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HDD Reformat question

Last response: in Windows 7
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I have been planning to install a new HDD in my rig and then upgrade my Windows XP with Windows 7 Home upgrade. I have Windows 7 upgrade for Windows Vista. I recognize that I would have to do a clean install, but I had intended to partition the drive to two partitions, one of them being about 50 GB for the OS. I have the Windows XP and legal product key. Now I read in a forum that I can't do that, and must use the Windows 7 full license edition.
I have everything backup and the new drive, but I am not technically knowledgeable enough to do a double-install or registry patch and even if I could I don't think that I will end up with what I want as far as the portioning goes. I hope that I have explained my problem sufficiently and I would appreciate someone helping me out with this.

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Oldog said:
I have been planning to install a new HDD in my rig and then upgrade my Windows XP with Windows 7 Home upgrade. I have Windows 7 upgrade for Windows Vista. I recognize that I would have to do a clean install, but I had intended to partition the drive to two partitions, one of them being about 50 GB for the OS. I have the Windows XP and legal product key. Now I read in a forum that I can't do that, and must use the Windows 7 full license edition.
I have everything backup and the new drive, but I am not technically knowledgeable enough to do a double-install or registry patch and even if I could I don't think that I will end up with what I want as far as the portioning goes. I hope that I have explained my problem sufficiently and I would appreciate someone helping me out with this.


[#0005ff]I may have lost you somewhere but I think you already know you need to buy a full W7 version or try to trade in the Vista upgrade for the full upgrade. As to the installation on a fresh hard disk, that will be simple enough because the process will give you the opportunity to allocate space as required - 50Gb for the system as you say and the remaining space as you wish.

If that new hard disk is sufficiently large, you could put W7 on one Partition first then install your XP Pro on a second or third Partition and Windows will take care of managing the boot process so you will see a screen offering W7 or earlier version of Windows. You would, of course, have to put your other XP installation beyond use before activiating the new one.[/#000ff]
Windows 7 Authority

The windows 7 upgrage version is for both vista and xp. It's just that the upgrade will do a "clean" install over your XP vs a "upgrade" of Vista.

Doing the "double" install, so that you can undelete old partition and/or create new partitions is really quite simple. During the first install you would select a custom install. When you get to the screen for where to install, select remove partitions and delete old partitions. Then recreate the partitions with the size that you want. You only need to partition the partition for the opererating system (you said 50 gigs). You can leave the remainder alone (Can setup after windows install). Just DO NOT enter your win 7 key and uncheck the box to automaticly activate.

Once you have win 7 install, just reboot, but this time select upgrage, not custom. When asked for the key this time go ahead and enter it.

PS - The registry edit and rearm method is much easier and not as Hard as you may think. And you can always just re-install if by slim chance you "screw" up

Added: Disconnect your old hard drive during this process - when every thing is good, you can reconnect it, transfer any of your files you need and then reformate your old HDD. You can dual boot to xp/Win 7 if so desired untill you are comfortable with Win 7.

Good luck, and enjoy. and if "old dog" refers to age (1) I'm there with you and (2) false statement - you can not teach an old dog new tricks.
 
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