Windows 7 Upgrade Could Take Over 20 Hours

The upgrade to Windows 7 could take all day and night, literally.

While we're not going to dispute that a clean install is the way to run Windows 7, there are going to be many users who will choose the literal upgrade path from Windows Vista and perform an in-place upgrade.

The reasons to do an in-place upgrade are numerous. First of all, the core software changes to go from Vista to 7 aren't as drastic as previous generations of Windows. Secondly, the convenience afforded by the in-place upgrade allows users to retain nearly all software and settings without the need to restore any previously backed up data.

Another possible advantage to doing an in-place upgrade is time – it's supposed to be faster than starting fresh and reloading all your old programs. But in some cases, the upgrade could be the more time-consuming route.

Microsoft's Chris Hernandez of the Windows Deployment team detailed Windows 7 upgrade performance as compared to Vista SP1's upgrade behavior. Hernandez found that Windows 7's upgrade speed was faster than Windows Vista. Interestingly, the time it took for Windows 7 to upgrade from Windows Vista SP1 outpaced that of a Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrade procedure.

At its very worst the upgrade from Windows Vista to 7 was found to take a whopping 20 hours. At that rate, a user would likely have less downtime if he or she just did a clean install and restored/reinstalled programs.

Most users will average upgrade times lasting just a few hours, but those with slower systems or exceptional amounts of data will have to set aside a good portion of the day just for the automated process. All clean install systems upgraded in around 40 minutes or less.

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2

tinnerdxp , September 15, 2009 3:25 PM

I still don't understand why microsoft is pursuing this stupid way how the software is installed and ran. Come on - look at linux... home folder contains ALL the settings for all the software installed... /etc contains the system and computer configuration... copying 2 folders makes a perfect backup... try that with windows... it's just stupid.
0

slrman , October 16, 2009 12:50 AM

Hmmm, I did the $29 upgrade from OSX 10.5.8 (Leopard) to 10.6 (Snow Leopard) in about 30 minutes. As has been the case from the first Macs, it didn't erase everything on the hard drive and carried over all of my preferences in the OS and all applications. No muss, no fuss. A few days later, I did the free upgrade to 10.6.1 in about 15 minutes including the download time.

It seems that Microsoft has tried to copy everything they could from Apple, but hasn't been able to match this. Had Apple, sneaky people that they are, hired all the good programmers and left poor MS with only the culls?
0

anonymous@guest , October 16, 2009 12:12 AM

To Anonymous 15/09/2009 14:28: Get a product such as Macrium reflect (there's even a free version). You can take a snapshot of a Windows install in 10-20 minutes. At any time later you can return your PC exactly to that point. That way you won't go through all your activations.