Datasheet

You don’t have to copy all the files in these folders. In fact, you may prefer
to only copy certain branches as you discover you need them; that way,
you won’t put anything in your new installation you don’t actually need.
For instance, your Mozilla Firefox profile—complete with your old book-
marks, cookies, and saved passwords—from your old Vista installation
can be found in C:\Windows.old\Users\{your_user_name}\AppData
\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. But inside the Profiles folder is also
your Firefox cache, which is better left behind. In this case, you’d copy or
move everything except the Cache subfolder to C:\ Users\
{your_user_name}\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.
14. When you’re done, leave the Windows.old folder intact and close Win-
dows Explorer. Once you’re sure you’ve got everything from the old
folder—perhaps weeks or months from now—you can go back and delete
the defunct Windows.old folder.
Another use for the DRY method is to repair a seriously munged Windows 7
installation. If Windows 7 won’t boot, you can perform a parallel installation
to place a new copy of Windows 7 on your PC without harming the existing
data on your hard disk.
One downside to the DRY method—apart from the need to do some manual
shuffling of files—is that your hard disk never gets formatted. If it’s an old
drive with a long history of upgrades, a clean format may improve reliability.
Fix Problems with Windows Setup
The most common cause of a failed installation of Windows 7 is an out-of-
date system BIOS. If setup crashes, or if Windows won’t boot after you finish
installing, check with the manufacturer of your system or motherboard for any
BIOS updates, and update your BIOS if needed. Better yet, make sure you have
the latest BIOS before you begin installation, particularly if your PC is more
than a year old. See Appendix A for details.
Another common stumbling block to a successful Windows 7 setup is your
video card (display adapter). If setup stops with an unintelligible error mes-
sage, reboots unexpectedly during setup, or just hangs at a blank screen, your
video card may be at fault. Unfortunately, setup will rarely, if ever, warn you
about such an incompatibility before you begin. Of course, updating the driver
won’t help, since you’d either be installing the driver software on an older
version of Windows that will soon be replaced, or installing it on the new OS
that won’t boot. Your best bet is to replace the video card and try again.
Install Windows 7 | 25
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Windows 7