Problems like this are why it is adviseable to:
a)Run the windows 7 upgrade advisor (downloadable from Microsoft.com) and follow ALL the
recommendations before attempting to upgrade your operating system.
b)Research where all the drivers are available from, bookmark the download page and download the drivers (organized into properly labeled folders) so you can FIND them, but it is CRITICAL that you do this on a SEPERATE computer.
You also need the software for reinstalling the Acer toolbar for instance,
Once you download them and have them ready, especially the Network drivers (LAN and WiFi) video driver and chipset driver. these alone will usually get the computer working well enough to be able to go to online to the OEM and download drivers and to Windows Update to do the necissary updating of the new OS install
c)Do your NEW OS install on a seperate HDD (preferably formatted and partitioned) so you have your original installation to “fall back to” when (usually when, not “if”) things go horribly wrong or even just a little sidways…
On notebooks I keep my spare drive already installed in a spare drive caddy so I can install it in a matter of a few minutes
(I have a cloned copy of the System HDD for every computer I own and every computer I’m responsible for)
d)Not overestimate your own abilities (item “c” above is a solid hedge against this)
e) AFTER you have your New OS installation up and running and ALL the bugs, quirks, wrinkles and gremlins driven out and you’ve had it all running for several weeks then you CLONE it to another drive so you have a backup.
Proper IT management require a certain inherent paranoia.
You often find on “consumer” notebook computers that there are “factory restore” and “media” partitions
that will not work as intended with an upgraded Operating system.
nor are those special partitions possible or practical to copy.
Because what they will restore the computer to is an image of how it was when it was first started when you originally took it out of the factory box, with the original operating system. (as you’ve just discovered)
Added to that most are “tied” to the original drive size, so if you for instance “clone” the restore partition to a newer larger hard drive the restore will partition the drive as if it were the original size drive and will never recognize the true volume of the drive.
The basic wisdom here is “look before you leap” but make sure you can “leap back” if necissary.
Frankly I’ll be upgrading my Dell 1525 notebook to Win7 (32bit) later this week but I’ll be
doing the install on the “clone” (backup) copy of my Vista buisness installation.
I really doubt I’ll have any "issues"as I’ve run an unactivated 30-day “trial” of Win7-Pro
on this specific notebook in the past. (last July) but when it expired I went back to Vista
because I wasn’t ready to buy.
KNOWING it will work was absolutely necissary knowledge for me to even consider
buying the new OS, because as with all OS purchases it isn’t returnable
AD
