Migrate to Windows 7

[Ken C]

Ok, I bought the Win 7 Home Premium Family Pack, good for 3 machines. So far, two computers have been upgraded to the 64 bit versions. Neither of these machines has anything to do with Sage.

The Sage system currently consists of 4 Hauppauge 150 PCI analog tuners, 2 HDHR dual tuner network devices, an HD100 in the bedroom, and an HD200 connected to the big screen in the living room. The Sage computer has 5 hard drives, 4 used for video storage, the 5th for boot up. Running XP Pro on an Intel Q6600 with 4 gig of ram.

Now, all is running great, (knock on wood), but there's this 3rd Win7 license just sitting around, gathering dust. And, it's bugging me !

So, should I leave well enough alone or upgrade ? If upgrade wins out, 32 or 64 bit ? Anybody aware of driver issues, especially with the 150's ?

Or, just use the last license on a really old Gateway laptop ?

[paulbeers]

Don't. Touch. Your. Sage. Server. Must. Resist.


Seriously, unless it is used for playback, I wouldn't touch your Sage Server by upgrading to Windows 7. It isn't that Windows 7 isn't better (Because it is), but it just isn't necessary and you have to worry about the drivers (although since Vista drivers work in Windows 7, it isn't as big of a deal).

[Rico66]

Also note that Home Premium does not include Remote Desktop, hence it's probably not a good solution for a "Server style" system.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Also note that Home Premium does not include Remote Desktop, hence it's probably not a good solution for a "Server style" system.

RealVNC might be an alternative. Some searches on Windows 7 and VNC showed that you might need to use the Enterprise version of RealVNC or maybe UltraVNC.

In any event, if you take an image of your existing OS first, then you can go back to it if the upgrade to Windows 7 does not go well.

If you do decide to make the move, let us know your results. I am thinking about rebuilding my XP Pro SageTV server on different hardware using Windows 7 - 64 bit, and would be interested in your results.

I use Remote Desktop, VNC, or LogMeIn to remotely control my XP Pro SageTV computer.



Dave

[Fuzzy]

As said, you won't gain anything for your effort moving from XP to 7 for a headless, and most importantly, already functioning system. If you machine was also used for playback, i would definitely recommend it, as playback is certainly improved in 7 over XP. As this ISN'T the case, I'd leave well enough alone.

Oh.. and for the record, UltraVNC works great on Win7 (And Vista, for that matter)... I see no reason to pay more for windows than Home premium. The other's don't add much, and anything they DO, is available form a third party (in the case of ultravnc, for free).

[Ken C]

Ok, I'll stay with XP. Although, why I should leave a perfectly running system alone when there's the chance of totally screwing it up ... well, you see the point !!