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Windows 7 Upgrade

NorthernPlato

Shared on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 20:20

So one of the benefits of being a college student these days seems to be great prices on Microsoft products.  So I purchased a version of WIn7 Pro, but now I'm unsure of how to go about upgrading my laptop. 

The laptop I'm using is a Toshiba Satellite L300, running Win Vista.  It's currently a 32-bit OS, so that's the version I choose for the upgrade.  In hindsight, I think I should have gone with the 64-bit version, so that I could actually use that 4 gigs of RAM this thing has.

Anyhow, I'm soliciting advice on whether I should just do an upgrade and let Win7 update the drivers automagically, or do a backup of the files I want to keep/re-install, and choose to do a custom install, reformat and forget about all the Toshiba shit that came pre-installed.

Should I worry too much about the proprietary drivers that are currently on this laptop, or are whatever generic drivers Win7 will choose just as effective?  This is why I prefer consoles.  Or desktops.  Too bad those aren't as portable as a laptop.  Stupid tradeoffs.

Comments

AngryJason's picture
Submitted by AngryJason on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 08:30
You should be able to use 4GB with 32bit, just anything over will not register. I recently had to reimage a couple laptops for employees, and while I was putting on XP, and 7 is a lot better about drivers, I find laptops can sometimes be finicky. I'd go out to the Toshiba support site and download your WAN, Chipset and Video drivers, just to be sure. If Win 7 recognizes the hardware and loads up drivers, great, if not you're ready to go with the drivers you downloaded. Definitely go with the custom install, no need for all the usual bloatware. Just take the stuff you want to keep and pop it on a thumb drive or burn to a cd/dvd.
Fish66's picture
Submitted by Fish66 on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 10:31
I agree with AngryJason, back up all your stuff, including contacts and bookmarks and do the custom, Clean install. Win 7 has the "Easy Transfer" program that works pretty well, but takes a LONG time.
AngryJason's picture
Submitted by AngryJason on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 14:55
I'm wrong about the 4GB. This one has me red in the face. I've been building and maintaining my own PC's for 15 years, and I always thought 4GB was the memory limit on 32bit. Turns out it is 3GB. Weird.
NorthernPlato's picture
Submitted by NorthernPlato on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 19:42
Cool, thanks for the info guys. Downloading the toshiba drivers before the install it is.

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