Windows 7 - Upgrade/Clean Install

DIGItonium · 10-26-2009, 07:10 AM

Actually I was tempted to get XP SP3 for the laptop and HTPC rig.

Since I was dropping in an SSD and giving the laptop to my gf, I thought Win7 might work well for her.

As for the desktop, I've had growing pains with Vista 64 especially with my Auzentech X-Fi. They finally worked out the memory leak that would cause my system to halt while listening to music and watching videos (anything audio related minus gaming). Other than that, I'd like to justify having 8GB of system memory with (hopefully) less caching to the hard disk.

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIGItonium

Other than that, I'd like to justify having 8GB of system memory with (hopefully) less caching to the hard disk.

You should look into solid-state storage!

DIGItonium · 10-29-2009, 08:43 AM

Makes sense... Win7, of course, has the Vista look and feel. However, something about it feels snappy. The experience was quite pleasing compared to Vista, but maybe that's because I was already used to Vista. If I had a choice, XP SP3 if it supported 64-bit extensions.

I finished the desktop build (minus HD 5850), grabbed a spare graphics card, installed Win7 OEM, and ran some initial tests. BSoD when installer loaded indicating "memory_management" STOP message, so first hunch was DDR3. I managed to get Win7 to install on the Intel SSD, and I quickly started running memory tests. After amost 2 hours of testing, at least one of the sticks are faulty. Just my luck... 1 of 4 DDR3 sticks.

Other than that, I have good initial impressions with the i5 750 and MSI uATX P55 board. The Scythe Ninja Mini is NOT so "mini." I need to shave 1-2mm to provide some clearance with my HTPC case (Origen S14v). I had to resort to a pull setup with the CPU fan. Speaking of which, the Gelid PWM 92mm fan is "buzzy" at full blast, so I set it to under 50% duty. The RaptorX is the only thing that's making noise... SSD in the future. Overall, this HTPC is so much more quiet than my last build.

I should get the Win7 upgrade media tomorrow for the Lenovo laptop and SSD installation this weekend. Let's see how that one goes...

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIGItonium

Makes sense... Win7, of course, has the Vista look and feel. However, something about it feels snappy.

One of the nice things about Win7 is that it no longer caches frequently-used apps on startup. That makes a HUGE difference on boot-up. Memory management has also been enhanced.

I'm prolly gonna do a motherboard replacement before I buy Win7. The idea of having just a shitload of RAM is too much to resist.

bigaudiofanat · 10-29-2009, 08:48 AM

Ya with a smaller footprint and less system resources taken up the computer has to work less with the OS and can focus more on the tasks that you give it.

theDreamer · 10-29-2009, 09:44 AM

Bobo is 100% correct, in terms of recovery it depends on many things:
~How was the file deleted? Format, Quick format, just deleted, etc.
~Time since lose of file?

The first thing you should look into for recovery is from the hard drive manufacture itself, Seagate, Western Digital, etc. have some free data recovery that are ok. Beyond that it all becomes a variable of price, how much you want to spend? I have not tested any in a while, office just does clean installs and everything triple backed up, home I have double back up setup so I never have a need for it.

I know I could link the video but not sure many of you want to watch it. Go to engdaget and search for the engadget show. There last show had a 30 minute interview with Steve Ballmer, he explained his view (and Microsofts view) on what they feel from XP/Vista/7. For those who do not want to watch it, Vista was meant to break things as it was, the same thing happened when they did Windows 2000 (not sure how many remember that), and XP was the holy grail that took 2000 to the next level. Vista was suppose to break things, but they hoped with giving companies (driver writers, software companies, etc.) the OS two years in advance it would ease the pain. Apparently these companies thought no one would want to switch to Vista and they were shocked with all those who wanted to.

MightyBobo · 10-29-2009, 09:55 AM

No wonder Vista's release was buggy as hell lol.

XP WAS a pretty solid upgrade, though. It was light years better than 98...

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MightyBobo

No wonder Vista's release was buggy as hell lol.

XP WAS a pretty solid upgrade, though. It was light years better than 98...

That's because XP used the NT kernel and 98 was a DOS shell.

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 10:27 AM

Since we're on a backup jag here, how many who have claimed to have sufficient backup also have an offsite backup?

If you houze burnz down, you has no backupz.

MightyBobo · 10-29-2009, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 370Zsteve

Since we're on a backup jag here, how many who have claimed to have sufficient backup also have an offsite backup?

If you houze burnz down, you has no backupz.

TAPE DRIVE BABY.

Nah, I wont claim to have some crazy backup system at all. Honestly I dont have anything absolutely critical on my computer. Just some niceties really.

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MightyBobo

TAPE DRIVE BABY.

Nah, I wont claim to have some crazy backup system at all. Honestly I dont have anything absolutely critical on my computer. Just some niceties really.

Tape Drive = ftl

I use Shadow Protect on my computers. Image the entire drive after software, current SP, etc is installed...and is working properly lol. Then that image goes to my folk's house. Files get backed up incrementally on an external RAID.

ChrisSlicks · 10-29-2009, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 370Zsteve

Since we're on a backup jag here, how many who have claimed to have sufficient backup also have an offsite backup?

If you houze burnz down, you has no backupz.

I have a fire safe with a 2 hour rating, typical exposure time for a house fire is 30-60 minutes. If you live in an apartment/condo the fires are much bigger, so offsite is your best option.

I occasionally throw a copy of the important stuff in there, along with important documents like passports, SS cards etc. Wife stores her jewelery in there too after she had a couple of nice pieces go missing.

The online services such as mozy.com / carbonite.com are a good option for some.

insalubrious · 10-29-2009, 10:22 AM

the biggest problems with Vista had little to do with the actual product itself. It mainly was a problem with marketing especially with the whole Vista ready campaign and computers that weren't ever going to be Vista ready. Secondly Nvidia takes a huge chunk of the blame for faulty drivers. Anyone with an Nvidia card and vista has to remember at least once seeing BSODs. The marketing campaign wasn't that impressive either and was quickly overshadowed by the much better apple ads. MS tried to come back with the I'm a PC ads but it was too little too late. I frequent Anandtech and the consensus for the most part is Vista is a good little OS especially for the fact the it's 64bit support is far superior to XP's buggy 64bit support.

What MS got right with 7. (note I will agree that it isn't some mind blowing new OS here to be your OS messiah) . However it is more responsive and leaner. It installs quickly and without any hassle. All my hardware works out of the box and if it doesn't for the most part a driver is found downloaded and installed automatically. (note I did have trouble finding drivers for a scanner from a defunct company). 7's greatest strength came in making the Beta and then the RC public allowing word of mouth to be the marketing campaign. Because in the end its people like me that adopt the Beta the RC early and use it like it then recommend it to his friends and family.

theDreamer · 10-29-2009, 10:50 AM

At home I have no vital information that if lost I would care about.
Mainly because much of my data is pictures, movies, etc. So any hard copy of that information will also go up in the flames unless I am able to acquire it before it all goes down.
We still use tape drives at my office for off site back up use, load the tape once a week and then it gets stored away. For local back ups we have gone to blu-ray as we were going through 6 DVDs minimum and we need something local that is not hard drive based.

370Zsteve · 10-29-2009, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theDreamer

At home I have no vital information that if lost I would care about.
Mainly because much of my data is pictures, movies, etc. So any hard copy of that information will also go up in the flames unless I am able to acquire it before it all goes down.
We still use tape drives at my office for off site back up use, load the tape once a week and then it gets stored away. For local back ups we have gone to blu-ray as we were going through 6 DVDs minimum and we need something local that is not hard drive based.

Anyone ever test the backups and do a restore? You'd be amazed how many times clients of mine "thought" they had a good backup, only to find................

Speaking of backups, online storage is also very worthwhile, and has become stupid cheap.

10-26-2009, 07:10 AM	#1 (permalink)
DIGItonium A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Kansas Posts: 3,800 Drives: 09 Z34-TT 6MT Rep Power: 43	Actually I was tempted to get XP SP3 for the laptop and HTPC rig. Since I was dropping in an SSD and giving the laptop to my gf, I thought Win7 might work well for her. As for the desktop, I've had growing pains with Vista 64 especially with my Auzentech X-Fi. They finally worked out the memory leak that would cause my system to halt while listening to music and watching videos (anything audio related minus gaming). Other than that, I'd like to justify having 8GB of system memory with (hopefully) less caching to the hard disk. __________________

10-29-2009, 08:43 AM	#3 (permalink)
DIGItonium A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Kansas Posts: 3,800 Drives: 09 Z34-TT 6MT Rep Power: 43	Makes sense... Win7, of course, has the Vista look and feel. However, something about it feels snappy. The experience was quite pleasing compared to Vista, but maybe that's because I was already used to Vista. If I had a choice, XP SP3 if it supported 64-bit extensions. I finished the desktop build (minus HD 5850), grabbed a spare graphics card, installed Win7 OEM, and ran some initial tests. BSoD when installer loaded indicating "memory_management" STOP message, so first hunch was DDR3. I managed to get Win7 to install on the Intel SSD, and I quickly started running memory tests. After amost 2 hours of testing, at least one of the sticks are faulty. Just my luck... 1 of 4 DDR3 sticks. Other than that, I have good initial impressions with the i5 750 and MSI uATX P55 board. The Scythe Ninja Mini is NOT so "mini." I need to shave 1-2mm to provide some clearance with my HTPC case (Origen S14v). I had to resort to a pull setup with the CPU fan. Speaking of which, the Gelid PWM 92mm fan is "buzzy" at full blast, so I set it to under 50% duty. The RaptorX is the only thing that's making noise... SSD in the future. Overall, this HTPC is so much more quiet than my last build. I should get the Win7 upgrade media tomorrow for the Lenovo laptop and SSD installation this weekend. Let's see how that one goes... __________________

10-29-2009, 08:48 AM	#5 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 853	Ya with a smaller footprint and less system resources taken up the computer has to work less with the OS and can focus more on the tasks that you give it. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

10-29-2009, 09:44 AM	#6 (permalink)
theDreamer A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 30,879 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 4211	Bobo is 100% correct, in terms of recovery it depends on many things: ~How was the file deleted? Format, Quick format, just deleted, etc. ~Time since lose of file? The first thing you should look into for recovery is from the hard drive manufacture itself, Seagate, Western Digital, etc. have some free data recovery that are ok. Beyond that it all becomes a variable of price, how much you want to spend? I have not tested any in a while, office just does clean installs and everything triple backed up, home I have double back up setup so I never have a need for it. I know I could link the video but not sure many of you want to watch it. Go to engdaget and search for the engadget show. There last show had a 30 minute interview with Steve Ballmer, he explained his view (and Microsofts view) on what they feel from XP/Vista/7. For those who do not want to watch it, Vista was meant to break things as it was, the same thing happened when they did Windows 2000 (not sure how many remember that), and XP was the holy grail that took 2000 to the next level. Vista was suppose to break things, but they hoped with giving companies (driver writers, software companies, etc.) the OS two years in advance it would ease the pain. Apparently these companies thought no one would want to switch to Vista and they were shocked with all those who wanted to. __________________ theDreamer's Z // Fast Intentions // Uprev // GTM // HKS // TEIN theDreamer's Silvia // URAS // GREDDY Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

10-29-2009, 09:55 AM	#7 (permalink)
MightyBobo A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 8,465 Drives: No cars; only bikes Rep Power: 53	No wonder Vista's release was buggy as hell lol. XP WAS a pretty solid upgrade, though. It was light years better than 98... __________________ I don't own a car anymore.

10-29-2009, 10:27 AM	#9 (permalink)
370Zsteve A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Gold Coast CT Posts: 10,599 Drives: 2019 Corvette G.S. Rep Power: 43	Since we're on a backup jag here, how many who have claimed to have sufficient backup also have an offsite backup? If you houze burnz down, you has no backupz. __________________ SOLD MY Z MARCH 2018 - another Core OG moves on - new ride 2019 Z Corvette Grand Sport - no mods necessary but already have eyes on HFC and intakes LOL IT NEVER ENDS.

10-29-2009, 10:22 AM	#13 (permalink)
insalubrious Base Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Stayton Posts: 235 Drives: Future Car Rep Power: 16	the biggest problems with Vista had little to do with the actual product itself. It mainly was a problem with marketing especially with the whole Vista ready campaign and computers that weren't ever going to be Vista ready. Secondly Nvidia takes a huge chunk of the blame for faulty drivers. Anyone with an Nvidia card and vista has to remember at least once seeing BSODs. The marketing campaign wasn't that impressive either and was quickly overshadowed by the much better apple ads. MS tried to come back with the I'm a PC ads but it was too little too late. I frequent Anandtech and the consensus for the most part is Vista is a good little OS especially for the fact the it's 64bit support is far superior to XP's buggy 64bit support. What MS got right with 7. (note I will agree that it isn't some mind blowing new OS here to be your OS messiah) . However it is more responsive and leaner. It installs quickly and without any hassle. All my hardware works out of the box and if it doesn't for the most part a driver is found downloaded and installed automatically. (note I did have trouble finding drivers for a scanner from a defunct company). 7's greatest strength came in making the Beta and then the RC public allowing word of mouth to be the marketing campaign. Because in the end its people like me that adopt the Beta the RC early and use it like it then recommend it to his friends and family. __________________ Is that a taco pie?

10-29-2009, 10:50 AM	#14 (permalink)
theDreamer A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 30,879 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 4211	At home I have no vital information that if lost I would care about. Mainly because much of my data is pictures, movies, etc. So any hard copy of that information will also go up in the flames unless I am able to acquire it before it all goes down. We still use tape drives at my office for off site back up use, load the tape once a week and then it gets stored away. For local back ups we have gone to blu-ray as we were going through 6 DVDs minimum and we need something local that is not hard drive based. __________________ theDreamer's Z // Fast Intentions // Uprev // GTM // HKS // TEIN theDreamer's Silvia // URAS // GREDDY Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

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