#Is zinstall winwin review install#
#Is zinstall winwin review upgrade#
#Is zinstall winwin review windows 7#
#Is zinstall winwin review windows#

It would seem that ZInstall should be able to identify the proper drives by finding files unique to Windows, but this apparently isn't the case. What led ZInstall to choose the drives that it did is a mystery. Select the “Advanced” button towards the bottom of the window when setting up ZInstall, and you can manually pick what drives to use. Obviously, neither suggestion was correct. For some reason, ZInstall suggested that I merge the USB stick and a 1TB storage drive. I had four internal drives, an external S-ATA drive, and a 1 GB USB stick plugged in at the time. When setting up the hard drive to hard drive migration, ZInstall searches your computer and tries to identify the source and destination hard drives for you. On my second attempt, ZInstall finally played nice with the up-to-date XP. They will be stuck in the unfortunate position of having to manually recover what they can from the Windows-Old folder.

#Is zinstall winwin review install#

If they install 7 over XP and run into the same problem, they will be unable to update XP and take advantage of Zinstall. Users attempting an in-place migration should heed this warning as well. The missing components fall in Microsoft's lap, rather than ZInstall, in this case.

#Is zinstall winwin review windows#

In the case of someone, like myself, who occasionally needs XP for it's compatibility with old software, a fresh install of XP would be a preferable place to start, followed by running Windows Update. Most users will have updated XP to service pack 2 (or 3) by now and would not have to overcome this hurdle.

Although disheartening, it wasn't surprising given the literally untouched state of XP. When I attempted to migrate that installation to my current hard drive through ZInstall, I was warned that there were essential components missing from Windows, thus preventing the process from completing. To start, I created a fresh install of XP on the first drive. My computer is built on Asus's P5B-Deluxe motherboard, with a 2.66GHz Core2Duo CPU, 6GB of DDR2 RAM, and a GeForce 8800GTS GPU.

#Is zinstall winwin review windows 7#

The destination drive with Windows 7 64-Bit is a Western Digital WD800JD with a SATA 3.0Gb/s connection, and 80GB, at 7200 RPM. It's running Windows XP 64-Bit, with Service Pack 2 (created for Windows Server 2003 and XP-64). It is an IDE Ultra ATA100 drive with 200GB, spinning at 7200 RPM. The XP drive is a Western Digital WD2000. As long as you are connected to the same workgroup, or connected with an ethernet cable, the process and results are essentially identical. The functionality of Zinstall XP7 after migrating over a network is similar to transferring between two drives. I also assume most users would like to keep their working XP drive as insurance in case Windows 7 or ZInstall failed to live up to their needs or expectations. Most XP machines are dated and users would benefit from upgrading their equipment before using Windows 7, including the hard drive. There are two reasons for this: I wanted to see ZInstall work its magic without any help from Microsoft and I wanted to use hard drives manufactured years apart.

Rather than mess with an in-place migration, I chose to migrate between two hard drives within the same computer. If something were to go wrong while upgrading Windows 7, you could potentially lose all of your data and most likely, the ability to use your old XP installation with ZInstall or otherwise. It is very important to backup your XP installation before proceeding with an in-place migration. ZInstall will use this folder as the basis for its Virtual Machine installation, giving you access to all of the XP settings and applications within. The first scenario utilizes the “windows-old” directory created in the C: drive when upgrading to Windows 7 from XP.

#Is zinstall winwin review upgrade#

You can upgrade your existing computer using the same hard drive as XP (known as an in-place migration), you can migrate XP from one hard drive to a Windows 7 drive within the same computer, or you can merge operating systems over a network. Users have a few options when upgrading to Windows 7 using ZInstall. It is not without its hiccups, however, and should be fully understood before purchased. Zinstall XP7 is a useful product that will appeal to a lot of potential upgraders. It gives you a hot-swappable desktop that allows you to experience 7 without going through XP withdrawal. It creates a virtual machine (VM) based on your old XP installation that can be accessed within Windows 7. This is where Zinstall XP7 comes into play. Unfortunately for a lot of users, upgrading from XP is a daunting task if you want to preserve your files, settings, and programs. It has been optimized and overhauled into a truly modern version of Windows. Windows 7 offers heaps of computing-gravy for users that are looking for something sweeter than XP and less bitter than Vista.