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Thread: Windows 7 Student Offer

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    Question Windows 7 Student Offer

    As Microsoft haven't been making things particularly clear in terms of what is or isn't an "upgrade" I was hoping the good old Hexus community could help me out!

    Windows 7 has come at a good time for me, with my current PC running a severely worn in copy of XP. I'm also eligible for Microsoft's student offer, so £30 for a brand new OS didn't look too bad! With the general poor state XP is in after about 5 years of use, a clean install isn't too much of a problem, but what happens f I want to use a new HDD? The one I have is unlikely to last too much longer, but with the copy of Windows 7 you get in the student offer, it implies there must be an exiting copy of Windows on the drive...

    What would be the best way around this? Any advice would be gratefully received and my system is the one displayed to the left, but I can provide more info if needed. Thanks!

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    Re: Windows 7 Student Offer

    I'm pretty sure it will not be an upgrade, but it is in the sense that you are only eligable if you are currently running legitimate XP/Vista.

    I think it will just be a download ISO and you will have the option of upgrade or clean. That's just my view though, I dont know for sure. (I have ordered a Professional on the student offer assuming it will let you do clean)

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    Re: Windows 7 Student Offer

    Having a look around, it looks like the upgrade versions of Windows 7 are only going to work if it can see a registered version of Windows XP or Vista...The options seem to be:

    a) Copy my broken old install of XP to my nice new HDD and then overwrite that with 7.
    b) Have 7 on the old HDD temporarily, and then move that.
    c) Trick Windows 7 by using an XP Pro trial disk I have knocking around.

    I'm not particularly experienced in dealing with any of these options, but I'm sure someone can help me through it when the time comes. I think the more pressing question might now be with regard to Microsoft's policy on hardware failure. What happens if your HDD breaks after you've bough an upgrade disk? Surely most (unprepared) users will need to buy new full versions of software that they already own?

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    Re: Windows 7 Student Offer

    If Win 7 upgrade is anything like Vista upgrade you can actually carry out a clean installation, on a completely blank hard drive even without the previous OS license key.

    1) Install (using upgrade media) as normal but do not enter license key when prompted, opt to do it later.
    2) Once Windows has installed and loads up, auto run the upgrade DVD.
    3) This time, enter (upgrade) license key when prompted.
    4) Activate as usual, done.

    The installation procedure for Win 7 is very similar to Vista, the above should still work, I can't see why it wouldn't.

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