MOP
01-08-2010, 05:59 AM
A warning from one of my tech sites! No one wants to lose precious data!
If you've got a Windows XP machine at home and you're looking to upgrade it to Windows 7, there's something you should know before you hit the install button. It turns out that Microsoft does not support what they call an “in-place” upgrade for Windows XP, meaning that Windows 7, upon install, will erase all of your old data and put all of your programs into a “Windows.old” file folder.
It's basically a clean install...
Take it from me, when I upgraded I lost a bunch of programs and files because I assumed Windows 7 would just migrate everything over, but boy was I wrong! In reality, I should have backed up all of my files to an external hard drive and uninstalled all of my important programs, then performed the “upgrade”. Then I could have just reinstalled all of my old programs and brought my files back over after it was finished, but alas, I didn't think I had to... Besides, what a time-sink!
If you've got a Windows XP machine at home and you're looking to upgrade it to Windows 7, there's something you should know before you hit the install button. It turns out that Microsoft does not support what they call an “in-place” upgrade for Windows XP, meaning that Windows 7, upon install, will erase all of your old data and put all of your programs into a “Windows.old” file folder.
It's basically a clean install...
Take it from me, when I upgraded I lost a bunch of programs and files because I assumed Windows 7 would just migrate everything over, but boy was I wrong! In reality, I should have backed up all of my files to an external hard drive and uninstalled all of my important programs, then performed the “upgrade”. Then I could have just reinstalled all of my old programs and brought my files back over after it was finished, but alas, I didn't think I had to... Besides, what a time-sink!