“Wait For Microsoft To Work Out The Bugs�

Yeah, right—do that and you’ll /never/ upgrade
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140156/Users_should_delay_Windows_7_upgrade_support_firm_ warns>.

This part puzzles me, though:

“Transferring all their data, their digital life essentially, is one of
the most common, and most troubling, issues that users have,� said
Kaplan, noting that the chore is among the top problems Rescuecom’s
support technicians field. “Even if you’re doing an in-place [upgrade],
if you don't have a proper backup, you’re still at risk. Without the
proper preparation, moving to a new OS is risky for anybody.�

Why should an in-place upgrade endanger user files?

Lawrence D'Oliveiro

On 2009-11-06, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <_zealand> wrote:
> Yeah, right?do that and you?ll /never/ upgrade
><http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140156/Users_should_delay_Windows_7_upgrade_support_firm_ warns>.
>
> This part puzzles me, though:
>
> ?Transferring all their data, their digital life essentially, is one of
> the most common, and most troubling, issues that users have,? said
> Kaplan, noting that the chore is among the top problems Rescuecom?s
> support technicians field. ?Even if you?re doing an in-place [upgrade],
> if you don't have a proper backup, you?re still at risk. Without the
> proper preparation, moving to a new OS is risky for anybody.?
>
> Why should an in-place upgrade endanger user files?

C'mon do tell us.

Gordon

Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> Yeah, right—do that and you’ll /never/ upgrade
> <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140156/Users_should_delay_Windows_7_upgrade_support_firm_ warns>.
>
> This part puzzles me, though:
>
> “Transferring all their data, their digital life essentially, is one of
> the most common, and most troubling, issues that users have,� said
> Kaplan, noting that the chore is among the top problems Rescuecom’s
> support technicians field. “Even if you’re doing an in-place [upgrade],
> if you don't have a proper backup, you’re still at risk. Without the
> proper preparation, moving to a new OS is risky for anybody.�
>
> Why should an in-place upgrade endanger user files?
>
You should always have a backup. You should have a backup at home and
one stored at the North Pole. And maybe one on the moon, just in case.

But anyway, I can think of several ways that an in-place upgrade could
go wrong. The most obvious is a mistake when you create the partitions.
An inexperienced person could easily muck that up. Well, an
*experienced* person could muck it up, but an experienced person would
have a backup.

Cheers,

Cliff

--

The Internet is interesting in that although the nicknames may change,
the same old personalities show through.

Enkidu

geoff wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> Yeah, right-do that and you'll /never/ upgrade
>> <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140156/Users_should_delay_Windows_7_upgrade_support_firm_ warns>.
>>
>> This part puzzles me, though:
>>
>> "Transferring all their data, their digital life essentially, is
>> one of the most common, and most troubling, issues that users
>> have," said Kaplan, noting that the chore is among the top
>> problems Rescuecom's support technicians field. "Even if you're
>> doing an in-place [upgrade], if you don't have a proper backup,
>> you're still at risk. Without the proper preparation, moving to a
>> new OS is risky for anybody."
>>
>> Why should an in-place upgrade endanger user files?
>
> So you favourite Linux distro suggests that you shouldn't do a backup before
> before a major verion replacement of kernal and all other associated widgets
> ? Scary.
>
> geoff
>
>

Correct.
Not scary at all.
The kernel gets upgraded quite regularly in minor ubuntu upgrades, user
data is well isolated from the package manager process.

victor

victor wrote:
> geoff wrote:
>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>> Yeah, right-do that and you'll /never/ upgrade
>>> <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140156/Users_should_delay_Windows_7_upgrade_support_firm_ warns>.
>>>
>>>
>>> This part puzzles me, though:
>>>
>>> "Transferring all their data, their digital life essentially, is
>>> one of the most common, and most troubling, issues that users
>>> have," said Kaplan, noting that the chore is among the top
>>> problems Rescuecom's support technicians field. "Even if you're
>>> doing an in-place [upgrade], if you don't have a proper backup,
>>> you're still at risk. Without the proper preparation, moving to a
>>> new OS is risky for anybody."
>>>
>>> Why should an in-place upgrade endanger user files?
>>
>> So you favourite Linux distro suggests that you shouldn't do a backup
>> before before a major verion replacement of kernal and all other
>> associated widgets ? Scary.
>
> Correct.
> Not scary at all.
> The kernel gets upgraded quite regularly in minor ubuntu upgrades, user
> data is well isolated from the package manager process.
>
A Microsoft upgrade is more akin to a dist-upgrade and I would take a
backup before doing one of those.

Cheers,

Cliff

--

The Internet is interesting in that although the nicknames may change,
the same old personalities show through.

Enkidu