Can i upgrade XP to windows 7

[vistadude]

So I found out all of my programs that run in windows XP are also compatible with windows 7, and want to either upgrade or clean install over the XP partition. The one problem I see is that my XP partition is FAT32, and I have 2 other partitions, one is the mac snow leopard partition, and the other is a FAT32 data partition. I had to do some trick to be able to get this third partition, and while I don't remember exactly how I did this, I remember it involved changing some environmental variables.

Long story made short, can I install Windows 7 over Windows XP and be able to boot up as normal, or should I start from scratch, backup all data, install snow leopard, bootcamp, and the windows.

Thanks.

 

[steveza]

You can convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS without losing any data either from the command line or during W7 setup. You can't upgrade directly to W7 but you can back up your files and settings using Easy Transfer if you want.

 

[vistadude]

Hi Steveza, thanks for your response. I don't mind doing a clean install or wiping the windows partition, but what I'm afraid of is not being able to boot up in windows or mac. Will the bootcamp menu even appear when i hold option?

Thanks.

 

[balamw]

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No matter what you do you should have a backup. For OS X it is trivial to make a bootable backup on n external USB drive. SuperDuper and CCC are both excellent for this.

B