Assuming you received the CDs for the motherboard and any other separate boards installed you would perhaps be wise to do a clean install. Take a look at the link below. Besides the clean install tutorial they have a huge selection of tutorials specific to Windows 7 - and some very classy wallpapers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clean install with upgrade Win 7 CD

Doing an upgrade keeps all you files in tact and programs. Doing a clean install wipes the hard drive. If I had a choice I would always prefer a clean install upgrades have been an issue in the past with other operating Systems. Microsoft claims there are no issues with Windows 7 upgrades. Aslo see link provided for additional help.

Here is a link that might be useful: windows-upgrade-considerations

I like the clean install as long as you have all the support disks. In my mind it is always better to start with a stable foundation lacking potential flotsam of unused code, obsolete folders and missed files.

If you have minimal or no disks Belarc will give you a report as to what the internals of your system are and you could then amass the necessary backup drivers and such.

DA

I have vista 64 bit, I did the compatibility test and there are to many problems which I don't know how to fix. My printer, scanner, my video card. The list goes on and on. I don't have any problem with Vista, so will leave it as is.

I had not thought about the need to install all of the drivers!!! The disks given me are: msi Drivers & Utilities; MSI Extras Disk 1; CD DRIVER version 10.4 (could this be for an LG DVD burner?); Samsung DVD Writer; Vista Home Premium 64-bit; one for my Epson printer. That's it!

Would I need a driver for my video card? NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT?

Would you advise me to call the company that built my system? Maybe they would work with me in doing the install! :)

Thanks for your suggestions.

It wouldn't hurt to check. Most vista drivers will work in win 7. I found out the hard way that xp drivers don't. I thought that because I dual booted between xp and win 7 and everything worked that it would be the same when I installed win 7 over xp but it didn't work out that way. I eventually got everything working except the onboard sound. I had to buy a sound card but even to my tin ear it sounds better.

Abreeze you obviously have an MSI motherboard and the CD will cover all the onboard drivers needed like LAN, sound, IDE and/or SATA. You would use this after installing Win 7. Win 7 will likely have the drivers for your video card then afterwards you can visit the video card maker's site and grab the latest drivers if you wish. This is a separate video card on not onboard? The Win 7 install will no doubt include your LG DVD burner drivers too, you will not necessarily need to install any burning software because that is included with the new operating system.

If you use Skype be sure to grab the very latest version otherwise you may get compatibility issues. 4.1.0.179

Bob414 are you saying you created a dual boot system and placed both operating systems on the same partition? Normally one would create a second partition on the hard drive or have a second hard drive. By default when I dual booted XP and Win7 the Win 7 install took control and offered itself, I needed to select XP if I wanted that operating system to boot.

With all other software you need to install from both operating systems but have them both point to the same file location on either the C: or D: drive so you access the same stuff from either partition.

I have two hard drives in computer and had xp on one and win 7 release candidate on the other. Everything worked fine. I formatted the drive with win 7 on it and installed win 7 home premium on the drive that xp was on. Then I started having driver problems but nothing very bad except the on board sound.