Hi, Draclvr!

I'm moving into the 21st century tomorrow and getting a high speed modem. Then I'll be installing Windows 7.

I have two physical hard drives, and all of my user files are on D: drive. Even though I back up my D: drive on a regular basis, I'll be sure to do so immediately prior to the custom install because it never even occurred to me that Windows 7 may install on the wrong drive.

Susan

I don't think it will! I was just nervous and inexperienced with this new OS..

Hi, Draclvr!

I didn't run into any glitches when I upgraded from Win98 to WinXP, but it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when Windows 7 is responsible for reformatting my hard drive .

Susan

Words to live by, Susan!

Susan,

At that stage in the installation where it asks which drive you want to install the OS on take your time to look carefully and you should have no problems. But I'd say Draclvr idea of removing the other drive(s) would certainly be a less stress full option.

I do have a problem with my DSL modem, there are no USB drivers for Win 7.

However, as I found out, if you unplug those other drives, you will not get the nifty option of which of your drives you want to boot into. To boot another drive, you will have to go into the BIOS each time and change the boot drive order.

Hi, sarahandus!

Actually, for me, removing the other drive would be more stressful, so I think I will stick with backing up my user files on D: drive and keeping my fingers crossed !

Susan

Can't you just go in through the Ethernet port?

Collector, Unfortunately I don't have an Ethernet port so I'm having to order an adapter card. Next time I upgrade the motherboard I will make darn sure it has an Ethernet port. Of course, by that time it will be something else I miss. (sigh)

Can't you put a ***network card*** in it?

edit:
Sorry I read "adapter card" as USB adapter.

She said that she is ordering one, but I wonder if the motherboard is not new enough to have an onboard NIC, will it be able to handle Windows 7? 7 may not be the resource hog that Vista is, but it has been many years since an onboard NIC has been standard.

Are you positive you don't have a LAN (Ethernet) port? What is the model of the motherboard?

You can download and run CPU-Z to identify it - (look on the Mainboard tab)

CPU-Z

Collector, I put a new Gigabyte MOBO in the build I did this spring that does not have onboard NIC. It does have ethernet. Actually, while shopping for my components, I didn't see any MOBOs with onboard NIC, but they all had on-board ethernet. It does seem odd that Susan doesn't have it.

EDIT: I meant that it's odd that Susan doesn't have ethernet.

Here's a picture of a motherboard with an ethernet port.
See the blue, green, and pink audio ports arranged vertically?
To the left of that is an ethernet port with two USB ports below it.



Draclvr,
Do you have a picture of what you mean when you're referring to an "onboard NIC?"

I have no idea, Jenny. Collector mentioned that most all new motherboards now come with on-board NIC. My experience is that none of them do.

NIC stands for Network Interface Controller. A few occasionally refer to it as "Network Interface Card". "On board" just means that the function is built into the motherboard and as such would not be used to refer to an add in card. But all of this is semantics and is beside the point. The point is that whatever you want to call the Ethernet Adapter, the feature has been built into most motherboards for nearly a decade, now.

Ah, now I understand. I thought NIC referred to a wireless card or controller. I have to install wireless "NICs" in my computers as I live out in the country and have wireless broadband from a tower for my internet.

Thanks for explaining, Collector... One of the reasons I hang out here is to learn new stuff.

Like Draclvr I learn something new from here. On checking again with the motherboard manufacturer I see it does list a LAN/Ethernet port. I had assumed it was only for LAN. I had tried to use it and it doesn't work at this time. On checking with drivers for it, I found some and downloaded them.
Downloaded the CPU-Z you suggested Inland. We'll see what it says.

This won't be the first time I've ordered an unneeded item, and I'm sure won't be the last either.

Make sure it is enabled in the BIOS as well as Windows.

Check your Device Manager to see if it is under the "Network adapters" category. If it is not there, be sure that it is enabled in the BIOS, as InlandAZ said. If it is listed under a category called "Other devices" it need to have the driver installed for it. If you find the "Network adapters" category expanded and there is an explanation point icon over it, it means that Windows couldn't load the driver for it. This may be from a resource conflict, corrupt driver, etc. If this is the case you can try uninstalling the device and reinstalling the driver for it.

Under device manager the 1394 net adapter is enabled and "working properly".

CPU-Z was very interesting and listed the net adapter and "from Texas Instruments". I tried to find drivers from them but failed to find any for Ethernet devices.

In the Network Connection in the control panel the 1394 connection is working and connected online. But Firefox can't get online with that connection, only the local connection with USB.

I have e-mailed Gigabyte about this problem, but have yet to hear from them. It's a GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard, installed in January.

Did you get a disk with your motherboard? That's where all the onboard device drivers were for the Gigabyte motherboard I used last February.

For what it's worth I'm playing Sacred 2 on Windows 7. It has "issues" mainly with dropping back to desktop without warning after about an hour of playing (found out the hard way when I lost a quest item because of it). Never had that problem with Vista. I also had to uninstall and re-install the game after I upgraded. The save I had while playing with Vista became unplayable after installing Windows 7 - which meant I had to start over - not necessairly a hardship but I did have some pretty neat armor and weapons with the old save - sigh.

I can't see any difference between Vista and Windows 7 to tell you the truth - still takes forever to boot up and I still can't find anything without hunting forever for it. Not all that impressed with this latest wonder child from Microsoft. Maybe it'll grow on me but right now I feel like I've wasted my money.

There's always that learning curve to deal with. Don't feel bad, it took me nearly a year to get warm and fuzzy with Vista. Once I got the hang of it and stopped trying to make it act like XP it ran just fine.

I agree that it takes awhile to get the hang of a new OS. I went straight from XP to Windows 7 and was completely lost at first!

One of my favorite things about Windows 7 is that it boots up in just 65 seconds. And that's counting about 30 seconds while the BIOS does its thing. When I run one of my XP hard drives (same system, same hardware) it seems ponderous and slow. Maybe going from Vista to 7 isn't that much of a sea change.