. @SC Tom: I have read number of posts and also think that doing clean installation should be the best option. Windows 7 drivers are not available for my notebook. So instead of upgrading my OS if I do a clean installation and then install those drivers in Windows 7 (if they don't then install them in Vista compatible mode, think there is an option available for the same). So ideally the drivers should work??? Before proceeding further I will run Windows update so as to check whether any update of driver/software is available or not. Suggestions???

<Saurabh Suri> wrote in message news:e8ca537a-b1b6-4ea8-a08a-70af18ca348b@communitybridge.codeplex.com... Thanks Rob Brown and SC Tom for your reply. It is really helpful. @SC Tom: I have read number of posts and also think that doing clean installation should be the best option. Windows 7 drivers are not available for my notebook. So instead of upgrading my OS if I do a clean installation and then install those drivers in Windows 7 (if they don't then install them in Vista compatible mode, think there is an option available for the same). So ideally the drivers should work??? Before proceeding further I will run Windows update so as to check whether any update of driver/software is available or not. Suggestions??? If you're going to do a clean install, be sure to have a CD with the Vista drivers on hand before starting- you may or may not need them. That was one of the reasons I did an upgrade instead of a clean install- I figured that since the Vista drivers were already there that Windows 7 would just continue using them if there were no Windows 7 drivers available. It seemed to work; I didn't have to provide any drivers during setup or afterwards. Also, one of the advantages to doing an upgrade installation instead of a clean install is that you won't have to reinstall any software you currently have installed. The only time I have ever done a clean install was at work when we got a batch of new PC's in with no OS installed at all. Then I installed the OS and other software on one, imaged it, and then wrote that image to the rest. I'd much rather do an upgrade than a clean install- less time and configuring :-) SC Tom

Hi, You need to contact HP Support and ask in their forums since they do not have Windows 7 drivers there is a good chance that Windows 7 will not run properly. Also run the Upgrade Advisor and check in the Compatibility Center for the major devices. Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor <-- please run this now http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx Also check the Compatibility Center (for device compatibility)? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx Hope this helps.Rob Brown - Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows Expert - Consumer : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.