Windows 7 upgrade

Bott on Upgrading XP to Win7

One of the big bugaboos of Windows 7 is its inability to directly upgrade systems from XP to Windows 7. Considering that 80% of business users who run Windows are still running Windows XP (source: Gartner Small Business Outlook for 2009) this is bound to irk IT professionals and end-users alike. In his 9/29 blog for ZDNet entitled “Can you upgrade an old XP PC to Windows 7? Should you?”, Ed Bott tackles this problem head-on. As usual, he unearths a few gems along the way.

He took a 2005 Sony VAIO VGN-TX651P as his subject machine (1.2 GHz Pentium M, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD, Intel 915 graphics chipset) and tried several approaches to performing the upgrade, all of which began with a clean (custom) install because the installer supports no direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7. Here’s a quick summary of the two approaches he took:

• Use Windows Easy Transfer to grab preferences, settings, and user files and store them on an external drive, then perform a clean install, restore the Easy Transfer files and settings, then reinstall applications.
• Use Laplink PCMover to migrate everything from XP that still runs under Windows 7. It’s similar to Easy Transfer in that you must install PCMover, run an Upgrade Assistant on XP, perform a clean install of Windows 7 on that machine, restart, then run PCMover’s Upgrade Assistant on Windows 7. It’s actually smart enough to go into the Windows.old directory, grag program and data files, and add necessary registry edits for each program it migrates.

Bott also notes that it’s possible to do a direct upgrade from XP to Vista, and from Vista to Windows 7, but he chose to use a cheap-o version of Windows 7 Home Premium for his final resting point, and the Sony box came with XP Professional installed, so a two-step process wouldn’t work anyway (you can’t get from Professional to Home Premium, because it’s not a valid upgrade path).

During the various processes, which took 4 hours or more to complete, he observed that Windows 7 did a good to great job of recognizing hardware and installing drivers (this squares nicely with my own recent Windows 7 install experience on a handful of netbooks, plus half a dozen each notebooks and desktop PCs). We have both run into issues with proper recognition of memory card readers, and have both taken advantage of our ability to find drivers on vendor Websites to remedy such defects. We’ve also both observed the value and power of cleaning up the old environment (deleting old files, reducing the size of volume shadow stores, cleaning out old restore points, uninstalled unused or unwanted applications, and so forth) before installing the new OS. Fanatic that I am, I also usually run a industrial grade defrag (I use PerfectDisk and recommend it highly) on the old OS image before starting the clean install on that hard disk. And for extra protection, I usually also make an image backup of the old version just in case something goes wrong during the install process. Windows 7 install hasn’t bitten me yet, but who’s to say it can’t happen?

Bott also reports that Laplink was able to migrate most applications, but ran into some issues with Windows Live programs (which needed to be reinstalled) and hit a snag with an Adobe activation code for InDesign3 (I was able to migrate Adobe Premiere without any issues, but I came from Vista, not XP during that particular transition). He also rightly dings PCmover for installing the Ask toolbar and changing the home page and default search provider, where the former is disguised as a EULA and the latter is done by default. Given prior warning, most users will choose to avoid such things, and Laplink falls short in providing same, according to what he reports. Shame on them!

Other than some minor gotchas, and the aforementioned sneakware attack, Laplink does make it much easier to migrate from XP to Windows 7 and also shaves at least an hour off the total time required. The company plans to charge $30 for a Windows 7 only version of PCmover and, according to Bott, will offer that program for a mere $15 between October 1 and October 22 (the latter is the Windows 7 GA date) directly from their Website. It is indeed a heck of a deal, and will cheerfully permit users to migrate from XP or Vista versions to Windows 7 versions that Microsoft doesn’t itself permit or support.

Windows PC Hardware Whack-a-Mole

As I’m slowly but surely upgrading all of my PC’s to Windows 7 — I’ll keep a few dual-boot notebooks with Vista, and netbooks with XP, just for testing and checking on older OSes — I’m encountering interesting things on my systems right and left. In a recent blog on ViztaView.com, I recount how a bungled BIOS flash cost me the use of my machine during a one-month period when I had to wait for  replacement BIOS chip to show up in the mail. It seems that the Asus BIOS protection capabilities for the P5K motherboard are not resilient enough to withstand a completely mangled BIOS, though they are pretty good at dealing with bad settings and suchlike.

With the return of that machine to activity, thanks to a quick replacement of the bad BIOS chip with a good one, that PC roared back into life. But alas, something then caused its built-in Atheros GbE interface to go on the fritz. While I was able to bring the machine back up and begin using it, I quickly realized that although the on-board NIC appeared to be working to some extent (to the point where lights were blinking, both BIOS and Device manager able to recognize the interface, inbound and outbound network activity could even be registered in the IP stack, and commands like PING LOOPBACK or PING <own-IP-address> appeared to be working) the machine had become unable to access the network. To make things interesting, DHCP simply wouldn’t work, though I could manually assign a working IP address and get enough of a configuration working that I became sure the problem did not lie in the IP stack software itself.

After about two-and-a-half hours of sometimes calm and deliberate, sometimes hot and heavy troubleshooting that included OS repair, uninstall/reinstall of the Atheros drivers, disabling of the firewall and other security software, replacement of DHCP auto-configuration for TCP/IP with manual settings, and a romp through my D-Link DIR-655 combo router/WAP/gateway device interface, I came to the conclusion that for whatever reason, the network interface simply wasn’t working. I was able to confirm this an hour or two later, when one of my partners showed up with an AirLink101 Wireless USB adapter (802.11b/g/n, which I’m using with an D-Link DWL2100AP 802.11g WAP).

For this device, Plug’n’Play worked just like it’s supposed to: in under a minute I had a working network connection. I just wish I hadn’t loaned out all three of my wireless USB devices because I could’ve solved the problem much more quickly if I’d had one around to try the old network troubleshooting practice best epitomized as “if the obvious path doesn’t work, try a known good working alternative path.” The AirLink will keep that machine working until I have time to head down to Fry’s to pick a PCI or PCI-e GbE interface for my test machine, which should boost my networking speed noticeably, and should cost me no more than $20-22 (here’s a NIC from TRENDnet that costs a whopping $10).

Next, I’m going to migrate my current production install from my Gigabyte P35T-DQ6 mobo build into a new case, replace that mobo with an Asus P5Q3, substitute a 128 GB SSD for my  mirrored 500 GB Samsung drives, and consolidate a bunch of smaller data and archival drives into a single 1 TB Samsung SpinPoint drive. But first, I’ll have move my working files and applications onto the now-operational test machine so I can keep working while the switch is in process. Who knows what other moles to whack I’ll find along that way? Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know!

Check Out Ed Bott’s Windows 7 Upgrade Survival Guide

Long-time Windows guru Ed Bott blogs for ZDNet, and his postings are often sources of great information, tips, and tricks for that OS. His 9/14/09 posting “The Windows 7 upgrade survival guide” is no exception to this rule, and includes seven useful tips to help ease the upgrade process along. Now that I’ve upgraded half a dozen machines myself in the last two weeks, I can attest to the veracity and usefulness of these tips, though some will prove more relevant or germane than others.

Here’s a quick recap of what you’ll find in this short but sweet blog posting:

1. Run setup from a flash drive or USB hard drive. These devices are faster than optical drives, and save time on installation normally devoted to reading from optical media.
2. Move big data collections off the system drive before starting the upgrade. All this stuff has to be read, indexed, and handled as part of the upgrade process, even though not much happens to such files (especially digital photos, music, movies, and other media files). Copy ‘em onto another drive, then delete them from the system drive before you upgrade (you can always copy them back when they’re done, if you like).
3. Use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and address all compatibility issues before starting the upgrade. Just do it!
4. Ditch old and unwanted software. Use Programs and Features or a third-party tool (my fave: Revo Uninstaller) and get rid of stuff you no longer use, no longer want, or no longer need. Not only will this get rid of clutter, it will also speed the upgrade process (which takes time to migrate each application into the Windows 7 runtime environment).
5. Upgrade your HD as well as your OS. If you’re feeling cramped for space on your system drive, you might want to replace it before you perform the upgrade. Lay down an image backup on the new drive, and you’ll have more room to work and play after the upgrade completes. If anything goes wrong, the old drive will still work, and can take over for the new one.
6. Grab all the drivers before you upgrade. Use a utility such as Driver Detective, DriverAgent, or RadarSync — or your own personal favorite — to grab Windows 7 or Vista drivers for your PC. As Bott observes, you must have a usable network driver at a bare minimum, so you can then use the Internet after the upgrade to fetch whatever else you might need.
7. Make a clean image backup after you upgrade. This will provide a pristine image of your new system after the upgrade, and give you a place to go back to later on if something goes haywire with Win7. To make this easy, the OS itself provides image backup capability for all Win7 versions.

That’s about it, and it’s all pretty good advice. If you’re facing Windows 7 upgrade maneuvers, you’ll find these tips helpful and handy.

First casualty of Windows 7: HP LaserJet 4M PS 600dpi Printer

Back in 1994, I traded a copy of NetWare 4 50-user with a reseller for a brand-new HP LaserJet 4M 600-dpi PostScript model. It’s stuck with me through two versions of Windows NT (3.51 and 4.0), Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, plus Windows Server versions through 2008 (R1). I was pleased to be able to find a driver for this old but still reliable beast for Windows 7 through Windows Update but alas, it didn’t work properly (at least, not at first): instead of printing like it did under XP or Vista without a hitch, I got an “invalid font” PostScript error message and the unit failed to print its test page. 

Although my unit is indeed as described above (HP LaserJet 4M Plus PostScript 600 dpi) and a driver for that precise model is available, I had to downgrade to the plain-vanilla HP LaserJet 4M Plus driver to get this printer to work with Windows 7. It’s interesting to me that the I see the biggest-ever collection of drivers for this ancient printer model with Windows 7, but also that while the most specialized driver fails to work properly, the more generic version does just fine.

You could certainly say this printer has provided plenty of service in the 15 years I’ve been using it for work and personal use. It’s definitely the longest-lasting piece of computer hardware I’ve ever used, and I’m sorry to see it headed for retirement. I’ve ordered a new, top-rated 30 PPM Samsung ML-2851ND workgroup printer to replace this power-hungry monster, and will be curious to see how it performs in its place. It’s also amusing to me that despite the huge advances in laser printing technology since the LaserJet 4M first made the scene in the early 1990s, toner cartridges for my new printer and my old one still cost about the same (approximately $100 for a brand-new cartridge from the vendor; about $80 for a refill from a third-party supplier including old cartridge recycling). That said, the $900 MSRP price for the 4M at the time I acquired it has dropped to a paltry $170 or so for its Samsung replacement, lo these many years later (about $122 1994 dollars in 2007, according to this CPI conversion tool). That’s quite a major price reduction in the printer, but these days selling printers is all about selling consumables (ask any inkjet owner! ;-).

It’s not so much that I absolutely must have 600 dpi output that led me to make the retirement call for my trusty LaserJet4M. Rather, it’s a combination of increasingly difficult availability for parts and toner cartridges, higher power consumption, and its size and heft that all conspired to bring me to this pass. I have to imagine that the introduction of Windows 7 into other workplaces will provoke other, similar changes to familiar features on the IT landscape as well. At a bare minimum, it will be nice to bring my printing infrastructure entirely into the plug-and-play (PnP) era. Although Windows Update was able to find and deliver lots of drivers for this older HP printer, who knows how long that can remain the case?

I’m thinking about dropping the old 4M off at a nearby Goodwill recycling center in Round Rock as soon as the replacement unit arrives (probably on August 28)— unless somebody in the Austin metro area wants to come pick it up and give it a new home at no cost (it’s got a brand-new toner cartridge installed). Drop me an e-mail or post a comment to this blog, if you’re interested. The unit’s printed less than 150,000 pages and the print engine is rated for 250,000 so the old girl’s still got a few good years left! PLMK.

[Update on 8/27: I've got a taker for the printer, so please don't ask if you can have it. It's already spoken for! The early bird gets the worm, and the first request got this printer. I guess it's still worth something after all. ]

Bungled BIOS Upgrade Leads to New Test Install

Last Thursday, I suffered a BIOS flash problem on my primary test machine that resulted in a completely dead motherboard: no post, no action at startup except for lights and fan up, followed by an immediate shutdown. A little research showed that my Asus P5K is one of a very few modern motherboards that can be reduced to inert circuitry by a BIOS flash error. A quick $20 to a chip supplier on ebay got a new chip on its way to me in the mail, but I had to have another machine to mess about upon as soon as possible.

I decided to resuscitate my previously moribund Windows Vista Media Center PC, which includes a Gigabyte X38-DQ6 mobo, a QX98650 quad core CPU, a GeForce 8800 GT, 4 GB DDR2-800 RAM, and about 1 TB of putative disk storage. In short: a state-of-the-art PC in 2007 when it was put together, and a decent system even by today’s standards.

To re-start my upgrade install experiment on a machine sitting idle since last December (at least, as far as its disk drives were concerned; we used this machine for other testing in the meantime, but on different HDs), I first had to do the following:

1. Reactivate my anti-virus and anti-spyware packages, and bring them up to date
2. Apply over 40 items from Windows Update to the 32-bit resident version of Windows Vista Ultimate
3. Make the drivers current and up-to-date (DriverAgent now reports only one out of date driver, and that’s for a disconnected device which worries me not at all)
4. Install my full complement of applications, just to see what would have to go and what could stay as Windows 7 works through the upgrade process
5. Make an image backup of the system, so I would have a place to go back to in case the upgrade should fail for any reason

Altogether, this process took a long day to complete (though I kept working on other stuff on my production machine all along, so it didn’t keep me from taking care of my more usual business).

Over the weekend, I got started on the upgrade process, kicking things off with the still-beta version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (I can’t find a newer version of this available just yet, so I guess MS doesn’t feel itself on the hook to deliver same until the official GA date for Windows 7 rolls around on 10/22/09). When I ran the program via a remote desktop connection it fired off without a hitch, but proceeded to grind away for 25 minutes, before I gave up and tried again at the machine’s local controls. This time, it finished in a mere 3:25 before tendering its compatibility analysis.

Based on my earlier failed venture I expected to see some programs in need of removal, and wasn’t sure if all the hardware on this system would pass muster. After it identified my JMicron JMB26X RAID controller driver as a potential sticking point, I visited the vendor’s FTP site and downloaded then updated the 1.17.32.6 driver to the latest WHQL 1.17.49.4 drivers instead. After that I re-ran the Upgrade Advisor to produce the following screens (which still didn’t do away with the JMicron JMB36X warnings, even though my production system is running Windows 7 quite happily with the 1.17.31.0 drivers, and what I have on the test machine is much newer).

Here’s the base level report that the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (beta) produced:

Almost everything comes out of the Win7UA clean

Here’s a shot of the devices page from the UA, with the warning about the JMB36X controller featured prominently at its head.

It’s a real relief when everything — or as in this case, nearly everything — comes up with a clean bill of health, hardware-wise. Given that my other machine includes the same RAID controller and is working famously with Windows 7 on an older version right now, I’m not too concerned anyway.

Here’s a shot of the requirements page from the UA, which shows that my test machine exceeds the various minimum/recommended requirements:

No problems with the requirements on this rig

I’m reading reasonably reliable reports that this motherboard works with all four DIMM slots occupied (my earlier P35 models couldn’t handle all four slots filled) so I’m also going to install 64-bit and try 12 (2×4 plus 2×2 GB) and 16 (4×4 GB) RAM in this rig as well. But let’s save that for another day.

There’s also a minor warning about the version of Visual Studio I have installed on this machine, but I’ll cross that bridge when I next turn to those tools on that machine (count on me to report back if anything untoward presents during that process). Frankly, I’m not too worried about it. My only beef with the driver warning from the UA is that it gave me no idea which version I should use instead, and I gave up after trying the three most recent versions on the vendor’s FTP page and still not getting it right.

At this point, I’m ready to run the upgrade install. I’ll report on my experiences in performing that upgrade in my next blog, the day after tomorrow (August 19).

TechNet on Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration

I stumbled across an interesting TechNet Step-by-Step piece this morning as I started researching the Vista to Windows 7 migration subject. I just upgraded two machines over the weekend, in the wake of the RTM release to MSDN at noon CDT on Thursday. Once the downloads were completed (that took until just past midnight Friday night, in my case to get 32- and 64-bit copies of Windows Professional and Ultimate), I started cranking away at installs for my 64-bit test machine (which also got an upgrade to 12 GB RAM at the same time) and for my 32-bit production PC as well.

The formal title of the TechNet piece is “Step-by Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration.” Here’s a screen shot snippet that shows the lead-in and library entry info:

If you dig into this story, you’ll find useful instructions for the following topics covered:

• Upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7
• Migrate files and settings to a new computer
• Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7

To those scenarios, I’d also recommend that organizations with some budget also look into the Laplink one-time upgrade/migration licenses. These retail for $65 each on a one-off basis, and can probably be purchased in bulk at some kind of discount (hopefully substantial), and permit applications to be migrated along with files and settings from most older Windows OSes (especially Vista and XP) to Windows 7. This can make the job of migrating machines must easier for admins who may need to do this pronto for some existing installs.

Let me also observe that my experiences in installing Windows 7 so far have been uniformly positive and mostly-problem free. If you want the gory details check out this morning’s ViztaView blog “No Joy on In-place Upgrade; Clean Install Succeeds,” wherein I provide a blow-by-blow recitation of my recent experience in moving my problem-plagued production PC from Vista to Windows 7, with 98% positive results and a solution for all my software problems along the way.