Going to re install OS .. should I wait for Windows 7 ? is anyone using W7 here?

[glasgene]

Hi I am going to reinstall my OS; as I have some new drives, but before I do I am thinking maybe hold on until Windows 7 starts to flourish.. has anyone been brave enough to jump straight on board?

[glasgene]

Come to think of it to ease the pain would it be possible for me install Windows XP on one of the new drives and then start the process of installing all the drivers .. at the moment I am thinking .. XP SP 3, graphics driver, Motherboard utilities and drivers, Soundcard Driver, UAD, then oh god all the software ... but still have everything intact on what was my C Drive ?

[deraudrl]

Come to think of it to ease the pain would it be possible for me install Windows XP on one of the new drives and then start the process of installing all the drivers .. at the moment I am thinking .. XP SP 3, graphics driver, Motherboard utilities and drivers, Soundcard Driver, UAD, then oh god all the software ... but still have everything intact on what was my C Drive ?

Dual-boot XP and 7? Sure, no problem. Note that (legally at least) you'll have to buy the full W7 rather than the upgrade version.

Aside from that, I think you'll find that driver installation will be a complete non-issue. I suspect you're in the situation of using a rather old OS (XP) on a machine that has heavily upgraded hardware, so every time you dropped in new hardware, you had to go through a kabuki dance of finding/installing suitable drivers. And in virtually all cases, those "new" drivers are already on the W7 disks and will get properly installed during the Windows install anyway.

Reinstalling all the apps is, and will remain, a bit of a pain...tedious but not particularly difficult. Having all the tweaked config files etc over on the other drive will help. Look upon the whole process as an, um, opportunity, yeah that's the word, to get rid of the cruft that has accumulated, purging things you installed that seemed like a good idea at the time but only got used once or twice.

Now, if you're going from 32-bit XP to 64-bit 7, the exercise is somewhat more challenging. But assuming enough RAM (at least 4GB, 6-8GB is better), it's definitely worth the trouble.

The whole Windows install/upgrade process is a lot better than it was in years past. For me, this transition (Vista/32 to 7/64) was actually smoother than getting the Vista working that came preinstalled on the machine in the first place.

[glasgene]

Come to think of it to ease the pain would it be possible for me install Windows XP on one of the new drives and then start the process of installing all the drivers .. at the moment I am thinking .. XP SP 3, graphics driver, Motherboard utilities and drivers, Soundcard Driver, UAD, then oh god all the software ... but still have everything intact on what was my C Drive ?

Dual-boot XP and 7? Sure, no problem. Note that (legally at least) you'll have to buy the full W7 rather than the upgrade version.

Aside from that, I think you'll find that driver installation will be a complete non-issue. I suspect you're in the situation of using a rather old OS (XP) on a machine that has heavily upgraded hardware, so every time you dropped in new hardware, you had to go through a kabuki dance of finding/installing suitable drivers. And in virtually all cases, those "new" drivers are already on the W7 disks and will get properly installed during the Windows install anyway.

Reinstalling all the apps is, and will remain, a bit of a pain...tedious but not particularly difficult. Having all the tweaked config files etc over on the other drive will help. Look upon the whole process as an, um, opportunity, yeah that's the word, to get rid of the cruft that has accumulated, purging things you installed that seemed like a good idea at the time but only got used once or twice.

Now, if you're going from 32-bit XP to 64-bit 7, the exercise is somewhat more challenging. But assuming enough RAM (at least 4GB, 6-8GB is better), it's definitely worth the trouble.

The whole Windows install/upgrade process is a lot better than it was in years past. For me, this transition (Vista/32 to 7/64) was actually smoother than getting the Vista working that came preinstalled on the machine in the first place.

Hey nice one for the reply really appreciated .. so your running Windows 7 how are you finding your App and Plugs are coping ?

[deraudrl]

Hey nice one for the reply really appreciated .. so your running Windows 7 how are you finding your App and Plugs are coping ?

So far, so good. Of course, I'm still using 32-bit software for everything, because that's all I have. What the 64-bit OS brings to the table at this point is the ability to give those 32-bit apps room to maneuver.

The machine feels significantly more responsive and faster. How much of that is attributable to (1) Win7 vs Vista, (2) 6GB RAM vs 3GB RAM, and/or (3) the removal of two years of accumulated crap, I have no idea.

[glasgene]

Hey nice one for the reply really appreciated .. so your running Windows 7 how are you finding your App and Plugs are coping ?

So far, so good. Of course, I'm still using 32-bit software for everything, because that's all I have. What the 64-bit OS brings to the table at this point is the ability to give those 32-bit apps room to maneuver.

The machine feels significantly more responsive and faster. How much of that is attributable to (1) Win7 vs Vista, (2) 6GB RAM vs 3GB RAM, and/or (3) the removal of two years of accumulated crap, I have no idea.

Im like a dinosaur when it comes to moving from XP I have very few issues with SP3 but like you said I have no doubt accumalated a lot of crap that needs clearing.

I really don't want to have conflicts with my plugs like UAD and the OS I read that 7 can run in XP mode which might be ok, hardly anyone has come out and said that they are officially supporting it ? or am I wrong sorry I have done no research into Windows 7 the idea literally came to me when I was typing the post.

May be a fresh install of XP on the new drive make sure its all good, make an image and copy the drive to external HD then format the old workhorse C drive and make it my Windows 7?

[deraudrl]

I read that 7 can run in XP mode which might be ok, hardly anyone has come out and said that they are officially supporting it ?

Well, Microsoft supports it...not sure who else counts as "official".

But you need one of the high-end versions (Professional? Ultimate?) to do that: the feature isn't included on Home Premium or below.

[glasgene]

I read that 7 can run in XP mode which might be ok, hardly anyone has come out and said that they are officially supporting it ?

Well, Microsoft supports it...not sure who else counts as "official".

But you need one of the high-end versions (Professional? Ultimate?) to do that: the feature isn't included on Home Premium or below.

sorry wrong term there I was thinking of the developers who make music apps, it was Windows 7 Professional that I read about the XP mode ..

Thanks again for the advice I think I am going to go with the idea of installing XP then Windows 7 soon after on another disk ..