How much HDD do I need for upgrade?

[sizzling]

Hi All

I have downloaded an official copy of Win 8 Pro upgrade and would like to have a setup on my laptop to try it. I already have a copy of Win 7 Home full version available so my plan is to install Win 7 then Win 8 on a brand new HDD. What I want to work out is how big do I need my HDD to be. So how much space can I expect my Win 7 then upgrade to Win 8 Pro to take?

I suppose what I am trying to work out is can I get away with a 128Gb SSD or do I really need a slower 320Gb 7200rpm drive.

Thank you

Stu

 

[bigcyco1]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EY5F5C/cupcre06-20

 

[johnbl]

plan on win8 taking 26 GB of space. It will back up your old os to windows.old
and you can delete it after the upgrade if you do not need to recover files from it.

also, just fyi: if you have a key and don't need to migrate files from windows 7 you can just clean install windows 8.

 

[sizzling]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EY5F5C/cupcre06-20

Thanks but I am UK based and I know enough about HDD to buy and do an upgrade, I am just trying to define my requirements.

Thanks for taking the time to look though

 

[sizzling]

plan on win8 taking 26 GB of space. It will back up your old os to windows.old
and you can delete it after the upgrade if you do not need to recover files from it.

also, just fyi: if you have a key and don't need to migrate files from windows 7 you can just clean install windows 8.

Is that 26Gb including or excluding the windows.old files? I do not need them.

So even though I only bought the Win8 upgrade download online I can do a clean install of Win8 without installing Win7? That does seem odd, what shops everyone doing it to get a cheap copy?

Thanks for the help

 

[13thmonkey]

call it 50 to be safe, doesn't need to be a separate drive just a new partition. Read the story on the front page about the upgrade costs going up, not sure of implications from you.

 

[sizzling]

call it 50 to be safe, doesn't need to be a separate drive just a new partition. Read the story on the front page about the upgrade costs going up, not sure of implications from you.

Do I really need 50gb? I want this to be a very clean machine with just Office and 20-30gb of music. If it really is 50gb then 128 SSD won't be enough but if 26Gb it should just about cover my needs as my office files will be held elsewhere.

The price hikes do not apply to me as I already have my licence code

Thanks

 

[13thmonkey]

office 1-2GB, windows 15-20GB, 20-30GB of music ...

I ran win7 off a 30GB SSD for a while, it was a pain in backside, the outlook file was constantly pushing me over the edge, build it a little bigger than you think you need and you won't spend your life cleaning windows up of temp files etc.

I've got a clean win8 pro installation with office 13, I've got 17GB free of 53GB all documents and media are on a server. So perhaps 36GB?

Also have you got your media player license? that ends in Jan too.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi


I have a Desktop PC with a 120GB SSD with a 1TB hard disk
(with both XP and Win 7 on SSD but user data and downloads on hard disk)
(previously I had a 80GB 10K rpm WD hard disk instead of SSD and 250GB instead of 1TB hard disk)

120GB will be enough for one installation of Win 7 or 8 + Office

It is not the space used by Win 7 or Win 8 files immediately after installation which is important
it is what happens with 2 or 3 years of updates and service packs to Windows and system restore points taking up space.
If you have a 8GB or 16GB of ram and 64 bit OS then page file & hibernation file will grab 16GB or 32GB space on boot drive by default

If you install 7 then upgrade to 8 the Win7 old folder can be removed by disk cleanup
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Delete-files-using-Disk-Cleanup

regards

Mike Barnes

 

[johnbl]

Is that 26Gb including or excluding the windows.old files? I do not need them.

So even though I only bought the Win8 upgrade download online I can do a clean install of Win8 without installing Win7? That does seem odd, what shops everyone doing it to get a cheap copy?

Thanks for the help

just assume 26GB per OS installed. you can reduce the number but you indicated you had a new 128GB drive so space would not be a issue. on a clean install I would not install windows 7 first.

The first portion of the upgrade program does validation before it will let the webstore sell you a key. If you already have a key you can use this installer:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only.

For the most part people are just confused. The upgrade offer is just to sell you a key at a special price when you have a valid windows OS installed. The upgrade program checks your OS version and sends info to the webstore. The webstore extends (or blocks) a offer to sell you a key. If you accept the offer and complete a purchase you have completed the upgrade offer. You don't have to install the OS to buy keys.

The key gives you the right to install the OS, all the files are installed, your system boots. Windows connects to Microsoft servers and activates the key. This completes the second part of the transaction

For the upgrade you are only allowed to buy 5 keys per account.

 

[sizzling]

just assume 26GB per OS installed. you can reduce the number but you indicated you had a new 128GB drive so space would not be a issue. on a clean install I would not install windows 7 first.

The first portion of the upgrade program does validation before it will let the webstore sell you a key. If you already have a key you can use this installer:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only.

For the most part people are just confused. The upgrade offer is just to sell you a key at a special price when you have a valid windows OS installed. The upgrade program checks your OS version and sends info to the webstore. The webstore extends (or blocks) a offer to sell you a key. If you accept the offer and complete a purchase you have completed the upgrade offer. You don't have to install the OS to buy keys.

The key gives you the right to install the OS, all the files are installed, your system boots. Windows connects to Microsoft servers and activates the key. This completes the second part of the transaction

For the upgrade you are only allowed to buy 5 keys per account.

Thank you, very informative post I may just buy another copy then as a spare.

I now intend just to install Win 8 pro without installing 7 first as there appears to be no benefit. I have not yet bought the HDD but from all this I think a 128Gb SSD will be sufficient for my needs and obviously much faster.

Thank you all

 

[13thmonkey]

My recently built mini itx machine has 7 and 8 on it, i've not booted it into 7 since day 1 or day 2, will be uninstalling 7 soon.