This is a story without a happy ending. For months I, like many others, had been bombarded with fawning reports about the latest edition of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows 7. Admittedly, I was skeptical. Then I tried out a new laptop running the OS, and I was sold. I took to the software’s new features like a vampire to blood. Viewing thumbnails of open documents from the task bar was great. Pinning items to it for swift access was terrific, too. This is so good, I thought, I should install it on my own desktop.
Hi John,
I enjoyed the article... I'm sorry that it didn't work out well. I am confident that PCmover can help you have a happier ending.
Please contact me at [email protected] for a complimentary press-only copy of PCmover Pro (this includes the upgrade assistant feature).
Thanks for the mention of our product in your article.
Thanks again!
Daniel Donohoe
Public Relations at Laplink Software, Inc.
425-952-6023
[email protected]
Zinstall XP7 did not work for me and they charged me anyway. The Zinstall folks are thieves. You can make a virtual clone of your system to .vmdk or .vhd file, free software available online. Make a virtual machine or .vmx file, free software available online. Make the virtual hard drive clone file the drive for the virtual machine. Use the free VMware Player to run the vmx which will use the virtual hard drive with your old operating system in place. Done. The Zinstall folks are thieves.
This Zinstall XP7 software may work for you IF you have a Very Simple XP System using simple motherboard video and you have never put any add-in cards into your XP system. But, if you have an advanced video card or any other add-in cards, you will be very disappointed at having spent $149 (Feb 2014) for software that you expected to be able to handle the driver conversions necessary to allow your XP system to run in a Win 7 Virtual Machine because it does not. As soon as it finds something that it does not like, it barfs. You are expected to manually dumb down your XP system before attempting to do the transfer. And, even if you do get your XP system to run in the Zinstall Virtual Machine, you will be very disappointed to find out that there are no tools provided to allow you to maintain that Virtual Machine. Looking back, I was short on time, so I figured I would buy this over-priced solution (throw money at it rather than time). After several time consuming unsuccessful tries, I have abandoned it. Since this company is off-shore, I have simply chalked it up as a bad investment on my part and have moved on. Just like a stock that is too good to be true, this solution is too good to be true. STAY AWAY FROM IT.
hossie is the only comment worth its' salt. Between Mr. Mello here and Rob Enderle the computer world is going to come to an end.
At a c: prompt enter CHKDSK /X to check and repair your disk properly. Not difficult and easy to find help for. And yes, that is a capital X. Follow the prompts on screen and reboot.
PCMover works perfectly for moving to Windows 7 from XP, but that really doesn't apply here. Mr. Mello should have consulted someone that actually knows what they are doing before putting his user failure out as a bad Windows 7 experience.
John, I know what you mean :) Been there myself lately.
PCMover did not work for me, so I searched the web some more, and stumbled upon Zinstall XP7 - and baby, it works! Quick, easy - and you get all the XP things on 7. Including all the apps.
Mr. Mello is a tech writer, yet can't complete an install of Win7, even with an XP dual-boot, in less than four hours? It should be noted here, that the problems Mr. Mello has encountered and described, are NOT the fault of Windows 7, but rather of the user.
The first clue, was his use of old and out-dated software to complete his disk and reformatting operations. If he had simply used the new version of the free "open source" program, "Parted Magic", he could have quickly, and easily, handled his partitioning and dual-boot chores. Likewise, Acronis' "True Image" software is also good, and is also available free, for 30 days, hopefully enough time for someone like Mr. Mello to complete their work.
I will await the next installment of this article before commenting further, but hopefully Windows 7 will not become the scapegoat for the user's inequities.
This appears to be an issue with the hardware instead of Windows. You're almost always better off doing a clean install instead of an upgrade regardless of the OS.
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A Lost Weekend With Windows 7
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. December 14, 2009 06:00 AMThis is a story without a happy ending. For months I, like many others, had been bombarded with fawning reports about the latest edition of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows 7. Admittedly, I was skeptical. Then I tried out a new laptop running the OS, and I was sold. I took to the software’s new features like a vampire to blood. Viewing thumbnails of open documents from the task bar was great. Pinning items to it for swift access was terrific, too. This is so good, I thought, I should install it on my own desktop.
I enjoyed the article... I'm sorry that it didn't work out well. I am confident that PCmover can help you have a happier ending.
Please contact me at [email protected] for a complimentary press-only copy of PCmover Pro (this includes the upgrade assistant feature).
Thanks for the mention of our product in your article.
Thanks again!
Daniel Donohoe
Public Relations at Laplink Software, Inc.
425-952-6023
[email protected]
blame the user? i thought only Mac folks were prone to that. Oh, the cynical exploitation of populism makes hypocrites of us all..
At a c: prompt enter CHKDSK /X to check and repair your disk properly. Not difficult and easy to find help for. And yes, that is a capital X. Follow the prompts on screen and reboot.
PCMover works perfectly for moving to Windows 7 from XP, but that really doesn't apply here. Mr. Mello should have consulted someone that actually knows what they are doing before putting his user failure out as a bad Windows 7 experience.
PCMover did not work for me, so I searched the web some more, and stumbled upon Zinstall XP7 - and baby, it works! Quick, easy - and you get all the XP things on 7. Including all the apps.
Didn't have to reinstall a single thing!
Hope this helps!
The first clue, was his use of old and out-dated software to complete his disk and reformatting operations. If he had simply used the new version of the free "open source" program, "Parted Magic", he could have quickly, and easily, handled his partitioning and dual-boot chores. Likewise, Acronis' "True Image" software is also good, and is also available free, for 30 days, hopefully enough time for someone like Mr. Mello to complete their work.
I will await the next installment of this article before commenting further, but hopefully Windows 7 will not become the scapegoat for the user's inequities.