[RESOLVED] Upgrade from Vista.

After upgrading Vista to Windows 7, if in the future it needs to be don again, does Vista has to be loaded first? If so it seems like a nuisance.
Any thoughts?

As with other upgrades, you just need to have the full version DVD of Vista. You don't need to install Vista first.

And you certainly don't install Windows 7 over the top of Vista. You'll need to do what's called a "clean install."

Thanks for all your help. I do have a full version of Vista restore CD (from Dell), so I assume that it will be sufficient for any future upgrades.

When Midknyte said full retail version he wasn't talking about your Dell recovery disk. You would need to ask Dell because most of those recovery disks are not full version, they're OEM versions and mostly images, made with their software of choice. Just like we do here, and make an image of our harddrives.

If you only have the recovery discs, then you would need to reinstall Vista first, though you can still do a clean install of Win7 once done. It isn't the end of the world, because those recovery installs don't usually take long.

Alternatively, this technique was available for doing a clean install of Vista using an upgrade disc. I imagine it is still possible to use the same method in Win 7, as the installer seems to be identical as far as I can tell:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...rade_clean.asp

Thanks for all your replies, I have the Dell OS Vista Disc and I reinstalled it several times on a clean, formatted hard drive without any problems. When I get Windows 7 , I plan to install over Vista, but a clean installation, I do not want to save anything from the old Vista system.

That won't be a problem, just boot up with the Win 7 disc in the drive, and you will eventually come to a screen where you will see "Drive options (advanced)". Click on that, and you will get the option to format the Vista partition. Just follow the wizard after that and you should be good to go :)

Thanks SuperSparks, that's exactly what I am going to do. Please mark "Solved"

You're very welcome :)

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