Windows 7 BETA

[Kryten]

A chap I know from another forum (relating to my specific line of work) has just installed it on his Asus EeePC 1000HE (1.66ghz Atom, 160gb HDD, 1gb RAM)
He's certain it's a hell of a lot of quicker than XP was on it.

That's one of the tests I've been waiting for - MS have been saying it will be very "netbook" friendly and I tended to agree, seeing how well it ran on my shit laptop.

[TdC]

bahs, I want it on my lappy but am scared to take the rescue partition off someone tell me it's going to be ok

[dysfunction]

It'll be ok!

[Syri]

most laptops with a rescue partition will either come with a disc that can restore the partition, or at least a program to create some discs. Have a look around the manufacturer's folder and see if there's anything about creating a set of rescue discs.
If there isn't anything in there, you might be able to use something like partition magic to make some space for windows 7 to occupy without impacting the rescue area. I believe that can also back up the partition information, so you can restore it if anything goes wrong.
Obviously though, the rescue discs would be the best option if they're available.

[TdC]

Originally Posted by dysfunction

It'll be ok!

In matters of IT I trust you about as much as Wij telling me it's ok to take a deep breath and bend over in his private sauna

Originally Posted by Syri

most laptops with a rescue partition will either come with a disc that can restore the partition, or at least a program to create some discs. Have a look around the manufacturer's folder and see if there's anything about creating a set of rescue discs.
If there isn't anything in there, you might be able to use something like partition magic to make some space for windows 7 to occupy without impacting the rescue area. I believe that can also back up the partition information, so you can restore it if anything goes wrong.
Obviously though, the rescue discs would be the best option if they're available.

the problem is that doze7 64b seems wants a whole new disklabel, or partitioning scheme. there are ways around it, which are detailed in this thread:

Windows 7 on Sony Z - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

Windows 7 on Sony Z - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

ofc it's much more planning/work than I thought at first, and Sony hasn't got all the needed drivers available yet :/

[Syri]

Windows probably isn't happy about the custom partitioning scheme used for the recovery. It's usually protected to "hide" it from windows, so neither the user nor a virus or other such program can do any damage to it, intentional or otherwise. They usually have a custom boot loader that hooks into the bios, so you can press a certain key when booting to activate the recovery partition.
Creating a set of recovery dvds will basically back up all of the information in that hidden partition, and the first dvd of the set (usually needs at least 2 discs) is normally bootable, so the special partitioning information is no longer needed, nor is the recovery partition.
I don't know exactly how the Sony one works, as I've never actually used one, but I used to work on the helpdesk for PC World, and dealt with the recovery for various other brands such as HP and the Dixons brands like Advent, all of which used a similar system.

[TdC]

well I did make a set of recovery dvds in case my hdd failed. I shall test them to see if they actually work, and then give it another shot

[Cyradix]

Windows 7 will also create a 100-200mb hidden partition for recovery purposes.
More about it here : How to Avoid 200MB Hidden System Partition From Been Created During Windows 7 Installation My Digital Life

[TdC]

aha but I want to install 64b d'7 on my formerly 32b Vista Business. will that work?

[Cyradix]

Upgrade your Vista 32bit to Windows 7 64bit? Nope... reinstall....
You should be able to keep your partitions though. Just format it first when selecting the partition to install on during the setup...

[TdC]

as far as I have been able to discover, the trick is to delete the partition you want to install doze 7 into. if the space is empty *before* the install starts, eg it needs free space to begin with thus you can not delete the partition from within the '7 installer.

I tried what you said, but from within the installer and it refused to create a new partition based on complaining about the lack of a GPT disklayout.

[Cyradix]

Hmmm....
What I did on my home computer was : In Vista Disk management "Shrink volume" to free some space, boot from the Win7 dvd and installed on the free space....
It installed without warnings or errors and I got a perfect dual boot.

[TdC]

64 bit or 32? afaict the 64b version requires GPT

[Cyradix]

64bit. Was build 7077 though. I upgraded to RC

[TdC]

hmm I'll give it another go when I get home tonight