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dr_dave_tele
I have a home PC running Vista 64-bit that I have not used for a while. About 5 years ago, I bought a copy of Windows 7 for it. I never installed it because of certain things in Vista that were not available on my Windows 7 laptop. I never looked closely at the media until today when I discovered the W7 I got is 32-bit.
My goal is to get from Vista 64 bit to W10 64 bit without losing any of the programs installed on this desktop machine. (2.67 GHz processor, 500 G HDD, 6GB RAM currently installed seems to meet minimum performance requirements).
I created a W10 64-bit installation tool on a USB. When I tried to run it, I got the message,
"Windows installation cannot be started from the current operating system. To install Windows, boot from the installation media, or upgrade from a supported operating system and restart the installation."
I have some concern that booting from the media might wipe out the existing programs I have on my computer, many of which I don't think I'd be able to recover if that happens.
By comparison, I updated my W7 laptop to W10 with no problems. That machine has an X64 processor but Dell only had 32-bit W7 on it for reasons unknown to me (purchased 2013-10). When I updated, all my programs (Office as well as a lot of other things) came across. (I had to re-install software for my EPSON DS-560 scanner, probably to update drivers, The other issue is that USB external hard drives are no longer plug-and-play; I have to manually assign a drive letter.) I'd like to have a similar outcome when I upgrade the Vista desktop. I'm not sure whether to try the W7 32-bit installation disk as an intermediate step and then try to go to W10 64 bit (would I have to go to W10 32-bit as yet another intermediate step?) or to throw caution to the wind and boot the Vista 64-bit desktop from the USB.
I read in a number of places that a "clean install" will wipe out all programs. I'm afraid I won't be able to even find my media from some of the programs I have. Can somebody outline best steps to keep me from losing installed programs?
Continue reading...
My goal is to get from Vista 64 bit to W10 64 bit without losing any of the programs installed on this desktop machine. (2.67 GHz processor, 500 G HDD, 6GB RAM currently installed seems to meet minimum performance requirements).
I created a W10 64-bit installation tool on a USB. When I tried to run it, I got the message,
"Windows installation cannot be started from the current operating system. To install Windows, boot from the installation media, or upgrade from a supported operating system and restart the installation."
I have some concern that booting from the media might wipe out the existing programs I have on my computer, many of which I don't think I'd be able to recover if that happens.
By comparison, I updated my W7 laptop to W10 with no problems. That machine has an X64 processor but Dell only had 32-bit W7 on it for reasons unknown to me (purchased 2013-10). When I updated, all my programs (Office as well as a lot of other things) came across. (I had to re-install software for my EPSON DS-560 scanner, probably to update drivers, The other issue is that USB external hard drives are no longer plug-and-play; I have to manually assign a drive letter.) I'd like to have a similar outcome when I upgrade the Vista desktop. I'm not sure whether to try the W7 32-bit installation disk as an intermediate step and then try to go to W10 64 bit (would I have to go to W10 32-bit as yet another intermediate step?) or to throw caution to the wind and boot the Vista 64-bit desktop from the USB.
I read in a number of places that a "clean install" will wipe out all programs. I'm afraid I won't be able to even find my media from some of the programs I have. Can somebody outline best steps to keep me from losing installed programs?
Continue reading...