Upgrade to Win7 on T60- programs/files are gone. What to do?

[mbarker]

So, I just finished a Windows 7 "upgrade" on a T60 that I acquired for the purpose. It had XP on it, and a handful of programs like web browsers, Picasa, Lenovo stuff and the like. Nothing major, and no personal files. I did not fully realize that Windows 7 was going to perform a fresh install, and I also did not realize that I was not going to be able to "restore" my programs from Windows.old. So, I have no other backups of anything.

My question is, what to do now? This is not a case of lost personal data or anything like that, I am just wondering how to proceed with setting up my system. I understand that I cannot directly migrate all of the programs/settings over from Windows.old. With that in mind should I just start downloading and installing (fresh) the programs that I want, or is there another way (to get them from Windows.old)? I am particularly interested in how this applies to Lenovo/Thinkvantage software.

Also, speaking of Windows.old, how do I get rid of it? Just delete it or is there some other way? Assuming I don't "need" anything in it I would like to have the 12GB back that it is taking up.

Thanks for any advice!

[ozzymud]

or is there another way (to get them from Windows.old)?

In assuming the "upgrade" actually installed 7 alongside XP...

Your old data is in "Documents and Settings", new data will reside in "Users" in the root of the install drive (C:\)

To "migrate" an app... just move it's settings from the old data location to the new location, and re-install the app to the SAME directory...


Example: Thunderbird
Install Thunderbird in 7 as a new app... run it, close it, find it's new data location under "C:\Users"
Data old: C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Thunderbird
move to new data location: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Thunderbird

Thunderbird should work as before, with all settings and mail in place... same general thing for most apps designed for XP or higher. Older apps (for me one was the FileZilla FTP client), it's settings were stored in an ini file in the apps directory, simply installing in 7 then copying the whole folder didn't work (had to either install outside Program Files, turn off UAC, or set FileZilla to use the registry for settings... UAC Off anyways.. so )

Did Windows 7 install to a folder besides "Windows"? Like 9x usta install to Windows.000. If not, then getting rid of XP would not be feasable, So far in 7 I see "Documents and Settings", "Users", & "ProgramData" folder (This btw is all on my G: drive in XP, not same drive as XP but still dual boot)... seeing how 7 apparently has a "Documents and Settings" folder like XP had... dunno if you can get rid of it (This will be where a LOT of space was used in XP... My Documents and Desktop resides there for each user).

If Windows 7 installed to a folder other then "Windows"... you can delete the XP "Windows" folder. Edit the boot entries and remove Windows XP from the boot list. As far as programs go, if both systems were 32bit or 64bit, you shouldn't be using any more drive space for the actual apps once you reinstall ALL of them, as they should reside in the same place.


So the main thing is how 7 installed, alongside(dual boot) in the same or a different partition, I was under the assumption that XP to 7 was not a straight upgrade but needed a fresh install.

[topmahof]

Windows 7 does a clean install over xp when you do an upgrade. If you have pics or movies stored on folders in C: they will come across into 7. Anything in libraries won't. You can see your programs in windows old, but you won't be able to access them or use them.
To get rid of windows.old, go to start, all programs, accessories, system tools, disk cleanup, then choose "clean up system files", and you will see windows. old. You can get rid of it from there. I've never been able to retrieve anything from windows. old and have it be useable. Programs that ran in xp ran with different settings than they will in windows 7, so you'll most likely just have to reinstall all your browsers and programs from scratch.

Dave

[mbarker]

I was under the assumption that XP to 7 was not a straight upgrade but needed a fresh install.

Yeah, apparently. I didn't really realize this before I started and thus my predicament. The "upgrade" is a actually a fresh install which renders XP and all your old programs dead and useless.....but sitting there in a folder called Windows.old which takes up 12GB. There is no way to boot to it or use it as an OS, but one can go in and take files and settings and whatnot. I didn't have much in the way of files, mostly just programs. It sounds like it is best to just reinstall these.

Thanks for your help guys!