Hi All,

Well, after much soul searching and chewed fingernails I have decided now is the time to upgrade my Studio PC to Windows 7 after finding that a lot of software and VST's won't work on XP anymore.

I bought my PC from Red Sub Audio way back in 2004 and it came all set-up and ready to go. It has served me well (recently have had two singles released!) and I have held off updating due to fear I suppose. Fear of my system not working when I upgrade, fear of losing stuff, fear of not doing it correctly etc etc.

I made the decision when buying this PC that it wouldn't get anywhere near the internet and would like that to remain the case. I have a laptop PC which I use for all internet issues regarding music production.

I have read that I need to run Windows 7 advisor on my Studio PC to see if it will run Win 7 but I have no reason to think it wont.

Studio PC spec's:
AMD Athlon 3200+ 64/32 bit
3Gb RAM
80GB Hard Drive (Partitioned)
500Gb External Hard Disk

Have any of you guys upgraded from XP to Win 7? Could you pass on to me any helpful advice? Will I have issues seeing as my PC isn't connected to the Internet?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Cheers
Tenbob

 

At the moment I'm using Windows 8 and soon enough Windows 10 on a networked computer. My experience thus far has been very positive. Yes there are a few things that I couldn't get to work but they are so few and far between that they ceased to be relevant. However before this I ran XP for many many years so if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about the transition. You will gain far more than you could possibly lose and that's already apparent since you want to upgrade because a lot of the newer software won't run on XP since they likely are using Visual Studio 2013 for development these days (soon to be 2015).

 

windows 7 is about to be discontinued. sure, microsoft will continue to support it for awhile, but it is essentially a dead product. why trade up from one dead product to another? i have been using windows 8 since it was first released. i will quickly grab the windows 10 free upgrade when i have the chance.

 

Yes I upgraded from XP to 7.
It's better to experience Win7 yourself, then do your research and form your own opinion on the OS.
Anyone's advice might be slightly biased based on what they prefer or what works for them.

Starting another 'flame war' would be pointless anyway *yes*

This goes for pretty much anything, for ex. movies - even underrated ones can be good

Edit:
Maybe consider 'adding' Win7 to your OS list. Upgrading might result in things not working as expected, instead running XP and 7 in dual-boot might prove better alternative, to smoothly transition to new OS (not just Win7). Some applications do not run well in Win7+ , for those a working installation of XP is useful. :dancing:
There are no security implications if you intend to stay offline.

If you perform Win7 installation on new partition, BCD loader automatically detects WinXP installation and lets you boot into XP should you need it.
For advanced and slightly faster boot, GRUB2 is better alternative though.

 

Better win 7 than vista

 

Thanks for the responses folks. I bought a copy of Win 7 on internet. Not OEM, retail copy and the guy I bought it from assures me the computer he had it on is now dismantled for parts so I will be able to use the key (prob have to phone to activate).

Didn't want to install 8.1 as I have no experience with it. I am using Win 7 on laptop and am comfortable with it Plus I have an old PC and not sure 8.1 would run.

Atm I am backing up my C and D drives to my external HD. As my PC has never been connected to the internet my drivers have never been updated since I bought it (2004!) any advice on what to do about that? Should I use my laptop to check for newer drivers and add these once Win 7 is installed? Think my M-Audio Delta 410 and M-Audio Radium 49 are due new drivers.

 

Could always run it in vmware workstation first to test it out. Workstation allows the user to install multiple os on one pc provided you have enough space.

A bit of a stretch efficiently buuuuttt it gave me peace of mind before i committed to win7.

 

I bought my pc in the 2011 with OEM Windows home premium, still working great, never formatted. for me is the best windows system. I don't like win 8 for me is too much tabletish. I tried to install windows 10 on my laptop, was a mess installed again win7 after 10 minutes.

 

Thanks all for your informative responses. I am awaiting for approval on posts so please excuse me if this is my second post to say pretty much the same thing.

I chose not to go down the 8.1 line because my pc is 11 years old and I didn't think it would handle 8.1 but am pretty sure 7 will be fine.

The copy I ordered off the net is a retail version and the seller assures me that the pc it was originally installed on has been broken up, leaving me clear to install it and phone MS for activation.

Could I just ask a wee question about drivers? My Studio PC has never seen the internet and I never bothered with updating any drivers (by downloading onto my laptop). Should I be looking to update the drivers and if so which ones? Am pretty sure I should update the drivers for my M-Audio Radium 49 and M-Audio Delta 410 soundcard.

 

Sorry about that. I've been away for a minute and I'm the only one doing approvals at the moment.

 

No probs Catalyst. Well, am I one pissed off bunny!!!! Whilst looking for drivers last night I found out that my motherboard - Asus KV8 SE Deluxe does not support Win 7 and Asus are refusing to release a driver that will.

That pretty much seals my fate. I'm destined to have XP for the forseeable future as my disposable income is pretty much nonexistent (young son plus large mortgage!)

Thank you again to those who took the time to try and help.

 

For that motherboard ASUS have WinXP 64bit (Win2003 64bit too) drivers. You maybe able to get all your hardware to work on that OS and unlock more RAM too, just idea.

You maybe able to download 64bit drivers and use something like Universal Extractor and then skip driver installer (no msg about wrong OS).

Go to control panel - select hardware - update driver - point to extracted files.

If you already buy Win7 64bit, you can try this. You have access to 64bit drivers, this is the main problem ppl have, they can only find 32bit drivers.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply but I have decided to go ahead and order a custom build. Time for me to get up-to-date!