Upgrading Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Enterprise

Question

I have a volumn license with Microsoft, and would like to upgrade my new Windows 7 Ultimate machine, to Windows 8 Enterprise, which should work well my company's AD network. I don't believe there's an upgrade path, which will retain all of my settings, etc, so I'll have to do a wipe-and-load. I'm assuming that at some point, during the process, I can tell it to delete the partition and re-create it. Is there anything else I need to do to flatten my machine to install Windows 8 Enterprise, or is that it?

Answer 1

According to this Wikipedia article, you cannot upgrade from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Enterprise. As far as I know, this only means that the installer is not able to do a "soft" upgrade which keeps all your files, settings, etc., but will instead do a "hard" upgrade which wipes Windows 7 Ultimate and then installs itself, or you can install it alongside it, keeping Windows 7 intact. This, of course, is not possible if you're dealing with some sort of upgrade-only solution, which requires an existing compatible OS.

I would suggest you do the following:

• Back up all your important files.
• Run the Windows 8 Enterprise installation.
• There should be a point where you have the option to manage your hard drive partitions.
• At that point, you should be able to wipe the Windows 7 Ultimate partition, and use the freed up space to install Windows 8 Enterprise instead.
• Complete the installation.
• Move your files back onto your PC.
• Enjoy! :-)

Answer 2

Transferring user settings should work by using the Windows 7 Migration wizard - to copy files and settings to an external drive - and then use windows 8 "Easy Transfer" to read them back. Here's one person's blog on doing it this way.

Answer 3

Use Windows Easy Transfer to backup your files and settings from Windows 7, then wipe, re-install, and restore your files and settings.