Windows 8 Upgrade

[camdave]

A question for the 'techies';
I have a Sony all-in-one running Vista which has a 'hidden' partition with full recovery software installed. If I was to take advantage of the still available Windows 8 Upgrade disc for £60.00 and do a fresh install on the C drive is it likely that the recovery partition would be preserved in case I decided to go back to Vista.

[Steve]

I think even with Windows 8 your unlikely to return to Vista, imo the hidden partition should remain intact as by the name it's on a different drive/partition than a fresh install on C:\

[camdave]

Having spent some time today 'digging around' on the net I have concluded that my question is redundant.
It appears that Sony in particular and also HP etc. are not supporting older PCs (including mine) with updated drivers for Windows 8 and that MS generic drivers may not work properly.

I think my current Sony is a great PC but in future I will stick to 'unbranded' machines from system builders (see my recent 'What would you do' thread); standard parts and no c**** software, definitely the way to go.

[Technical Ben]

Worse, most companies aint supporting 8 with drivers... 

[cavillas]

Worse, most companies aint supporting 8 with drivers... 

Nearly all windows 7 drivers work flawlessly with windows 8, those that don't also have trouble with windows 7, that includes 32 bit and 64 bit.

[Technical Ben]

Just talking from experience. A new Win 8 laptop had "unsupported hardware in Windows 8" from the box. 

[Steve]

I would have returned that, how can a manufacturer bundle the two together and expect it to be ok with the customer.

[camdave]

Just to clarify - are you saying that manufacturers are knowingly shipping 'Windows 8' machines with hardware or software which is not compatible with W8? If this is so the case for Windows 7 is surely proven.

[Ray]

I doubt that's the case I've upgraded a 2 year old HP laptop from W7 to W8 without encountering any problems with drivers.

[Gary]

Sony have drivers sometimes for specific pieces of hardware which have been written for their devices only, and generic drivers may not work with them. Asus laptops can be the same with cranky touch volume controls that Microsoft won't provide generic drivers for.

[Technical Ben]

I would have returned that, how can a manufacturer bundle the two together and expect it to be ok with the customer.

While true, it's happened a few times over. Vista and 7 IIRC even had this. New/old hardware and a new OS and drivers really struggle to get released on time. Especially if it's a laptop meant for 7, or an early release of 8, and by the time it's out 8 is has changed.

Can't remember the specific bit of hardware on the laptop, I'm sure it was a Samsung, it might have been it's webcam.

Although most will send an update out online. Can still end up with little niggles like Web cams or Display drivers having quirks. As an example, it took HP something like a year or two to push out the .1/2 DirectX revisions for my graphics card driver. :/

[Den]

Where can I get these drivers that wont work on Windows 8?   I feel that I've been robbed as all mine work and have done from the day that Microsoft released Windows 8. 

[Steve]

You'll need the hardware to go with them Den.

[pctech]

It depends very much on how proprietary the hardware is, whether the system manufacturer is still integrating it into its new systems or offering it for sale, whether the latest version supports the same operational codes (bit patterns the hardware understands) as the version you have or simply whether they are prepared to spend the money on the development time required to write the drivers to work with the new OS which may well be influenced on how many of the item they actually sold, if it was popular and abandoning it is likely to cause damage to the brand they are perhaps more likely to spend the time but if they didn't sell that many they are less likely to.

[camdave]

Leaving aside the totally different interface the above comments go some way to explaining why opinions on Windows 8 are so polarised.

It is/was the same with Vista. When I bought the Sony Vista had been around for nearly two years and I have had only one issue which was Panda AV; ran on XP OK but constant problems on Vista.

I will continue to be a late adopter.

[Den]

I like the cutting edge