Solved Upgrade from 7 pro 64 bit to 8 pro - nothing kept

[speedorhaste]

I have been sitting on a Windows 8 upgrade disk purchased January 2013. Over the weekend I had a rush of blood and thought I would give the upgrade from 7 to 8 a go on my desktop, having gotten used to 8 (and now 8.1) on a separate laptop. However, when it gets to the relevant set up page, it provides no options to keep anything - just a radio button to select 'Keep nothing'. I thought the 7 to 8 upgrade path allowed you to keep files, programs and settings. The Windows 7 installation was itself an upgrade from XP. Am I wrong expecting to be able to keep all content? Any hints on different ways to upgrade that might provide these options?

With thanks. :thumb:

 

[Rainey222]

In windows 8 upgrade it will backup your files to some other drive (USB or internal) before it does a clean install. then it should restore your data files. It will not reinstall all other programs you will have to reinstall the other installed programs to get them back on windows 8.

 

[LMiller7]

There is no substitute for maintaining your own backups.

Typically the installer will save your files in a special folder during the install but it is unwise to rely on this. There are any number of things that could go wrong and you could loose everything.

All files of any importance need at least 1 backup copy while those of particular importance should have 2 or more backup copies. Many people have ignored this basic rule and lost irreplaceable files as a result.

 

[Ztruker]

If you do decide to backup I'd suggest you then follow Option One here:

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

That will give you a .ISO you can use to create a install DVD or flash drive for Windows 8.1 including Update 1. That will save you lots of time rather than installing Windows 8 then upgrade to 8.1 then install Update 1 plus updates.

You would use the key from the purchased Windows 8 you have to install with.

 

[speedorhaste]

Thanks to all. So it seems that the upgrade to Windows 8 from 7 does not allow you to keep programs, set up etc. I do have two separate back ups of my files (one to cloud and the other to a local drive - some call me paranoid!) Oh, and all of my data files are on a separate drive, so I don't think they should be touched by the upgrade to 8/8.1. I have burnt a copy of the ISO file to DVD as suggested so I can go straight to 8.1. And because I am a little paranoid, I have bought a separate SSD to do a clean 8.1 set up on. Just need to sort out how you do a clean install on an SSD. I did it once before with 7 but my memory fails me - there is probably a tutorial for this somewhere. The fresh SSD keeps the windows 7 installation untouched and I can always go back there if things go bad. Can't see me doing this for a couple of weeks though because of time poverty, but no harm getting organised. Tracking down program disks, keys and passwords is a bit of challenge, but I think I am close.

 

[Ztruker]

Remember to disconnect all drives except the one you are going to install too as an extra safety point. Should not be necessary but there have been many problems reported here when people did not do it. Worth taken the few minutes needed to do so.

 

[speedorhaste]

Good idea. From memory you then have to change the destination of the default document, music, photo etc folders to the reconnected hard drive. At least that is what I recall with Windows 7. Might be different with 8.1!

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Delete

 

[Wenda]

Remember to disconnect all drives except the one you are going to install too as an extra safety point. Should not be necessary but there have been many problems reported here when people did not do it. Worth taken the few minutes needed to do so.

A good bit of advice, and not just for 8/8.1, I killed a Win 7 setup on this laptop once by not disconnecting the 2nd drive. I was trying to replace the factory setup (with all the associated carp) with a clean installation, and Setup swapped drives on me (no, it didn't ask, and I didn't tell it to) and blitzed my E and F partitions.

I didn't make that mistake again...


Wenda.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Remember to disconnect all drives except the one you are going to install too as an extra safety point. Should not be necessary but there have been many problems reported here when people did not do it. Worth taken the few minutes needed to do so.

A good bit of advice, and not just for 8/8.1, I killed a Win 7 setup on this laptop once by not disconnecting the 2nd drive. I was trying to replace the factory setup (with all the associated carp) with a clean installation, and Setup swapped drives on me (no, it didn't ask, and I didn't tell it to) and blitzed my E and F partitions.

I didn't make that mistake again...


Wenda.

Thanks for your warning! Always good to know that sometimes OS maintenance and/or updates fail, due to the lack of DEVS realizing that nowadays we may have multiple HDD/SSD in our sytems. Rediculious!