Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

Thanks

Phil

thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

Thanks

Phil
I read in here only yesterday that the upgrade to Win7 cannot be done
from XP directly and that an intermediate stage is to upgrade to vista
first.
Maybe this has happened to yours?

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 1:44:41 PM UTC+1, thescullster wrote:
I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

Firstly, the partition labels don't necessarily have anything to do with
the contents of the partition.

What operating system is currently installed?

I would expect reinstalling the OS to leave the partition labels
untouched.

Note that the original manufacturing process may have been upgraded so
that the partition image put on the partition called "Vista" contained
a Win7 operating system.

On 01/04/2014 13:59, Bob Minchin wrote:
thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as
the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

Thanks

Phil
I read in here only yesterday that the upgrade to Win7 cannot be done
from XP directly and that an intermediate stage is to upgrade to vista
first.
Maybe this has happened to yours?

Thanks Bob

Yes that's entirely possible.
I really need group members who have carried out these upgrades to have
a squint at their hard drive labels in explorer and clarify whether the
labels are changed during the process.

Phil

On 01/04/2014 14:06, Martin Bonner wrote:
On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 1:44:41 PM UTC+1, thescullster wrote:
I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.



Thanks Martin



Firstly, the partition labels don't necessarily have anything to do with
the contents of the partition.

Understood


What operating system is currently installed?

The laptop will not boot so that's a tricky one. I have accessed the
drive via USB caddy to get the partition labels.


I would expect reinstalling the OS to leave the partition labels
untouched.

Note that the original manufacturing process may have been upgraded so
that the partition image put on the partition called "Vista" contained
a Win7 operating system.

This sounds shoddy practice. Do you have examples of manufacturers and
I will steer clear.


Phil

In article ,
thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

My laptop was just that - bought as Win7, but came with Vista loaded and a
free upgrade, which IIRC had to be applied for. Which couldn't happen fast
enough. ;-)

--
*Gargling is a good way to see if your throat leaks.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 01/04/2014 14:38, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

My laptop was just that - bought as Win7, but came with Vista loaded and a
free upgrade, which IIRC had to be applied for. Which couldn't happen fast
enough. ;-)


Thanks Dave

So how are your hard drive partitions labelled?

Were they originally labelled Vista and changed to Win 7? Did they
retain the Vista label? Or did they have non-OS-specific labels?

Phil

In article ,
thescullster wrote:
My laptop was just that - bought as Win7, but came with Vista loaded
and a free upgrade, which IIRC had to be applied for. Which couldn't
happen fast enough. ;-)


Thanks Dave

So how are your hard drive partitions labelled?

According to the disc manager, there is a 10GB recovery partition. It has
no name or drive letter. The other one is ACER C

Were they originally labelled Vista and changed to Win 7? Did they
retain the Vista label? Or did they have non-OS-specific labels?

I'm afraid I dunno. It's the first time I've actually looked as I've not
needed the recovery partition - although I suspected it was there, in
common with most factory loaded OS where they don't give you discs.

--
*Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 01/04/2014 16:39, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
thescullster wrote:
My laptop was just that - bought as Win7, but came with Vista loaded
and a free upgrade, which IIRC had to be applied for. Which couldn't
happen fast enough. ;-)


Thanks Dave

So how are your hard drive partitions labelled?

According to the disc manager, there is a 10GB recovery partition. It has
no name or drive letter. The other one is ACER C

Were they originally labelled Vista and changed to Win 7? Did they
retain the Vista label? Or did they have non-OS-specific labels?

I'm afraid I dunno. It's the first time I've actually looked as I've not
needed the recovery partition - although I suspected it was there, in
common with most factory loaded OS where they don't give you discs.


OK thanks for your trouble Dave

Phil

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
thescullster wrote:
My laptop was just that - bought as Win7, but came with Vista loaded
and a free upgrade, which IIRC had to be applied for. Which couldn't
happen fast enough. ;-)


Thanks Dave

So how are your hard drive partitions labelled?

According to the disc manager, there is a 10GB recovery partition. It has
no name or drive letter. The other one is ACER C

Were they originally labelled Vista and changed to Win 7? Did they
retain the Vista label? Or did they have non-OS-specific labels?

I'm afraid I dunno. It's the first time I've actually looked as I've not
needed the recovery partition - although I suspected it was there, in
common with most factory loaded OS where they don't give you discs.



OK, assuming it is an Acer machine, the recovery partition is called
PQSERVICE and is a FAT32 partition with a different partiton type value.

The BIOS would normally have a setting to start recovery, if you can't
see this, then setting the recovery partition as the active partition
with probably do it. That should restore the original OS - presumably
WIN7 if that is what is on the sticker. It will not use the licence
code on the sticker but will be an Acer Bios locked code and will not
need activation.

You would be wise to make partition image backups of the existing
partitions first in case there is a need to revert.

Something like this

http://www.paragon-software.com/home.../download.html

will do it, you may need to install on another machine first to generate
the bootable stand alone disk.

-and remember to delete all the manufacturer installed bloatware.

Could it have been a corporate cast off and had a corporate Vista image
installed?

HTH

Chris K

On 01/04/14 13:44, thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).


WinRe is a label used for the 'Windows Recovery Environment', something
that first saw the light of day with Vista.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows..._Envi ronment

I think your laptop was originally supplied with Windows 7 Home premium
and the existance of Vista might be as someone in the shop didn't have
the OEM windows 7 media to go straight there in a rebuild.

Windows 7 Home Premium didn't have downgrade rights, so it's unlikely
the previous user would have had Vista installed purposely for use, well
not officially.

Have a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927521 and see if there
are any 'downlevel' log files lying around.


--
Adrian C

Bob Minchin wrote on 01/04/2014 :
thescullster wrote:
Hi all

I am trying to understand the history of a laptop.
The product key sticker on the back shows Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS.
Looking at the partitions themselves, one of them is labelled Vista (the
other two partitions are WinRe and Data).

If the laptop originally had Vista installed in the shop and it was
upgraded to Win 7 before sale, would this account for the different
partition labelling? Or is the Vista partition proof positive that the
laptop has had the OS reinstalled at some time?

I guess anyone using a PC or laptop that has been upgraded from Vista to
7 should have the answer to this one.

Thanks

Phil
I read in here only yesterday that the upgrade to Win7 cannot be done from XP
directly and that an intermediate stage is to upgrade to vista first.
Maybe this has happened to yours?

Sorry but that's wrong. An 'in place upgrade' cannot be done from XP to
Win 7, which means that the user data will have to be saved first, then
during the Win 7 install you must choose "Custom" install. This formats
the drive and wipes everything off, which is why you have to save your
data first or you'll lose it.

But you absolutely do not need to do an intermediate install of Vista
first - you can go directly from XP to 7.