Just a heads-up type message...

Anyone taking a computer "in" for the upgrade, please remember to back up your files (e-mail folders, photos, documents, ect.) as copies and not as compressed formatted files.

As life goes and as "things" go at times: Some times techies ignore (stating it nicely) what the customer prefers and expresses (verbally and in writing).

Just had a friend take in a 'puter for the upgrade and it came back: Totally unlike expected.

Upgrading has options (in how it is done). But the short story is: Heck of a lot easier if the person - wanting the upgrade - has saved everything important or essential just as last accessed, etc.

My tip de jour

So when you have a backup.....external... doesn't those compress? How can you save full file types?....please explain

edit... hubby says ours are uncompressed anyway... sorry.

Good thing yours are as they are, mrsD .

I'll elaborate (in case someone else may have the same Q)...

Documents, mail boxes, contacts, pictures, etc.: Drag and drop or save as well to CD, external HD, flash drive, or similar.

Once upgraded, the machine won't "hand-shake" with compressed files; it doesn't "recognize" them any longer.

What my friend had done was asked techies to upgrade using the option to keep the files (types I mentioned) and not to over-write everything. But, the techies didn't care and ... wiped out everything.

Before taking the machine for the upgrade, however, I had saved the personal files. So all isn't lost, yet would have been a lot easier and quicker if the backups could have been used.

I hope the tip may help someone, and spare some headaches.

Thanks, Bobbi -- I've had those Windows 7 discs since October, just waiting to be installed.

I didn't even think about doing a back-up, so good thing I'm such a procrastinator!

Here is a non-computer person's hint:

If you do NOT save movies, TV shows and have a terra-gigabyte hard-drive... and you save to an external... check your settings.
They will compress as an option, but if you don't have to , DON'T.

Because we only save diddley things, hubby did NOT compress, and hence when we rescued our broken laptop with the new harddrive... and also moved things to the Win 7 new machine...this was not an issue. I vaguely remember my son saying something about "compression" ... but that sort of blew over my gray head! LOL

Twinkletoes,

A cautionary or heads-up if you do decide to upgrade eventually: You may also run into backward compatability issues, as when platforms went from XP to VISTA, meaning patches and drivers and possibly losing some software in the process.

Twink,

We have found that some drivers compatible with Vista also work for Win 7. My son says, that Win7 is really a watered down version of Vista anyway.

Our old Lexmark cheepy printer does not have a driver for Vista, so we cannot use it on this new laptop upstairs.

Our semi-old retired lexmark flat bed scanner/printer/fax needed a new driver to print off the Win7 laptop. It took a while for him to figure it out. He downloaded the new driver, and "nothing"
So he turned it off and downloaded it again after turning it back on and the download took that time.

Win 7 is nice. There are little windows instead of tabs on the bottom tray and show where you are and need to go. Much less confusion for ME. I can end up with alot of tabs open some days, helping people with links and moderating too!
So I really like this feature. Win 7 also has a bubble screen saver, and a transparency feature that are both really nice and relaxing. I am slowly getting used to it. Someday we will upgrade the desktop tower I use downstairs mostly. This upstairs laptop is hubby's for the most part. I use it when my pain/leg/foot issues don't want to deal with the stairs, like now in the middle of the night.

We resurrected the broken laptop (whose harddrive died) with XP... that is the one I'll take upNorth this summer.
We lost all the Dell systems that help you, (no restore discs! dang should have made them.) So that one is really bare bones. I have like 5 shortcuts on it! But it does work. Had to get a new DVD decoder for it, for example. The Dell one was lost. But is plays music, does my photos okay, and goes online so that is all I need. We had all my files saved on an external hard drive. I can't encourage you enough to have that! If you think that is too complicated, get some flash drives and save your files that way. Both have really come down in price lately.