Windows 7 Upgrade and BootCamp

Upgrading Windows simply involves booting into your existing Windows system then insert the Windows 7 DVD which should start the installer automatically. It does not affect the partition for Windows just the Windows system itself.

You can't upgrade XP to 7 without doing a 'clean' install (referred to as Custom Install in the Windows installer), this applies whatever you try to install on, the Custom Install will erase the entire XP installation prior to Win7 being installed.

Back up everything you need in the XP installation (data only, apps can't be transferred) and transfer it to Win7 after installation.

You will need 50G minimum for 7, if your current partition is smaller than that, delete it with Boot Camp Assistant and make a new one, don't delete it with Disk Utility.

Also .... if you installed XP into an FAT partition you will need to reformat to NTFS, which is done with the Win7 installer.

You will and should do a complete fresh install with all new drivers and applications.

Even if it could you would not want to. And espcially and hopefully going from XP a 32-bit OS, to 64-bit, doubly so.

And that you now have say 50-60GB to use.

Please spread the word on CampTune, I keep recommending and people want great products for free, and $20 for what it does is low cost as you could want and have someone develop a product. For which backups are also "too expensive" until their data and irrepplaceable files.

Yes it 'starts' but what it does is boot from the DVD to perform a custom clean install.

Al Knowles wrote:

I am probably laboring under a misunderstanding of how Bootcamp actually works. I was thinking of it like any other Windows program. I thought that if I did a "clean install" and all my Windows XP programs were eliminated, then Bootcamp would be eliminated as well. If that happened, I could not boot back to the Apple side.

But if I remember right, formatting the Windows partition completely was part of the original Bootcamp install.

In other words, I could still get back to the Apple side (using the option key) even if the other side had nothing on it at all. Have no idea how that works, but I think it does.

Am I right about that?

You are correct.

All that Boot Camp Assistant does is:

• Creates a partition on the drive to use for installing Windows.
• Sets up a boot loader that lets you switch between operating systems at startup.
• Manage the Windows partition - creates and removes the partition.
• Provides a download of hardware drivers to install in Windows.
• Lets you print out documentation for using Boot Camp Assistant - you should read them.

Kappy wrote:

All that Boot Camp Assistant does is:

• Creates a partition on the drive to use for installing Windows.
• Sets up a boot loader that lets you switch between operating systems at startup.
• Manage the Windows partition - creates and removes the partition.
• Provides a download of hardware drivers to install in Windows.
• Lets you print out documentation for using Boot Camp Assistant - you should read them.

Hate to disagree but the Boot Loader exists whether or not you have a Boot Camp partition, that's one way to boot from an external drive.

Everything else checks out though 🙂

Hi,

I have a 15 GB partition for my Windows OS and stuff, and XP as the system. As everyone seemed to know, except me until a few weeks ago, Wndows XP crashes with Lion in the background. I now have an opportunity to upgrade to 7. But I am learning from this thread that Windows 7 needs a 50 - 60 GB partition. No way am I willing to give up that much real estate to Windows. I am now ready to just jettison Windows, and want to add the 15 GB to my Mac.

Does Boot Camp do that, or disk Utility? What about the data on the Mac side?

Thanks,

Klaus

Don't use DU, Boot Camp is the correct tool for removing a Boot Camp partition. Your OSX partition should not be affected but I would back it up first.