[gamerguy127]

ok so i now have windows 7 ultimate and i want to install it today but before i do i just wanted to know the best course to take, so i have almost 80gb of stuff on my c drive which i have backed up onto my 500gb hard drive, the things i am worried about are . A steam . B itunes C. i have other games and such installed on my other hard drives because vista split my 160gb hdd into two 80gb ones i have installed games on those and on my external hdd will i have to install all of those again and is it worth just backing those up aswell and just wiping clean all of my internal hdd's ?

[OldBuzzard]

Most folks recommend a clean install. That would mean you would also have to re-install all of your applications, including the ones that are currently on your 2nd partition.

However, you COULD do an upgrade install, which would get around the reinstalling all of your applications problem.

IF your Vista install is a fairly recent one, and not real cluttered up, you just might give the upgrade install a try. If you are happy with the results, then you just saved a lot of work. If not, then you have lost the time that the upgrade install took, and you will be right where you are now.

One thing that will help if you have a decent 4GB USB Flash stick, is to make an .iso image of your install DVD, and use the MS flash drive utility which allows you to install from a USB device. It makes the install go a LOT faster. You can find that rascal here:
Microsoft Store: Download Manager Help

[Tipstaff]

Couple suggestions:

- Take a look at Apples site, as well as other sites on how to properly transfer your iTunes to another machine. See also my next suggestion.

- Some games don't keep their game saves strictly in the My Documents folder, so it's always a good idea to completely backup your users folder from within the actual folder called "Users" off of the main drive. Within each users actual folder are all your main folders, but there is a hidden one of importance called "Application Data". XPs "Documents and Settings" folder is now the "Users" folder, and the break down goes like this: Application Data\Local is what Local Directory was to XP, and Application Data\Roaming is what Application Data was in XP. Some applications, including games and iTunes, will save extra information inside the sub folders within these folder, and to do a proper backup you need those folders contents too. iTunes in particular keeps settings and folder listings within here, including directory listings (you'll see this referenced a lot when backing up iTunes). Another instance, if you are using Outlook, your PST file would be in the Application Data\Local\Microsoft\Outlook folder.

- Transferring Steam is easy. Just copy, literally, the entire folder somewhere. Once you have the OS up and running just install Steam, but don't load it. Then copy the original Steam folder to the new install, and overwrite the new Steam install. Log into Steam, let it update (if needed), and you're good to go. The only thing missing will be the desktop shortcuts, or "Program and Features" add\remove listings, but this isn't a problem as you can easily delete the games from within Steam anyways.

BTW, I too am of the mind to do a complete wipe, and clean install. You never know what can go wrong with doing an inplace upgrade. If you do an in place upgrade be sure you have plenty of space put aside on the C drive. You need a minimum of 20GB of free space just to upgrade, more is, however, better.

[gamerguy127]

thanks for the advice on steam, i think i'm gonna do a clean install so i have copied and pasted all the files directly from my C D and E drives into my external 500gb hdd so everything should be gd, also in itunes i always told it to save all music onto my pc so everything is in a file on my external so that shouldnt be a problem, any more advice before i get started?

[Tipstaff]

Although it might take some time, I would also use the "Windows Easy Transfer" wizard (Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools). Just backup everything to a folder on your external drive. Since you've probably already backed up your Documents folder you can leave that option off, or do it anyways as a precaution.

One thing I suggest if you do use this method is that you create 2 users on the new install. If, for any reason, you don't like what the wizard does with your data when it imports it, such as royally screwing up the user account, you will have a second account that you can log into in order to delete that user, and it's files/folders. That way you can easily start over with setting up the user account the way you want it.

[gamerguy127]

thanks for that advice, i did do the easy transfer although it took all night so i'll put win7 on today and come back to you with the results thanks