I'm just about to install Windows 10 (64-bit) ... a little late to the party, sure ... but better than never, right? There is just too many things that my Win 7 installation prevents me from using ... even things like effects that I have already purchased that are balking at my wimpy win 7 OS ... anyway ... the time is now.
 
In the past I have always done a complete wipe ... I mean, no dingle berries or nothing ... a complete wipe of the hard disk. Fresh install. This time I'm wondering if all that might be overkill? My system is still pretty new in that, while old in spec, still has very low overall mileage. It runs great as well ... everything works ... It's just that, I can't enjoy many of the things I would like to with my system configured this way ... and, you get no support ... especially from Microsoft. So, time for an upgrade.
 
Just wondered if anybody has had success merely updating their OS from Win 7 to Win 10? ... or, is it still worth backing everything up, wiping the disk, and doing a fresh install? I'm guessing I only have maybe 45-60 hours total on this machine the way it is now ... and it is a dedicated DAW laptop. A Dell Dimension 5000 series. So, there is little else even installed on the machine ...
 
It's just all the installing that is involved with the later that is giving me pause ... wanted to check in with you guys before I put on my safety helmet and get down to the nitty gritty suck that surely lies ahead.
 
What think the smart people of the Cakewalk forum?

I always nuke it and start over when doing an OS install. You never know if things that were not quite right will get mysteriously inherited. I did a full wipe and reinstall on Win 10 back in Feb and things have been pretty smooth although I have currently deferred the Creators Update for a bit. Things are running fine for me so why mess it up over a bunch of features I won't quite need.
 

Because Hard drives are always improving and are relatively cheap I always buy a new OS drive.  I disconnect the original OS drive but leave it in there.  
I then put in the new drive and start fresh. If something goes sideways it only takes a cable swap to power up the old drive and Operating system. Also the old drive is right there to transfer all your data within the machine which is super fast. 

wipe completely!

I like the idea of having my current hard drive available should anything go south. Never thought of that.
 
What I'm kinda wondering here though is, since not much has deteriorated thusfar on my current system, if I can get away with merely upgrading? But so far the comments are leading me to stick with my original plan of attack ... which is a complete wipe.
 
It's just ... man ...
 
You gotta stay psyched up for a while ...

pwalpwal
wipe completely!

My Mom taught me that too.
 

Agree - wipe completely.  I never upgrade anything...

I knew it ... dang ...
 
Okay ... I'm goin' in ... send rescue squad if I'm NOT heard from in two weeks time ... It's gonna get messy.

I've done one upgrade and one fresh install. Can't tell the difference in performance between them.

mudgel
I've done one upgrade and one fresh install. Can't tell the difference in performance between them.

ditto, i done 3 in place installs and 2 fresh installs, they all work like clockwork, can't tell the difference, but there is a difference, i save myself literally about a week on each daw pc with the amount of software and plugins and set up required by doing the in place upgrades, if i had the choice again i would do the same thing, saves so much time and effort and everything just kept running like a dream. of course everything was backed up with acronis ti  2017 just incase, but there was no need.