Aller au contenu principal

Can I recover backup in Vista to Windows 7 on same computer?

Thread needs solution

I recently purchased ATIH 2012 and backed up my entire hard disk using Vista 64. Subsequently, my computer started acting up and I have now been told that my Vista is corrupted and the hard disk needs to be wiped and I've been given the option to upgrade to Windows 7. I am no computer guru so after looking through gobbley-gook posts in Support, I'm still at a loss for an answer if I can use my backup of Vista to transfer to Windows 7? If so, are there special steps I need to take and where can I find this information? Thanks in advance for any help on this.

0 Users found this helpful

Maybe some of the more technically minded will respond to your question. It would appear to me that you would want to use your backup and restore Vista onto a new hard drive so the computer is functioning again--using Vista. Then, you could upgrade your installation to Windows 7 overtop of Vista--thus keeping all your programs, etc.

Not sure exactly what you have in mind when asking if you "can use my backup of Vista to transfer to Windows 7." Any restoration will only give back whatever was backed up in the first place. It can't handle an operating system change for you. And, unless you are certain that the backup was carried out prior to whatever caused corruption of your existing OS, just restoring it isn't going to solve the problem.

It is at least theoretically possible to "upgrade" from the 64-bit edition of Vista to the 64-bit edition of Windows 7, but I would not recommend that route personally, especially if the existing Vista OS is not 100% error free. I'd say that your best bet in the circumstances, if you want to end up with a fully functional Win7x64 system, would be to "bite the bullet" and do a clean OS installation after first ensuring that you have a good validated backup of all of your user files which you can then recover. I know that's a PITA and involves a lot of extra work, but you'll be much happier with the results in the long run IMO.