This week I upgraded my Sony Vaio laptop to Windows 7 from Vista. My last computer died after falling off the coffee table this summer. Fortunately, when I replaced it, the new computer was eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it was released. On Thursday, one week after the official release, my upgrade DVD finally came. I had always been under the impression that with upgrading a windows machine it is always preferable to do a clean install rather than an upgrade. I chose against doing the clean install for several reasons. First, I wanted to follow Sony’s instructions explicitly, so as to not have to worry about a support call when something didn’t work. Second, I bought this particular computer, in part, because it included a copy of MS Office (I chose office over a blu-ray player). Since Office was pre-installed, I wasn’t sure how to do a clean install of Windows 7 without losing Office as well. I then started thinking about the other accessory drivers (2 printers as well as an external wireless adapter) that I would have to try to install all over again. I have a pretty technical setup at the office that I plug into and I don’t want to have to do all of that over again.
Sony actually sent me 2 DVD’s. The first one was the Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit disc, and the second a companion disk with model specific drivers and software. The instructions told me to start with the Win 7 disc and then install the companion disk.
I started the Windows 7 disc at precisely 3:11pm. During the beginning of the process a warning box appeared to let me know that there was an issue with iTunes and that I would need to deauthorize my computer and uninstall iTunes before installing Win 7. Though it gave me that warning, it would not let me cancel the installation, so I just followed right on through. I finished the Win 7 installation at 5:45pm (2 hours and 34 minutes) and began the installation of the Sony Companion DVD. This DVD loaded Sony specific drivers and software. It took longer than I expected, finally finishing at 7:10pm (1 hour 25 minutes; 3 hours 59 minutes total).
Upon examining my newly upgraded machine I noticed that the SONY disc had contained some video editing and media software that was not included when I purchased the machine. I also noticed that everything seemed to be working perfectly.
When I plugged my printers and wireless adapter in, they instantly appeared and were ready to use.
iTunes worked fine on Thursday, but by Friday morning I was getting a message that my computer was not authorized. Since I had already used my 5 allowed authorizations a quick call to Apple Support walked me through the process. In 15 minutes I had iTunes fixed without losing any files, apps, or music.
Having upgraded a machine from Win 95 to NT and a machine from Win ME to XP, this was by far the best Windows upgrade I had ever accomplished.
