Yesterday’s post about Seesmic Look brought up an interesting point: Seesmic Look is a Twitter application optimized for Windows 7 that will work on other Windows versions, but was designed to make use of Windows 7. But most people don’t have Windows 7. Which begs the question: Should you want Windows 7? You probably will want it at some point, but having a professional install it might be a good idea.

I saw an awesome demo at a holiday party last month where my friend had a PC running Windows 7 and media server hooked up to a 3rd party tuner. He also integrated a Wii and Time Warner U-Verse and let me tell you, the whole setup was mind blowing.  I decided then and there it was time to upgrade from my old reliable XP SP3 to Windows 7. His only advice:  “do not upgrade; install instead.”

So I did all my research: watched online videos, consulted blogs, and read all that I could on Microsoft’s site. It seemed it was going to be relatively pain free. But I have been a Windows user since 3.1, and I knew from experience that nothing is as advertised.

My History

I was upgrading the OS on a self-built computer that was only about 15 months old. I had always built my own other than my first and previous computer. The first was a Wang Desktop 386 running Windows 3.1. The previous was a Dell work station that was 7 years old. My self-builts in the past started with a 486 SX (I later bought a math co-processor off of a bulletin board post), a Pentium, a Cyrix, an AMD, back to Intel, then the Intel Dell. I spent more money on RAM, hard drives, video cards, sound cards, monitors, SCSI & peripherals, modems, printers etc. etc. You get the idea. I was no novice at this.

But for the most part, my 15 month old PC was built using top tier components (I’ll update this later with the exact hardware profile) and Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor test analysis said I was good to go.

I had plenty of external storage to back up all my important files and programs. I felt pretty confident, and decided to proceed.  These were my steps.

Backup – manual process

1. Searched on all drives (I have four external USB 2.0 drives) for *.exe. Anything that was found on the C drive was copied (all folders necessary to run the exe) to an external drive under the self created folder “Upgrade”.
2. Copied over my Outlook *.pst files to Upgrade
3. Copied my browser favorites to Upgrade
4. Copied all user accounts and subsequent folders (Documents and Settings, etc.) to Upgrade.
5. Double checked everything, repeating from step 1.

Backup – Norton Ghost

1. I followed the steps using Norton Ghost and saved to the same external drive in self created folder “NortonBackup”
2. I verified the integrity of the backup using Norton’s built in functionality

Upgrade per Microsoft

1. After reading Microsoft’s upgrade tutorial, I decided to use the tutorial. In five Steps, the install and upgrade should be completed
2. Step 1 indicates to download, install and run Windows Easy Transfer. Following and responding to the prompts, the application began transfer of all user accounts and indicated the time to complete was 2 days! I started this at night, so I went to bed.  About 10 hours later the transfer completed.
   • I saved this at the Upgrade folder.
3. Per Step 2, this was already completed in the sections I mention above.
4. Per the tutorial, Step 3 indicates to select Custom (advanced).
   • NOTE: I did not format my C drive.
   • The upgrade saved my old XP profile as Windows.old
5. Here is where my install deviates.  It should be noted that at the end of Step 3, there is a link for troubleshooting. That should have raised flags and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Deviations from the Norm

1. It should be noted that during the upgrade, I was warned the computer would reboot several times. What I was not prepared for was the Black Screen of Nothingness. After 10 minutes of hard drive inactivity, I rebooted.
2. Nothingness again. I observed the Bios screen prior, and decided to hot key at that screen. I rebooted and opted to launch in Safe Mode with networking. Nothingness.
3. I rebooted in Safe Mode.  Nothingness. I went to my trusty Mac Mini and Goggled keywords like: Windows XP Windows 7 install black screen. Several posts indicated I had bad hardware, needed to rename files, boot to DOS and install drivers, etc. I felt a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach.
4. I kept searching and found a troubleshooting item that referenced video cards that supported multiple displays and different connections (VGA, DMI, and HDMI). Hmmm, this may be relevant. I did have a video that supported dual DMI, and I did have a 32” LG LCD flat screen connected for my PS3 (configured as a secondary display). I turned on the LG and Viola!
5. A popup along the lines of “Windows encountered an error during Windows 7 installation that it cannot recover from. Please restart the installation” was patiently waiting for me to click Ok. Ok.
6. I rebooted and nothingness. This time I rebooted and went into Bios, and selected to boot from the DVD drive. Now it once again initialized the install sequence.
   • During the install I was prompted to create a user, name the PC, and create a password (this was not mentioned in the tutorial). I went ahead and created Admin user, knowing that Windows Easy Transfer should recreate my XP accounts.
7. The install completed! There were probably 3 reboots that caused me some concern, but these only were a couple of minutes at best, and the hard drive was just reading and writing away!
8. After I saw the Install complete! screen and the desktop just waiting idly for my input, I looked at my display settings (XP term – I am just now starting my path along the 7 learning curve) and Windows 7 set the LCD as my primary and the 19 inch as secondary.  No wonder.

Upgrade per Microsoft continued

1. I set my display settings to my desired settings and referenced the Tutorial. Step 4 calls for launching the Windows Easy Transfer.
2. I followed the application’s prompts, and it indicated that 12 hours were necessary to copy back all the files and settings.

Lessons Learned

There are lots of posts pleading for help with regard to encountering a Black Screen during the upgrade to Vista/7. Most of these were answered with overtly ridiculous solutions involving hardware conflicts, renaming certain files, etc. I say ridiculous because after all, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor did not detect any issues. And again, after recollecting all the difficulties from past experiences (remembering the days prior to Plug and Play, the beginnings of Windows Security etc.) I was alarmed at first by these recommended paths towards resolution. But after allowing common since to prevail, I did find some assistance that caused me to consider the dual monitors. Afterward, I found this (I have a GeForce 8800).

I don’t know if Microsoft could have anticipated my issues, but at the very least the Upgrade Advisor could have prompted me to disconnect the LCD if there were known issues with dual monitors.  The install also could have reminded me to boot from DVD if there were problems.

If you’re the type of person who wants to upgrade to Windows 7 just so you can enjoy applications like Seesmic Look in all their glory, maybe wait until you buy a new computer. Or find someone with a lot of time and expertise, just in case.

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