Windows 8 Pro, no option to keep anything given

Hi everyone

I was going to upgrade my Windows 7 Pro X64 to Windows 8 Pro X64, and, according to the microsoft site and their compatibility assistant, I should be able to keep pretty much everything.

I inserted the disk, and the only option given is "keep nothing".

There may be a couple reasons for this:

I'm running the MSDNAA version of Win 7 Pro.

My system has a SSD drive and a normal HDD. The SSD contains the OS and all programs that have to load much data, while the HDD contains the user files (documents, music, etc.) plus all other programs. Basically setup to keep my SSD from having too many delete/write operations to prolong its life.


Now, I wouldn't be surprised that my SDD/HDD setup might be the problem here.

In case I really have to do a clean install, I was wondering two things:

1. Will only the drive containing the OS be formated and partitioned anew during the installation process?

2. If it is like that, will I be able to just change the registry again, and reintegrate all my user data without moving anything at all?

Hi,

If you've moved not just user files, but entire user profiles, upgrade is not possible. To answer your questions:

1. Technically, nothing is formatted. Your old files are moved to a temp folder, then moved back after Windows is installed (and eventually, C:\windows.old contains old OS and user files).

2. I don't know what registry change you're talking about, but Windows Easy Transfer (migwiz) is your best friend. If you want to keep program settings, make sure to read my post about it.

One catch is that unlike files, settings can't be transferred between OS with different languages. You can check the language with this PowerShell command:
1033 is English.