Win7 upgrade from XP

[MSmith13]

I know that an in place upgrade is not possibe. However, would an acronis image help me recover my files and programs? Would the programs need to be re-installed and then recovered...registry entries? Or could I just recover the programs off the image and the registry be written?

Please advise.

[Midknyte]

would an acronis image help me recover my files and programs?

Depending on the version of Acronis, you can mount the image to extract files. You cannot copy over applications. They must be reinstalled.

[Rocketmech]

Users wanting to upgrade XP to Windows 7 will find using the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Tool included with Windows 7 an easy method to back up files and settings. A Google search (http://www.google.com/search?q=How+to+upgrade+XP+to+Windows+7&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) provides plenty of info on how to do this. You will however need to reinstall all your applications.
I plan to make a full backup image using True Image prior to any type of upgrade in case something goes wrong. So far I have not had any issues with any Windows 7 installs , but I still think a backup image is good insurance.

[MSmith13]

Cheers and thanks for the info. Yes I can mount an image in acronis.

Rocketmech. Thanks for the link.

[rmanet]

You didn't tell us about your system. You can try an "upgrade" but it's nowhere close to the XP upgrades, and even upgrading to Vista for most machines was an issue.

The xfr tool is not easy and many pre-vista programs won't work and you can plan on spending lot's of time if you want to transfer programs and settings with unpredictable results.

Rocketmech's right. Save your system files then reinstall what you will - and make sure they'll work with W7. It won't be an easy upgrade but at least you won't lose critical files.

Good luck and make sure it's what you really want to do.