Some Confusion on Upgrading OS

[windchaser90]

So, I'm a little confused and need some help upgrading my OS. I'm building a new computer, first ever, and I'm reusing the hard drive from my current computer for it. I want to upgrade the OS on it from Windows Vista Home 32-bit to Windows 7 Home 64-bit. The Windows Vista was pre-installed on the computer when I bought it so I don't have an install disc for it. How would I go about upgrading?

Also, if I decided to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro instead, since they have the upgrade so cheap for now, could I just buy the upgrade from the website and have the disc shipped and do a custom install? Or do the upgrades detect whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit on your computer and upgrade accordingly? I really don't know how it all works lol.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

You could just get an upgrade disc, or a full retail w7 disc. Either would do the trick I believe, though the full retail would get you rights to transfer to a different machine in the future instead of being tied to one machine.

As for 32bit to 64bit, that is a no-go - to change to 64bit you have to do a clean install.

Hope this helps.

 

[windchaser90]

Kind of a really stupid question but how do you do a clean install? What all do I need to do for this?

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Not a stupid question, makes sense if you haven't done it before.

You'll need to boot from the CD rather than your Hard drive. You can change the boot options by pressing a button right after you turn the computer on, or by going into BIOS and being sure it is set to try to boot from CD before hard drive.

Once it boots from the CD, it will give you prompts to direct you through the install process. Doing a clean install means erasing the old/existing operating system, and installing the new one in its place. That means you'll need to save any files you don't want deleted.

Starting to make more sense?

 

[windchaser90]

Yea, thanks a lot.

If you change the option in the BIOS, would you put the disc in after changing the setting then restart so it'll boot from the disc or will it just auto do it right after changing the option and putting the disc in? OH, when you says press a button, does it prompt you to just press any button to boot from the disc then you mean? So it'd be like, pop the disc in, restart, and it'll bring up a prompt to press a button to boot from disc?

Another question, if I get an OEM version and do a clean install and the motherboard dies some months later or something and I get a brand new one to replace it, would I need to buy a whole brand new disc for the OS or can I reuse the OEM version I used on the dead motherboard?

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Simplest thing to do is put the disc in, restart, and see if it just starts from the disc. If not, reboot, access bios by pressing the appropriate key when it first powers on (key varies, sometimes del, f11, tab, etc).

Once you ensure cdrom is before hard drive in the boot order, you will save the setting then exit, and it will then reboot and boot from the cd.

If the mobo dies and you replace it, it will probably just work without reinstalling Windows. If you have to reinstall with the new mobo, you should still be able to use the oem disc, as its only one component changing.

 

[windchaser90]

Alright, thanks so much! That was extremely helpful .