Windows 7

zappaDPJ · Feb 23, 2010, 15:58:44

I bought it when it first came out but never installed it. The new hard drive I've bought has just arrived which means I've got no excuse for putting it off any longer. I think it'll take a week to get my PC back into a state where I can actually use it, Nearly a terabyte of software and data to deal with

Glenn · Feb 23, 2010, 16:01:53

Have fun, good luck

Rik · Feb 23, 2010, 16:02:32

That's why I hate buying new machines, Zap, it takes so long to get everything the way I want it.

Glenn · Feb 23, 2010, 16:21:43

Then it's time to buy another one.

Rik · Feb 23, 2010, 16:23:43

You trying to get rid of me, Glenn?

Glenn · Feb 23, 2010, 16:25:14

I don't think anybody on here would want to lose you, Rik.

Rik · Feb 23, 2010, 16:26:53

Lose maybe not, get a break from...

Glenn · Feb 23, 2010, 16:29:49

We've had too many of those recently.

Rik · Feb 23, 2010, 16:30:45

True...

gizmo71 · Feb 23, 2010, 16:35:14

Quote from: Rik on Feb 23, 2010, 16:02:32
That's why I hate buying new machines, Zap, it takes so long to get everything the way I want it.

I have it down to a fine art - I keep a log of all the settings I do manually, so once the installs are done it only takes me a few minutes to have it all set up the way I like it. (In fact I cheat and have a lot of the settings in my domain's group policy objects, but that's not an option for most).

Rik · Feb 23, 2010, 16:41:58

You're a faster man that I Gunga Din.

bobleslie · Feb 23, 2010, 21:45:54

Here's some upgrade options for Windows 7.

Steve · Feb 23, 2010, 22:15:00

Are those for Rik

Rik · Feb 24, 2010, 09:50:07

Hey, leave the dinosaur in peace.

JB · Feb 24, 2010, 10:50:11

Quote from: Rik on Feb 24, 2010, 09:50:07
Hey, leave the dinosaur in peace.

+1

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2010, 17:06:51

OK, I'm now posting from Windows 7 (64 bit). What I've had to do is disconnect my rather large Vista installation, plug in a new drive and install 7. I'm still reinstalling drivers, applications and everything else that made my PC mine. Every so often I find I can't do what I want to do and I have to revert back to the Vista installation.

Very soon I'll be in a position where I want to copy data from the Vista installation and because of the huge amount involved I have no choice but to have both installations running side by side.

So my question is, does anyone know what exactly will happen when I try to do this? The bottom line is I simply can't afford for 7 to write something to the Vista drive that will stop it working as a bootable stand alone installation as I'm bound to have forgotten something I will need.

Rik · Mar 08, 2010, 17:08:28

Pass, sorry, Zap.

DorsetBoy · Mar 08, 2010, 17:50:38

Don't see why Win7 would do anything to another drive. People use external hardrives to move files across or PC2 PC using Easy transfer.

On my own machine I just installed Win7 on the same drive so I was dual booting and dragged the files/folders etc. from Vista to Win7.

Once I had no more use for Vista I used the partition for other Os's.

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2010, 18:16:36

If memory serves, previous versions of Windows on seeing two bootable drives would write to the FAT of one drive because of the conflict that arises with two 'C:' drives. I know in the past I've had issues with this but I can't really recall the details. It could be that I'm being paranoid but I no longer have a backup of the Vista installation and there's bound to be items I need that I can only gain access to by having it bootable.

DorsetBoy · Mar 08, 2010, 18:25:06

You could always ask the folk here >> http://www.w7forums.com/ <<

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2010, 18:48:49

Thanks for the link, I may well do that

kinmel · Mar 08, 2010, 20:11:35

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Mar 08, 2010, 18:16:36
If memory serves, previous versions of Windows on seeing two bootable drives would write to the FAT of one drive because of the conflict that arises with two 'C:' drives. I know in the past I've had issues with this but I can't really recall the details. It could be that I'm being paranoid but I no longer have a backup of the Vista installation and there's bound to be items I need that I can only gain access to by having it bootable.

On this machine I have 4 drives, each with their own O.S. and each original install was done with just the relevant drive connected.

Now all 4 drives are always connected and I choose which O.S. runs by selecting which drive I want at boot up.

Once booted the selected drive with the in-use O.S. on always becomes C:, other drive letters shuffle about to accommodate that and there is never a conflict.

You can move data between drives, or use it from another drive. However you cannot run programs installed on a different drive by another O.S.

D-Dan · Mar 08, 2010, 20:17:05

You have 7 on a new drive - so power off, reconnect the old drive, and power on. Enter the BIOS settings and ensure that the Win 7 drive is the first HD in the boot order. Save and boot.

Windows 7 will leave your old installation alone, and will simply mount the drive as a date drive, allowing you to copy whatever you need off it. If 7 goes t!ts up, change the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the Vista install.

Steve

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2010, 21:39:23

OK thanks for the replies, I think I'm convinced now. I appreciate the feedback

D-Dan · Mar 08, 2010, 21:54:50

QuoteNow all 4 drives are always connected and I choose which O.S. runs by selecting which drive I want at boot up.

If any of them are Linux, Set that drive to boot and repair grub - then you'll get a boot menu without having to constantly fiddle with the BIOS - and it won't affect your MBR for the Windows installs, so if Linux (or GRUB) dies you simply change the boot order and voila - I've done it this way for 3 - 4 years with no problem.

Steve

kinmel · Mar 08, 2010, 23:14:58

Quote from: D-Dan on Mar 08, 2010, 21:54:50
If any of them are Linux, Set that drive to boot and repair grub - then you'll get a boot menu without having to constantly fiddle with the BIOS - and it won't affect your MBR for the Windows installs, so if Linux (or GRUB) dies you simply change the boot order and voila - I've done it this way for 3 - 4 years with no problem.

Steve

Both ways work just fine, but if you are using multiple drives, GRUB provides nothing extra.

Modern BIOSs give you the chance to select the boot device during start-up without having to go into the BIOS itself and if none has been selected after 20 seconds, it then boots the default choice .

This method also has the benefit of allowing me to select a bootable USB device at start up.

D-Dan · Mar 08, 2010, 23:51:05

My MB is about three years old - maybe they've advanced since - I expect I'll find out later this year when I upgrade my MB/CPU/RAM

Steve

kinmel · Mar 09, 2010, 07:26:06

It's one of those "features" you either use all the time, or else never use at all !

zappaDPJ · Mar 09, 2010, 08:24:39

I'm about to put that to the test. I've found so many things that won't run in Windows 7 64 bit I'm going to start again by installing the 32 bit version and I want to wipe all traces of the current installation. It's a good job I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, that's around a week's worth of time gone west $:-\$

DorsetBoy · Mar 09, 2010, 09:00:44

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Mar 09, 2010, 08:24:39
I'm about to put that to the test. I've found so many things that won't run in Windows 7 64 bit I'm going to start again by installing the 32 bit version and I want to wipe all traces of the current installation. It's a good job I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, that's around a week's worth of time gone west $:-\$

What have you found that won't run in Win7 64bit?

zappaDPJ · Mar 09, 2010, 10:20:01

Quite a number of things. These two gadgets don't work which is a pain because I use them all the time, every day: http://www.dailysnooze-gadgets.com/ There is a workaround for 64 bit but it will only work with Vista.

My Plantronics headset which is totally reliant on Windows drivers won't work correctly, the mike is muted on some applications and I'm having problems getting other devices to work such as a HP laser printer.

I have a few older applications that are doing strange things such as Photoshop 7.0 which continually crashes when I try to save a files of a certain size (in terms of x,y dimensions).

The major one though is my Asus motherboard which is constantly warning me that my processor is overheating. It isn't but it thinks it is. This particular motherboard usually has an application running in the background that controls BIOS functions at an OS level. That won't run at all and I'm assuming that's causing the issue but I've not really done any research on it.

I only have 4GB of RAM so it's not essential that I run in 64 bit and it's no big deal to go back to 32 bit.

zappaDPJ · Mar 13, 2010, 17:17:22

I'm now running Windows 7 (32 bit) and I'm much happier than I was running the 64 bit version. Everything seems to running correctly and after a bit of customisation I feel quite at home with it. The only thing that annoys me intensely is that Windows to this day still doesn't fully support two displays. You can't for example change the backdrop or the way they appear on individual displays and things don't map correctly. I'm pretty sure the next PC I build will support three displays and I dread to think what problems I will encounter with that.

I've also taken the opportunity to drop IE8 and Chrome in favour of Firefox. Contrary to popular belief Firefox does not render faster than IE (it's actually quite slow in comparison) although it does score a huge plus in that it renders web content correctly! I also love the way you can skin it with a predefined skin at the click of a button and the way it handles downloaded files is superb. The only negative point I've encountered is that plugins are an absolute b****** to install. The fact that most plug-in vendors have to detail a work around is testament to that. I understand the reasoning behind it and it's a one off problem but it started to put me off using it at one point.

Oh one last thing, I've switch to FF for a number of reasons, one of them being the built in spell checker. Um, where is it and how do I get it to work?

Rik · Mar 13, 2010, 17:24:12

You need to download the British dictionary, Zap, after which it just works. Most addons are similarly simple, which ones are you having problems with?

I do recommend getting hold of a copy of FEBE, which will back up your entire profile, or parts of it. Cookie Culler is another useful one, imo.

zappaDPJ · Mar 13, 2010, 18:10:40

The two addons that have given me the most grief are Adobe Flash Player and an embedded video player that Microsoft requires to watch embedded video content on their site. The Flash problem I eventually fixed using Adobe's work around but I gave up on the MS issue and downloaded the content to watch in a stand alone player.

Thanks for the heads up on the spilling chucker

and I'll look into your other recommendations Rik