Vista - to - Win7 = One CD possible?

[Jayce]

I've never done an upgrade of an operating system in the Windows world... but I'm curious.

If I get Windows 7 to dump on top of Vista, is there any way I can somehow zip up the entire package to 1 CD? Like my Vista CD + Win 7 upgrade?

I'm just trying to understand, like, if I nuke my PC and I have to reinstall, would I have to install Vista + then afterwards the 7 upgrade? I'm just trying to find a way to slipstream everything in 1 package, if possible.

 

[Trotter]

Why not just make an image of the drive once it is installed?

 

[Jayce]

That's what I plan on doing, but I was still curious on whether or not it was possible, regardless of the imaging factor I plan on going with.

 

[KSoD]

Well Vista nor Win7 can fit on a CD period. So 1 Cd is not going to be possible at all in the first place.

But no there is no way to do what you want. Be it using a DVD or even a Blu-ray disk. Windows does not have the option to migrate both versions onto 1 disk when using a upgrade from a newer version.

 

[Jayce]

Here's another question.

Say I have Vista, and I "upgrade" to 7.

Years pass.... and say Windows "8" comes out. Can I "upgrade" to that then?

Is there a limitation on how many times you can upgrade/upgrade/upgrade/upgrade to OS to OS to OS before things get really effed up?

 

[KSoD]

You can upgrade from Win7 to Win8 from a install of Vista. There is no limitation.

But just upgrading from Vista to Win7 can really mess things up. If there is ANYTHING wrong, adjusted, misconfigured or infected when you start the update process, the new OS can and most likely will have issues from the get go.

This is why when dealing with Windows it is always said to Fresh install instead of upgrade.

 

[Jayce]

You can upgrade from Win7 to Win8 from a install of Vista. There is no limitation.

But just upgrading from Vista to Win7 can really mess things up. If there is ANYTHING wrong, adjusted, misconfigured or infected when you start the update process, the new OS can and most likely will have issues from the get go.

This is why when dealing with Windows it is always said to Fresh install instead of upgrade.

I hate to start stepping on some toes here, but why in the world does Microsoft offer paid upgrades then? I can understand if they were free, as if it was try at your own risk, but in my mind, if I'm paying for it, it'll work.

It just doesn't make sense to, oh here's an upgrade for x amount of dollars, but we don't recommend it.

 

[KSoD]

It isnt Microsoft that doesnt recommend it. It is the techies. Any real Windows tech on this site will say it. But ask any person who represents Microsoft and of course they are going to tell you what you want to hear. That upgrades are safe and can be performed with no issues.

But any real techie can tell you flat out that is not the case. I have had just as many issues upgrading my Windows installs as i have my Ubuntu.

Maybe the upgrades have gotten better? I have not bothered to perform a upgrade since Windows 95 upgrade from Windows 3.11 and back then it was trouble. Just as reading the thousands of topics about issues with the Windows OS after a upgrade you will see comments like i have said.

But honestly, to think that it will "Just work" is silly to begin with. PC's are so complex that even a simple driver update can brick a system. You have a disadvantage knowing Linux so much. Your trying to impose what happens with that OS to Windows which will never transfer over properly.

 

[Jayce]

You're assuming that I don't hold Linux to the same fault in regard to upgrading the OS, which is not the case. I never do upgrades on my Linux machines for the exact same reason you just described about Microsoft. That's why I partition home and root separately so within a half an hour's time I can do a fresh install of a new Linux operating system without losing any data whatsoever, which almost makes it a null point to do an upgrade in the first place on the Linux side of things.

I know computers are complex and I know the weirdest things can happen, but if I'm in a position where I'm marketing a product and putting a price tag to it, I'm going to make **** sure that it will work. My apologies for hoping that was the case.