If I do a bitwise copy of the drive to an SSD and boot from it, can I
then get Windows to update itself to 10?
Daniel James wrote:
If I do a bitwise copy of the drive to an SSD and boot from it, can I
then get Windows to update itself to 10?
definitely go with the SSD for a speed boost
You can't upgrade from Win7 32bit to Win10 64bit.
What I'd suggest is upgrade from Win7 32bit to Win10 32 bit (using the
media creation tool) make sure it activates and says it has a digital
licence
then wipe the machine and install win10 64 bit, it will automatically pick
up the previous entitlement.
I don't think you can upgrade in situ from Win7 to Win 10
but a win 7 licence
key is still supposed to work on Win 10 for a clean install.
Jeff Gaines wrote:
I don't think you can upgrade in situ from Win7 to Win 10
course you can, done it dozens of times
but a win 7 licence key is still supposed to work on Win 10 for a clean >>install.
theoretically the free 7->10 upgrade should have stopped years ago, in >practice it never did.
So ... she wants to go from Win7 Pro 32-bit to Win10 Pro 64-bit, and
I think this should be possible without buying a new licence ... but
it's really not my field as I went Linux-only about 12 years ago.
Before doing it, use NirSoft Produkey to read out the Win 7 key if the
COA isn't readable anymore.
IIRC activating Win 10 with a Win 7 Key is still possible.
What edition do you have now?
You need the right edition fo Win 10 to make it work.
You need to reinstall Win 10 to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit. An
upgrade is not possible.
Use the ISOs from MS: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Before doing it, use NirSoft Produkey to read out the Win 7 key if the
COA isn't readable anymore.
then wipe the machine and install win10 64 bit, it will automatically pick up the previous entitlement.
On 26/01/2022 in message <20220126080349.6299cbac.mo01@posteo.de>
Marco Moock wrote:
Before doing it, use NirSoft Produkey to read out the Win 7 key if
the COA isn't readable anymore.
YES!! I forgot that it is important and Windows will treat it as a
virus and try to isolate it. Magical Jelly Bean will read it as well
but as Marco said read it and write it down somewhere other than the
machine in question!
As I said, this is a machine from a big OEM (Lenovo) ... is it still
the case that using install media from the OEM would mean that
licensing information would be picked up from the BIOS (UEFI,
whatever) ... or doesn't it work like that any more?
Andy Burns wrote:
wipe the machine and install win10 64 bit, it will automatically pick up
the previous entitlement.
Really? That sounds like magic. How does it do that?
Some have suggested that if I do
an in-place update to Win10 32-bits and then install 64-bits over the
top the installer will (somehow?) pick up the licensing information from
the existing installation before wiping it.
A bit of advice needed from those who can remember how to use Windows,
if I may be so bold.
SWMBO has a little Lenovo PC running 32-bit Win7 Pro. It's an Intel i3,
a few years old, and I wouldn't expect it to pass the Windows 11 tests,
but it has plenty of life in it yet. She's been putting off the
inevitable upgrade to Win10 because she hates it, but now has to for
work reasons.
She's also been complaining that it's slow -- the machine came with a
300-odd GB hard drive, partitioned with 60GB as C: and about 220 as D:.
She had about 60GB of stuff on D: but C: had about 1.5GB free and the
machine was running like a dog. I've repartitioned it from a Linux
LiveUSB and made C: about 100GB bigger, which has removed its canine tendencies and persuaded her that the machine itself doesn't need
replacing.
I have, nevertheless, suggested increasing the drive size and switching
to an SSD ... that way we can keep the existing HDD as a backup if
anything goes wrong.
So ... she wants to go from Win7 Pro 32-bit to Win10 Pro 64-bit, and I
think this should be possible without buying a new licence ... but it's really not my field as I went Linux-only about 12 years ago.
If I do a bitwise copy of the drive to an SSD and boot from it, can I
then get Windows to update itself to 10? If so, will I get the option
to upgrade to 64-bit at the same time? If not, what's the best way to
do that? Can one just install 64-bit over 32-bit (preferably without destroying user data -- though that is backed up).
Alternatively, if I just install a fresh copy of Win10 64-bit onto the
SSD will it accept the Win7 licence key from the sticker? (I haven't
actually checked that that's still legible, the printing does have a
habit of rubbing off.) I presume I'd then have to reinstall
applications, but I hope the data (on a different partition) will
survive and save me the bother of restoring from backup. This will at
least mean that all the accumulated Windows cruft will be cleared out,
and the system should be fairly sprightly for at least a few months.
Which of these is the better approach, or should I do something
different again?
Cheers,
Daniel.
wipe the machine and install win10 64 bit, it will automatically
pick up the previous entitlement.
Really? That sounds like magic. How does it do that?
It takes a "fingerprint" of various components in the machine, MAC
addresses etc
In article <j5cjk9Fqq43U2@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote:
wipe the machine and install win10 64 bit, it will automatically
pick up the previous entitlement.
Really? That sounds like magic. How does it do that?
It takes a "fingerprint" of various components in the machine, MAC addresses etc
Ah, so the record of activation is held remotely by MS, not stored on
the machine itself? Makes sense, I suppose...
So, that's what I did (well, I didn't wipe the disk, I swapped out the
old hard drive for a nice new SSD) and it all seems to have worked
(though I'm not sure how to tell that Win10 is activated, it doesn't
seem to say so in Computer|Properties as it did in previous versions).
.. then SWMBO came home and found she needed all sorts of data that
she hadn't told me she needed backed up, so I've put the Win7 HD back
in for now ... <sigh>
Thanks, everyone, for your help and encouragement.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Andy Burns wrote:
It takes a "fingerprint" of various components in the machine, MAC
addresses etc
Ah, so the record of activation is held remotely by MS, not stored on
the machine itself? Makes sense, I suppose...
So, that's what I did (well, I didn't wipe the disk, I swapped out the
old hard drive for a nice new SSD) and it all seems to have worked
(though I'm not sure how to tell that Win10 is activated, it doesn't
seem to say so in Computer|Properties as it did in previous versions).
SWMBO has a little Lenovo PC running 32-bit Win7 Pro.[snip]
She's been putting off the inevitable upgrade to Win10 because she
hates it, but now has to for work reasons.
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