@oralloy,
oralloy wrote:tsarstepan wrote:So who's planning on moving to Windows 8 when it comes out in around October I believe, alongside the Microsoft Surface, Microsoft's first attempt at tablet and computer hardware under their own name. Will you be buying a new computer to get Windows 8 or will you be merely upgrading your old laptop or desktop computer? Did you skip Windows 7 and will upgrade Windows 8 from XP or Vista?
I've always been happy with XP, and would keep using it forever if I could, but Microsoft is going to cut it off sometime in 2014, so I guess I'm upgrading to Windows 8. Gonna try to get the professional version so it'll last a few years longer before Microsoft makes me switch yet again.
Now and then I fill up a hard drive and go buy a bigger one, and I hit that point this spring. However, I've decided to combine the two moves by limping along for awhile on an almost-full drive, and then this fall I will simultaneously get a new hard drive and switch to Windows 8.
So this will mostly be an upgrade. But since it'll be a brand new hard drive, it'll be a clean install.
It works!
I'm still getting the computer in order, downloading various software to install, etc,
and am much short on sleep, so I might be awhile before I'm back to posting regularly.
Some tips for people upgrading:
Windows 8 will
not run (or even install) if your CPU does not have Data Execution Prevention.
If also upgrading your hard drive, note that any motherboard manufactured before 2012 will
not correctly recognize an internal hard drive over 2 terabytes.
If your motherboard was manufactured in 2012, you will probably be able to go over 2 terabytes
after updating your BIOS.
If installing on an existing drive, note that Windows 8 prefers a 350MB "system reserved" partition at the front of its drive.
Windows 7 and Vista have only a 100MB "system reserved" partition, while XP has none at all.
Windows 8 does not require such a partition in order to work, but will lack some system recovery features with only the 100MB version. Without any partition it will probably also lack encryption features.
If installing over an earlier version, you might want to give some thought into how much these features are worth to you.
You can certainly repartition your existing disk, of course, but
doing so will wipe out all data on the disk. And chances are, if you are installing on an existing disk, you prefer to keep your data intact.
And for those getting an "upgrade" edition, note that you no longer have the option of briefly slipping your previous CD into the drive to prove you own an earlier version. An upgrade edition WILL NOT validate/activate if it did not see a previous version of windows already on the computer during installation. It will just function as an unactivated 30 day trial.
I was able to make it work by installing on my new drive while my old drive was still attached to the computer. (I was
*extremely* careful when it came time to tell it which hard drive to format.)
Windows 8 does give the option during the installation process of formatting the drive that the previous version of Windows was on (wiping out all data in the process, of course), for those who want to upgrade with a clean install on an existing drive. But if you do that, make sure you don't lose power (and hope against hope that the installation is successful), because once it formats the disk, an upgrade edition will no longer be able to find an earlier version of Windows if you have to start over.
One final tip: Don't order your equipment from a warehouse in New Jersey a day before a large hurricane strikes the state.
