Over the years, I’ve developed my own little list of things I absolutely must do before I reinstall an OS in place of an existing one. In this case, I’m going to be writing over Windows 7 with the Developer Preview out for Windows 8.
To better explain to people how Windows 8 works, and not just through my usual Windows 8 update articles but by some first hand experience, this series of articles will include me sharing my machine stats and expectations along with any issues that may come up. But before I can get started I need to prepare the machine and my files.
Backing Up
With experience comes wisdom. As far as making my backing up as easy as possible I think I’ve worked myself out well. I use external hard drives for pretty much everything with few exception. This means that most of my files are already out of the way and saved on a disk unrelated to the internal disk on which I will be formatting and installing Windows 8.
Of course I never just assume. I always go through all of the usual suspects such as the Documents folders under Users and my personal User file since I am the only one with an account on this computer. Then I go to downloads and music to search out any files that may have landed in an unexpected place. I also check Videos as well. Of course I could simply go to the backup tool on my OS, but I’m set in my ways.
Downloading Windows 8
This is perhaps the one task that has taken me some time. At more than four gigs, the .iso download time of Windows 8 with Developer Tools depends on your connection, so be prepared if you have a less than stellar download rate. But before I began the download I had to take into account what I might want to do as well as the processor that runs my computer.
Because I really want the chance to see what can be done with Windows 8 and want to have any tools that might be needed or wanted later I went with the Developers download as which includes the developer tool. This comes in a 64-bit version which should run well with my i7 possessor.
Stay Flexible
Sometimes plans don’t quite go the way we hope. For this reason you should always have not only a backup of all of your files but a plan as well. In my case, it turns out my Linux partition doesn’t have the driver needed to produce a dual layer DVD burn .iso, which is needed for the 4,8 Gigs to be burned. So I am forced to switch over to Windows 7 (loaded on this machine) and am going to go ahead and download not only the full preview including tools but the vanilla version as well without tools. It requires less than four gigs of space so I’m going to burn that first just to get started. My boyfriend has offered to burn me a dual layer off his computer if I still can’t make my own.
So my backup plan is now in effect. I’m currently getting the vanilla version. I hope to burn that copy as soon as the file is downloaded and then install Windows 8. At least that is my plan for now, assuming I can make a clean copy of the .iso.
Next up will be installing Windows 8,