Upgrading From Vista to Windows 7
By rsa101
@rsa101 (37966)
Philippines
January 31, 2010 9:38pm CST
I have a Toshiba Laptop which my sister bought for me as a gift. She bought it in the states and send it here in my country. About October last year I knew of the promo that I could upgrade my existing Vista OS to Win 7 for free. I availed of it and I just paid for freight charges addressed to my sister's address in the US.
Last Saturday, I received the upgrade kit and started to load the DVD installer. I never thought that it would take me 12 hours to fully install the upgrade. Although there were instructions provided in the CD but what took it long is that I have to backup everything from my old OS to be sure that if anything goes wrong I could restore it back to my original system. From that point I think it took me several hours or about 3 DVD+R to backup my system. Then from that I have to download/install some software from Toshiba site to assist me in installing the drivers suited for my laptop. They were easy but the hard part of it was really the downloading part. It took a couple or more hours to download those files about 17 large files to be exact. After that the installer automatically loaded the Win 7 installer and everything went smoothly. Again what took me that long was really the transfer of my user files and programs to the new system. After WIN 7 installation the next several hours was on the installation of drivers for Intel and other peripherals.
After gruelling 12 hours my Win 7 finally was fully installed. I had my old user profile preserved and many of my installed software were running normally. I am happy that everything went well because I was really anxious when the installtion looks like it was hanging since there are times during the transfer of files that the computer would stood still and nothing is happening. But I patiently waited before everything went well in the end. I am glad I never got tempted to stopped the process when it seemed it has stopped.
1 person likes this
14 responses
@neildc (17239)
• Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines
1 Feb 10
something that i hate when upgrading from one system to another. so i maintain what the original OS my laptop has or even the computers issued by the office. i am a loyal user of XP and for almost ten years, if i am not mistaken, i use XP.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
The thing is Vista is not a very good performer. They offered me a free upgrade to Windows 7 which I took advantage than be stuck with Vista. Well XP will soon stop from being updated as Microsoft had said it. So pretty soon it will be like its predecessors win 98 and others that will be fading slowly. I like XP too BTW but I think pretty soon it will be phased out soon.
@minotaur87 (769)
• Singapore
11 Feb 10
I won't really think about upgrading my computer system from Vista to Windows 7. Though other people said Windows 7 is much faster, I think I'm still more used to Vista settings. Maybe when I change to a new laptop, I would automatically get Windows 7. Then I would use Windows 7 from then on.
@verabear (796)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
it seems like the good thing about following the process as advised by your OEM (Toshiba) is that you didn't have to reinstall all of your other software, and your files are intact. Good job in upgrading! I am using Win7 now and I am loving it!
@reetikanarula (35)
• India
1 Feb 10
Its good to hear that you have upgraded your system form Windows Vista to Windows7. There is nothing bad in upgardeing your old sysyetms with new O.S. There may be a chances for some complications but need not to worry about that as you backup for everything.Windows Vista is really is not a good performer and it lowers the performance of oue system.
So you need not to worry,just enjoy working with your new O.S. And yes it also improves your internet speed.[:)]
1 person likes this
@___SKY___ (541)
• Hong Kong
1 Feb 10
Actually you did backup your OS vista that is why you took a long time to do this thing, but no need to back all OS just only some important file has been saved on your HDD. You can Install Windows 7 and choose custom not to upgrade. I think they must provide the driver also with OS for your lappy model. Anyway you did it even you got it in along time.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
The backing up did ate up most of my time. I had a full backup which took three DVD to finish the backing up. I was more familiar with custom install but I was curious about doing the upgrade because it means I would not have to install back the software I have installed in the previous OS. Also with the upgrade all of my personla files were intact and I did not feel that I have to restore them back.
@danish2407 (168)
• India
1 Feb 10
ya its better option to change into window 7..it is very fast operating system....and have all the features of vista na new modifie version which enhances yourr computer speed
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
I guess Microsoft did not change the GUI since I find it very Vista look a like. Performance wise well I guess it is doing good in terms of loading and internet seems to be fast. Connection also improved since I can see that the connection time to WIFI is a bit different.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
1 Feb 10
I have considered doing this with my Computers but cannot afford to do so at this time. So for now I have to settle with Vista until a better time comes along. I have even considered calling Dell since my Computers are under Warrenty and asking them how much it would charge for someone from there to install it and see if it would be worth it. But I am glad to hear things went OK and you will have to let us know if you like it way better over XP as well.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Yeah if you can just bring it there for them to do it for you better. Also try asking them if there are free upgrades for your unit. Mine I get it for free since I bought the laptop just months before the official launch of Windows 7 they provided a free upgrade of my Vista to Win 7. They only delivered me the CD upgrade kit, I followed instructions and I was happy I was able to upgrade it without any trouble.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
1 Feb 10
That sounds like alot. I am glad it worked for you. I hope you can enjoy it now.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Basing from the comment above you it sounds like it took me so long to finish the upgrade. I think Toshiba made it longer to make sure everything is in order when they deploy the OS. Plus the fact that I do have a slower broadband connection that makes the downloading of other files slower too.
I think I would need another week to get familiarize with Win 7 but initial impressions are really good. I also noticed that it loads a bit faster than Vista. I would have to explore it further tonight when I get home.
@jpso138 (7851)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
I have upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 just about 2 months ago. It was not really a long process for me. I think it took my just an hour to complete the whole process. Now, I am currently using windows 7 and I find it much better than vista. It also requires lesser disk space and is quite fast. I never regretted upgrading to window 7.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
I could have skipped some instructions they were suggesting like the backing up of data to lessen the time. Also I could have installed the OS directly too and updated the drivers later when the system was replaced. But I followed the process provided by Toshiba. I am glad that I did it because it seemed that the upgrade went well and all my files were intact.
@beatrizguiselle (1118)
• Spain
1 Feb 10
congratulations, I am sure you will enjoy 7 more than the slow crappy vista! Windows Vista is now history!!!!
, I am sure you will enjoy 7 more than the slow crappy vista! Windows Vista is now history!!!!1 person likes this
@john_ronald (383)
• Hong Kong
1 Feb 10
i prefer you should upgrade depends on the taste you can have. But Windows7 is a great OS versus the Windows Vista as everyone else think which is also correct because i am using it now for almost a 2 months, i get use to it with its every shortcuts like vista that do not have those. And what took you so long maybe you're using low specs that windows7 prefer to have in running those kind of programs in hardware of yours.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
I just followed what Toshiba instructed me to do. The software did all the transfer of files and download of 17 large files for the dirver and after that the win 7 installation followed and after that Toshiba took control again to fully install drivers and all software related to Win 7.
So far I like how the GUI look. It has the feel of Vista but I can sense that they respond much faster than Vista does.
@Tallygirl09 (1380)
• United States
1 Feb 10
I think you will find that it was worth all the effort! I got a new laptop in November after my Vista based one was stolen. I am very pleased with the improvements and I think everyone should switch over to it. I used to have problems with my Vista system at least every other month. Now a few months with Win 7 and no issues to date, not bad for Microsoft!
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
I am glad that you are experiencing better results with Win 7. I am just about to start learning it and maybe appreciate it in the coming days. You had a clean OS since you bought it with the OS in it already. Mine is a bit complicated because I seem to have the OS placed over Vista. I do not know if they would be behaving differently from those with clean install vs. an upgrade from Vista to Win 7.
@myzire72 (1154)
• Singapore
1 Feb 10
Me too. I just upgraded my Asus notebook from Windows Vista to Windows 7. But I only spent about 3-4 hours on the upgrading. I did my backup few days ago prior to the upgrading. Yes, it's true that during the upgrading process, large files were being downloaded to my notebook. Maybe it's because I had a 12MBps broadband connection, that's why it didn't take very long to download the files. Anyway, just like you, I am happy with the upgrade.
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Wow you really have a fast internet connection. I think that also slowed me down when i started downloading something over the net. Mine is pretty much slower that your broadband connection. I also happen to have many softwares installed in my laptop that is why the transfer even became more slower. I recalled it that my laptop transferred about 512,000 files. and some files I think were big that my laptop looked like it hanged already. But I did not stop and waited patiently till it finished.
@rsa101 (37966)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Yeah you're right. This is my first time to upgrade from one OS to another. Everything that happened was really very risky for me, though, I had my backup before the upgrade but the hassle of restoring back to normal would also take a long time for me.
I will try to explore the laptop this evening. I am in office right now and am not able to explore my laptop at home.
