Thinkpads Forum

Order my W500 with 8GB Memory just a week before 10/22/2009.

It comes with Vista Business x64.

Lenovo won't provide me the Windows 7 recovery dvd, so I have to restore to vista first then use the upgrade to windows 7.

arthurcorell wrote:Order my W500 with 8GB Memory just a week before 10/22/2009.

It comes with Vista Business x64.

Lenovo won't provide me the Windows 7 recovery dvd, so I have to restore to vista first then use the upgrade to windows 7.

If it came with VISTA x64 why do you have to restore it to VISTA before upgrading to WIN 7 ???

I got my W500 some months ago with Vista/64 and XP diskette. Downgraded to XP until W7 rolled out. Along the way I grabbed the pre-release W7-Pro upgrade (COSTO's $99 promo offer).

When the shipment arrived, it was then that I realized the I swerved into the upgrade ... not the total W7. My info was also proved incorrect that that upgrade was for Vista-to-W7 only. So I returned it to Costco to trade up to full W7 for a clean install; Costco did not stock. ($308 at Staples .. I didn't have time to wait for cheaper source if any)

At Staples the local ''guru'' informed me that I could get the upgrade and would work from XP but needed a bit of mucking around. No time or patience for that adventure .. I went for the full package ... had it up and running inside 60 minutes. Drivers were a longer adventure.

Under XP, my SD-card slot did not work ... no under W7 the SD slot is OK .. but now my PC-Card Slot as well as my eSATA slot hasn't awakened yet. Any hints what is missing?

Frank

You could have done a full install of Win7 using the Win 7 Upgrade disc, no need for the FULL package.
I did the same from an XP machine. It works perfectly.

diegot wrote:You could have done a full install of Win7 using the Win 7 Upgrade disc, no need for the FULL package.
I did the same from an XP machine. It works perfectly.

What is the method? Are you prompted to enter your XP or Vista COA? Can you upgrade from 32Bit to 64Bit (using a FULL CLEAN INSTALL)?

proaudioguy wrote: What is the method? Are you prompted to enter your XP or Vista COA? Can you upgrade from 32Bit to 64Bit (using a FULL CLEAN INSTALL)?

You can do a clean install, just like retail version. There is no need for XP or Vista COA, but you do need Windows7 COA.

visionguru wrote: You can do a clean install, just like retail version. There is no need for XP or Vista COA, but you do need Windows7 COA.

How does it know you have an older version to be eligible for the upgrade price ?

You supposed to stick the older OS disc in the cd drive during the Windows 7 installation process.
When the installer searches for the older OS installation, you eject the DVD and insert the XP or Vista disks.
It should find the disc when it spins up.
At least this is how I used to do it with Windows 98SE upgrade over Winodws 98 many moons ago.
It may have changed.

ARD wrote:You supposed to stick the older OS disc in the cd drive during the Windows 7 installation process.
When the installer searches for the older OS installation, you eject the DVD and insert the XP or Vista disks.
It should find the disc when it spins up.
At least this is how I used to do it with Windows 98SE upgrade over Winodws 98 many moons ago.
It may have changed.

I'm pretty sure we all used to do it that way 10 years ago. What does that have to do with now?

The answer, it doesn't care. Just pop the disk in even if you have nuked the entire HD, and choose custom and format the drive. It never asked for proof of a previous OS license.