Windows 7 Clean Install

[Lissa]

I'm currently using a Sony Vaio VGN-Z620D Notebook with Vista Business (32 bit), and I want to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate, for which I have a key. When I insert the disk for the "Upgrade" option, I'm informed that my operating system and the version of Windows 7 on the disk are not compatible, and that I should run a clean install.

My room mate tried upgrading his Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate using the disk, and it went off without a hitch, so I suppose if I wanted to upgrade, I'd have to purchase a Windows 7 Business key. I don't mind wiping my hard drive, so this shouldn't be required, as long as I can wipe my drive and do a clean install.

What is a problem, however, is that my hard drive is in MBR format, and Windows 7 can only install on a GPT format hard drive. I understand that one can easily convert an unpartitioned (and empty?) drive to GPT using Vista's Disk Management utility, but mine is partitioned. I have an empty EISA configuration (8.47 GBs) and a larger NTFS partition which I can access (where everything is installed, including Vista).

From what I understand, the EISA config partition is protected by the original equipment manufacturer, and so far, I haven't found any way to interact with it at all. I can only guess that it's reserved space into which a recovery disk could install. (Install Vista?)

Any insights the more technically proficient here could offer would be well received.

PS: Would it be worthwhile copying my entire WoW folder to a portable hard drive and copying it back onto the fresh Windows 7 install, or should I download WoW from Battle.Net. My download speed caps off at 1.4 MB/sec, I'm assuming B.Net caps off much lower?

When you look at the system in disk manager, how are the partitions listed? Do you see a restore partition of some kind (there's probably one there as most OEM laptops do this)?

A clean install will wipe whatever you want to remove from the hard disk which could entail the removal of the restore partition. If you want to go this route, there are several things you should do (I would say must, but not everyone cares that much).

First, if the restore partition has an option to create restore CDs and you have a CD-R or DVD-R in this laptop, create those disks (you will need anywhere from 1 to 4 blank CDs as this various between OEMs, my HP required 3).

Once the disks are created, backup any pertinent data either to CDs, a USB thumb drive, or USB Hard Drive.

Next, and this is very, very, important, go to Sony's website and look up your laptop and download all of the Windows 7 drives and burn them to a CD/DVD as you are going to need them once the install of Windows 7 completes.

Now, once everything is backed up you want to keep, driver CD/DVD ready, and you have functioning restore CDs as needed, there is one last thing that is needed. If your roomate has Vista media (or XP), borrow theirs and make a copy of the disk (you may need this for the install to go forward, if they don't have the media, see if you can track some down so that Windows 7 can check you are upgrading as you don't need to install the prior media, just confirm to the install that you have a prior version for an upgrade). Once you have a prior edition's media in hand along with the restore disks and backed up information, you're ready to begin.

Insert the Windows Ultimate disks and start the install. As the install begins, it should talk about wanting to repartition the system, go into this option. Within here you will get options to partition the drive as needed, I would opt to creating a partition for the OS and other heavy use programs (minimum of 40G, but probably needs to be larger) and create a second partition for data (storing documents, music, video, etc) that takes up the remainder of the hard drive. Once the partitions are created, install windows 7 to the partition designated as your system partition, the install process should format and then copy files to this partition to do the install. Once the system reboots and starts the install, have the WinXP or Vista media handy, it might ask for it, if it does, insert the media into your CD/DVD drive. Once the install reads this media, it should continue and install. Once the install is complete and you are up in Windows 7, it's time to put the driver CD/DVD in and install all the drivers. Once all drivers are install and you see all drivers functioning properly in Device Manager, you should be able to install all you programs and bring back any data from your backups you made.