Upgrade from Vista

[mokume1]

Custom built system on which 2 recovered Vista operating systems are installed, one of which I have forgotten the system log on password

I want to upgrade to Windows 7, I already have the upgrade CD, as well the original Vista installation CD.

All existing hard drives (4) will be replaced with WD 500 GB units, I may do a RAID, not sure of which type yet
How do I go about differentiating between the 2 installed systems on my present drive?
I wish to eliminate the one that I have forgotten the password, and keep the other and upgrade to 7 onto it.

I do have access to Norton Ghost, as well an external hard drive enclosure of which I have installed one of the new WD drives

Would it be easier to just re-install Vista from scratch and them upgrade to 7? Would this not involve the lengthy task of downloading all Vista's patches and updates again? Not to mention other programs....

Hope this makes sense, I just need advice on the easiest and safest way to do this

Thanks in Advance !

 

[The_Prophecy]

Probably would be easier to back up your data, do a fresh install of Vista, then upgrade to 7. Don't worry about patching Vista first though, if you're upgrading immediately to 7. It's not necessary. Other programs will have to be downloaded and reinstalled once this is all said and done however...

 

[jsrudd]

I would back up all your data to another drive or partition. Log into vista and then do a custom install which will let you format the drive and do a clean install of windows 7. While you're formatting the disc just delete the other installation of vista.

 

[The_Prophecy]

I would back up all your data to another drive or partition. Log into vista and then do a custom install which will let you format the drive and do a clean install of windows 7. While you're formatting the disc just delete the other installation of vista.

Do not do a custom install and format the drive before moving to 7. If you wipe out the existing Vista install first, once the upgrade copy of 7 is installed, you will not be able to activate it. If you're going to wipe out the drive, format it with the Vista disk, do a clean install of Vista, then do an in-place upgrade to 7.