Currently I am running windows 7 and have quite a bit of software installed that I am not 100% sure will play nice with windows 10. I have a spare 1tb drive kicking around and I was wondering if I could swap out my primary drive and attempt to install 10 on there as a test.
Anyone have thoughts on this would play out? Is it even possible to do with a blank drive?
Assuming your spare 1TB drive is as big enough, clone Windows 7 to your 1TB, let Microsoft upgrade your clone to Windows 10 (did you really think it was a choice?), and see what happens. If it shits the bed (1 Internet Cookie says it will), go back to your original drive and wait for Windows 10 to ripen a little.
That's probably the best way to do it. Just make sure the clone is good.
Just copy everything over? I suppose it wouldnt hurt to give it a shot.
Still. Ugh. I wish there was a way to do a nice clean install.
Well, I'd use something like Clonezilla, or Active@Disk (I prefer Clonezilla, but I'm also a huge Linux nerd, so Active@Disk if you'd prefer a prettier interface).
But if you want to go the route of a clean install, here are some resources...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-enterprise
Evaluate Windows 10 Enterprise for 90 days. Much the same as Windows 10 Home, except with all of the features enabled. Doubtful that one edition will have application compatibility issues where the other does not (assuming the applications in question aren't taking advantage of features that aren't enabled in Home, of course).
Download the ISO, burn to DVD, put your 1TB in, boot to DVD, install. This is quite a bit different than what I thought you wanted, though. I thought you were looking to avoid reinstalling all of your applications, and/or looking to make sure that Windows 10 plays nice with them.
What ? You can revert back to any existing windows install after upgrading. Any data minings features are already there ?
You should not be keeping your os and and your data together ? Recipe for shit. :)
In theory you can revert 10 back to 7. Thus far I've seen both the upgrade process, and the revert process render computers unbootable.
You have to approach it by will your windows update to 10. I suspect most older win 7 by age and hardware will not. Retail. Might only apply to custom builders with high end specs.
I have had no issues reverting back to 8 ? but i do not run 7 and my pc is custom built. I am assuming most of that is driver based. So keep that in mind.