robert_e_bone


If you install Win 8 to a different partition, it will be a clean install to that partition, and you would have to install each and every application you wanted to run in Windows 8.

If you can run a backup of your system to an external drive (you should already have something in place for running and storing backups, right???), once you have a full image, run the Win 8 install as an update, choosing the keep all settings and applications option.

Bob Bone

I know this, that is why I wanted a migration tool. One that would move Windows 7 to Windows 8.


I have Windows features spread over 6 different drives: Pagefiles, Search, Rip Folder, Documents folder, Desktop, etc. etc.


If I update (upgrade-in-place) to Windows 8, I may need to check all these things carefully. Some Windows Tools (such as Network Monitor 3 and Visual Studio 2008) don't even navigate to the User directory properly (they assume C:\User\<name>). But if I install clean to a new partition I can keep it's defaults and not touch Win7. Then the migrate would move the Win 7 changes to Win 8. 


I have full backups of all partitions, but a restore of everything would take about a day - it takes that long to make images of all the  12 Terabytes of crap I've accumulated over the decades. And another day to make the last-minute image before the upgrade.


But anyway, even if there were a migration tool, who knows what bugs that may introduce - it may be worse than an upgrade-in-place.

Well I just bit the bullet and upgraded my Win7 DAW at home to Win 8 in place. I've installed Win8 a few times on work machines but those have always been clean installs before so this is my first time doing an upgrade.

The process went flawlessly and all my apps and data migrated fine. This is a 3 year old machine with a bunch of audio apps installed. X2A was intalled prior to the upgrade and it all works as before. All I did prior to the upgrade is uninstall MS security essentials and ran CCleaner to remove all cached files etc to avoid unnecessary junk being carried over to Win 8. 
No backups :) I started the install, went to have dinner and when I came back about 45 mins later it was about 90% through. The data migration took another 15 mins or so and it was done. So far everything I have tested is ok.

Very impressive how easy and painless it was.

What version of WIn 7 did you migrate from?

Win7 professional to Win8 pro.

That's one brave move - Mr 'No backups Noel'.  I guess you didn't get a lump of coal this year after all :)

There were a couple of other folks who also did the upgrade in place, and none have reported any issues with doing so, and I have not seen any griping in the Microsoft community about having problems with it either.

Bob Bone

Ok I have a question, I have w7 on a 60gig ssd , I would like to buy a larger HD something like 120 gig , can I clone my HD install a new larger hd and mirror my 60 gig to the new hd, then do the w8 update, whAt I'm trying to avoid is reinstalling all my programs again, serial numbers are everywhere , I have no idea what's what. Installers are , I have no idea:( .
 I do like to venture off into touch . But I only have about 6 gigs left on my C: drive.. 
 What program should I use to mirror , I know windows has that option? Also if I get an ilok or some cloud storage would that help me with my serial numbers? Any guidance would be appreciated . Thanks again and happy holidays !!

You can clone your hard drive to a larger hard drive and then boot from it with no issues regarding serial numbers and such.

If you do that and then do an upgrade in place to Windows 8, it will carry over all of your settings and installed software without you having to install software again.

There are a number of partition manager programs out there that can do this for you.

Maybe someone from the forum here will chime in with some suggestions, or you can go to downloads.com and search their site for 'partition manager' and review the results - check promising ones out elsewhere for feedback on user's experiences with them, and such.

Bob Bone

Thanks again for that update Noel. I'm now thinking a bit differently about Win 8. If it's good enough for the Guv......

What does NOT seem possible however is to upgrade a 32 bit Win7 hp version to a 64 bit win 8 pro version even if the computer is capable of running 64 bit.
Fred

Wow - hadn't thought of that one, Fred.

The Microsoft page didn't seem to indicate that the upgrade in place needed the same bit-level install.  (I am not at all doubting your comments - just surprised that MS didn't mention that - or maybe they did and I missed it).

Bob Bone