[Sammy2]

I have an older acer laptop with Vista Basic on it. It is and AMD Athalon 64.


I have a OBD II program (autoenginuity) installed that will require that I pay a fee to re-install. I also have an extra copy of Win 7 Pro that I'd like to install on it so I can use WMC. Can I do this from the full installation program that I have on a USB drive without losing software installations?

 

[gregzoll]

When you do the Win 7 upgrade, the Vista install will be renamed as Windows Old. Best way to do a install of Windows, is a Clean install, and then reload everything back on, for best way of doing. As for reinstalling the OBD-II software, if you have already paid for the license, and reenter, when reinstalling the software, I see no reason why you have to pay for the same license again, due to a OS update. Is that what Autoenginuity is telling you, or just some guy on the street/shade tree that told you this?


To find out your licenses of any software installed, you can either use Belarc Advisor, or use Magical Jelly Bean, which is a Keyfinder, that will tell you installed software licenses.


The only thing I can think of to make it easy on you without doing a full reinstall, is to repartition the drive, and load 7 also on it, and just boot into Vista when you need to do anything that you want, and boot into 7, when you want to do WMC.

 

[Sammy2]

The latest update to autoenginuity was a download install. The version has changed. They require an annual fee to keep the program current or to reinstall it after 2 years or so. I will contact them on Monday and check but this is what I had to do when I wanted to install it on my laptop (that I just got) to avoid havin to run a 30 foot USB cable through the window to my PC and use it on the 9then) new laptop. That was in 2009.

 

[Sammy2]

The latest update to autoenginuity was a download install. The version has changed. They require an annual fee to keep the program current or to reinstall it after 2 years or so. I will contact them on Monday and check but this is what I had to do when I wanted to install it on my laptop (that I just got) to avoid havin to run a 30 foot USB cable through the window to my PC and use it on the 9then) new laptop. That was in 2009.


Also, there's only 30 some all gigs on the 140 gig HDD but I could us an extenal or even bootable USB flash drive, maybe. Your partionn suggestion made me think of this.. can Windows be installed to an USB thumbdrive?

 

[gregzoll]

It could, as long as the computer can boot off of the USB drive. I would use a USB Pocket drive, not Thumbdrive/stick for the 7 install. I would stick with the laptop for doing the OBD stuff, and just use the desktop for the other. WMC is limited in what you can do with it, so unless you are using it to record OTA. It is especially going to change with Windows 8, so 7 will be the last of the best, when it comes to WMC.

 

[gtmtnbiker]

So you didn't keep the original install program? If you had, you would have been able to reinstall it without having to pay a fee.

 

[Sammy2]

I do have it on disc but the last update added additional functionality to the special codes for my F250 diesel truck and I want those. Maybe there's a d/l of the installation on the Laptop that I can save. Pretty much everything else on there is disposable. Getting to the BIOS on this thing to boot from another drive is under lockdown by acer and they don't give you a password. I suppose this is good for the lame but not for me..

 

[Andy_Steb]

dual boot


you can install both operating systems on one drive.

 

[Sammy2]

There's only 30 gigs left on the drive but I could probably clean that up. Any recommendations on how to re-partition it to do this and then how to install Win7 on it after doing that without overwriting the existing boot record and all existing programs?

 

[Andy_Steb]

get your vista partition as small as you can. create a new partition for win7. When you install win7 make sure you do a custom install. The bootloader will get updated and give you a menu for which operating system you want to use.


It's been a long time since I've had a dual boot system, You might want to Google it, I'm sure there are a bunch of guides.

 

[Sammy2]

I understand completely what you are saying. The problem is that the BIOS on this machine is on lockdown by acer where I cannot even tell it to boot from the USB I have with Win7 on it. Another thing is that IDK if this old laptop has enough under he hood to run WMC/liveTV. I already know I need to add some RAM. I've found that the MoBo supports 4gigs but the graphics might be lacking.. ATI 1200 Radeon Express. The processor is single core too.

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/notebook/0000/Acer/Aspire5516/Aspire5516sp2.shtml


It does look like I could upgrade to a dual core processor (if I can find one).