Vista on old HD. Blank new HD. Upgrade download for Win7. Will it work?

[RangerWickett]

I'm building a new computer. My old HD is 200 GB, and has Vista. The new HD is 1 TB. Through my university I can download an upgrade for $10 (or purchase an upgrade CD for $50; wtf?). Does anyone know if, with this setup, I can get Windows 7 installed on the newer, faster, larger hard drive?

 

[Merkuri]

Do you have the original Vista disk? If so, you can install Vista onto the new hard drive and then upgrade it to Win 7.

You could also add the 1TB drive as a secondary drive and just use it to keep all of your files and only keep the Windows system files on the original drive, but you won't benefit from the faster drive as much.

 

[ssampier]

Generally I am not a fan of OS upgrades. It is better to install Windows 7 cleanly. You will have to reinstall all your programs, but Windows 7 should be able to transfer your settings.

Older Windows versions request the media when you do that, however. That means Vista OEM discs probably won't work.

 

[Merkuri]

If you go with my advice, you may want to try it on the new disk before you do anything to the old disk. If it doesn't work then you can still put your original disk back in and you haven't lost anything.

And if it does work you can use your original disk as a secondary drive, in case you need more than 1 TB of data for some reason. You could use it to store backups or something. They also sell housings for hard drives so you can turn the original drive into an external hard drive.

Some recovery disks will allow you to swap the hard drive, and some will not. I think most of them key off of the processor or the motherboard

 

[RangerWickett]

It worked! I backed up everything, burned an image disk with the Win 7 upgrade, unplugged the old HD, installed Vista via my restore disk to the new HD, then upgraded to Win 7. I even got to take a break in there to enjoy the biggest snowstorm Atlanta's seen in my lifetime.

Oh, and the whole thing activated. It's legit. And Aero's so pretty it makes me want to buy a new monitor.

Thanks again!