General question about installation of win7

[Wolf K]

NO! The $150 is the charge for doing it. I would have to buy my own
software which here in Ottawa is selling for $120.

Heck, for that money (or less) you can take an evening class at your
local school or college, and then you'll never need that price-gouging
shop again. The local guy I occasionally ask for help would charge about
$40 for the service.

Wolf K.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Consider this another vote to either find another shop or do it
yourself. It's not difficult and help is available here or on the
Internet in general.

Agreed on all counts.

If you are unable or unwilling to do it yourself, around here the
going rate is about $70/hr. Most shops charge for 1/2 hour to do an
OEM Factory Restore, and a full hour for an install from scratch using
Retail or OEM media, including latest drivers. Migrating settings and
files, etc. is done on a time and materials basis. In most cases the
customer must provide the media and license (or purchase one from the
shop), or pay for replacement media if they don't have the OEM Factory
Media and it is required to do the restore (like when the restore
partition is not present or is damaged, etc.)

 

[Roy Smith]

I have a vista computer which is 4 years old but still like new. I have
not used it since I bought this new laptop with win7 on it. I really
like my win7 a lot more than vista and I have been considering buying a
win7 software and installing it on my old vista - no upgrade, a
complete format to get rid of vista and a complete install of win7 from
scratch.

The people at the computer shop tell me this is terribly complicated and
that almost everyone who has tried it has ended up screwing up his
computer beyond salvage. They insist it would be better if I paid them
$150 and let them do it for me. Before doing that I wanted a second
(and third and fourth) opinion so here I am.

Thanks in advance for all opinions, advice, comments, warnings, etc.

If you can read and understand what you've read, then it's not that
difficult to install a Windows 7 upgrade yourself. This computer shop
is just using FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to get you to fork over
your money.

--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Postbox 3.0.2
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 5:19:05 PM

 

[Stan Brown]

I have a vista computer which is 4 years old but still like new. I have
not used it since I bought this new laptop with win7 on it. I really
like my win7 a lot more than vista and I have been considering buying a
win7 software and installing it on my old vista - no upgrade, a
complete format to get rid of vista and a complete install of win7 from
scratch.

The people at the computer shop tell me this is terribly complicated and
that almost everyone who has tried it has ended up screwing up his
computer beyond salvage. They insist it would be better if I paid them
$150 and let them do it for me.

As our British cousins say, "bollocks". They're trying to scam you.

If I'm not mistaken, when you install Win 7 as an upgrade over Vista,
the Win 7 install disk itself gives you the option to reformat your
hard drive. You don't have to pay extra for a non-upgrade Win 7.

 

[Stan Brown]

Do a little research and then decide. Make a list of all the major
components of the computer, the motherboard, video adapter, sound card,
etc. Check the manufacturer's web sites to see if they have specific
drivers available for Windows 7. If they do, you should be able to
install Windows 7 with little or no problem.[snip]

Good advice, but Win 7 will find rivers for your peripherals.

In general that's true, but there's an important class of exceptions.
If you install 64-bit Windows 7, there may not be drivers for some of
your devices, where the old drivers would work perfectly well under
32-bit Win 7. Some Canon scanners fall into that class, for
instance, like my Canoscan LiDE 50 and the model 60. (Someone in
this group helped me find a hacked driver that has worked perfectly.)

So if you're planning to install 64-bit Windows 7, do some research
and make sure that there are drivers for your printer, scanner, etc.
Odds are good that there are, but it's not a certainty.

 

[blank]

Providing that what was actually said, I would never ever again trust that
computer shop person!

 

[blank]

It all depends on whether you want to keep anything that's on the machine.
If not, it's easy, as we all say, though there may be some equipment that
will no longer run because there are not drivers (like very old printers --
my HPLJ6 runs on XP but I wouldn't be too sure about W7)
!

 

[blank]

As our British cousins say, "bollocks". They're trying to scam you.

No, my friend... We are more like to adjust our cravats and say 'I say, old
chap! Not really quite the ticket, don't y' know'

 

[charlie]

Providing that what was actually said, I would never ever again trust that
computer shop person!

I have a vista computer which is 4 years old but still like new. I have
not used it since I bought this new laptop with win7 on it. I really like
my win7 a lot more than vista and I have been considering buying a win7
software and installing it on my old vista - no upgrade, a complete format
to get rid of vista and a complete install of win7 from scratch.

The people at the computer shop tell me this is terribly complicated and
that almost everyone who has tried it has ended up screwing up his
computer beyond salvage. They insist it would be better if I paid them
$150 and let them do it for me. Before doing that I wanted a second (and
third and fourth) opinion so here I am.

Thanks in advance for all opinions, advice, comments, warnings, etc.

The real issue is the availability (or lack of) Laptop drivers for win 7.
Generally, you would go to the laptop Mfr's web site, and see if the
needed drivers are downloadable.
After (hopefully) you have them, and saved on whatever media (CD,DVD,Mem
Stick, etc.) you can start the win 7 install process.
Usually, laptop video drivers are the most critical, followed by such
things as network drivers, modem drivers, and other stuff (TV tuners and
so forth.)

I have an excellent large screen HP laptop of about the same age.
Win7 drivers were never available, although XP drivers are.
Unfortunately, generic XP does not support the laptop's AV and TV tuner
stuff. It as a result, ends up having to use Vista whether I like it or
not.