A few upgrade questions about Windows 7

[crypticd]

Sorry in advance if this has been asked. I did research and searched the forum some before posting.

My copy of Windows Vista will no longer update. I have had a "security update for windows vista for x64-based systems (KB2286198)" pending for months that simply will not install. Nor will any new optional updates. I have scoured the internet for a solution to no avail, and have resigned to just getting Windows 7.

I am thinking of formatting my hard-drive and installing a brand new Windows 7, but the upgrade is cheaper. A techy friend of mine told me that upgrading just writes Windows 7 on top of the existing Vista foundation. Therefore upgrading over a flawed version of Windows Vista will leave some of those flaws, for instance in the registry. Does anyone have sound information about this? Am I better off buying a complete version of Windows 7 and starting over? I'm not opposed to this. I just want a properly functioning OS.

It sounds like a clean install with Windows 7 Upgrade Media would fix that "writing over a flawed registry" that my friend spoke of. Would this be a safe way to go about it? Also, would a clean install allow me to reset my partitions? I would like to make my Windows partition a little bigger than it is.

Thank you so much for any help.

 

[treefrog07]

I think I would perform a clean install of an upgrade version of W7 after I re-sized the target partition for W7 and moved all of my documents and data files to another primary partition or another HDD. Partition Wizard is free for home use and you could download it and use it to re-size the partitions before you do the clean install of W7.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

plus 1 for treefrog.a clean install is always a best bet!

 

[crypticd]

Thanks for the input guys. A quick question about resizing then. I have already backed up on an external HD. Is resizing pretty simple? I suppose the possibility of corrupting files isn't a big deal, since I'm doing a clean install. But is that a possibility?

 

[treefrog07]

You are welcome. Yes, if you use Partition Wizard, it is pretty intuitive. You want to make the partition for the OS to be "primary" and "active," not logical. After you install the OS, you may want to save your "My Documents" to another primary partition by changing the location using the "properties" tab. That way if you have to re-install the OS, your documents, data, files will not be overwritten on installation.