New Y560P - Ugrade to Win7 Ultimate from Win7 HomePremium?

[masondr]

I understand that the Rapid Drive Technology makes ugrading the OS more difficult.  I have a copy of Win7 Ultimate and I'd like to install it on my new machine to take advantage of the Windows BitLocker encryption tool which Home Premium lacks. 

If I just do a standard upgrade without any drive formatting, will that destroy my Rapid Drive settings?   If so, can someone point me to guide/tutorial/explanation of how to ugrade Windows versions in laptops with Rapid Drive installed?  (or just tell me... :-)

Thanks,

Don

[sKyZ]

If you're able to just upgrade, do it. Otherwise if you must reformat, install Windows 7 to the SSD [RapidDrive], then install your wifi driver, do all windows updates, then install the drivers on the lenovo site. 

I reformatted 4-5 times before learning this. After installing all the drivers and software, it finally worked and it appears that it combines your SSD [rapiddrive] with your HDD. Otherwise you will run into issues.

[XBrav Guru]

If it's the same processor mode (32 to 32 or 64 to 64), why not use Windows Anytime Upgrade?

You can find it in Control Panel. Just type in your product key, and Windows just enables the new features

[masondr]

Thanks for the suggestion about anytime upgrade.   I hadn't thought of that.  Sadly, though it didn't work.  Apparently the anytime upgrade product IDs are different from the retail package IDs.   The upgrade wouldn't accept the ID key that I entered, since the product I have is store bought.  

Nice idea though.   

Any other thoughts?

[XBrav Guru]

Well then, you should be able to upgrade no problem. The trick to upgrading with Windows 7 is that you need to launch the CD from WITHIN Windows. If you boot from the disc, the upgrade will not work.

Here's the reasoning: With Windows 7, there is no way to verify that you have an OPERATING environment bootable. They don't want you to have Windows Vista, and have a side-by-side environment of Windows 7. That would probably interfere with their EULA or something.

I tried to find some information on the upgrade process, but it seems they have changed the Anytime Upgrade policy since those were written (I myself used Anytime Upgrade last year with a retail key ). Ideally, the upgrade, once rebooted, should do the same thing as an Anytime Upgrade. However, read carefully:

READ the instructions very carefully! If it mentions anything about moving your old install to Windows.old, the upgrade will not work as desired.

Keep me informed as to what it says. If we need to do a clean install, that'll work as well. I am not familiar with Lenovo's definition of RapidDrive devices, so I am not sure how a BIOS identifies it.

[shiva7663]

Is there any new, definitive information on this topic? I'd like to use the Windows Anytime Upgrade feature on my RapidDrive enhanced Y570 to get to Windows 7 Professional.

[shiva7663]

So, still no new definitive information on this topic? sigh.