The move to Windows 8 is only the third time that I have ever thought about upgrading rather than clean installing. I was put off ‘upgrading’ years ago after it went tragically wrong and I lost everything. The second time, I tried the Windows 8 upgrade on Windows 7, but it too went tragically wrong because I had a disk utility running that was incompatible with Windows 8, despite claims that the version was Windows 8 friendly.

This last time. my Windows 7 was running perfectly and, apart from the ESET NOD32 v.4 business A-V solution, there were absolutely no 3rd party utilities running or installed.  I also created  a Windows 7 system image (as yet untried), and a complete copy of the other two partitions on the boot drive.

You don't want ANY issues in the base operating system when upgrading to Windows 8. If there are any, fix them now. if all attempts at fixing fail, save your important stuff, personal files etc. to external media (an external hard drive is the best), and do a 'back to factory' install of your current operating system from the recovery partition or from whatever original installation media that you have.

If you use the recovery partition method, create the recovery disks for Windows 7 as instructed by the fresh install. You will need these if you ever have to or want to re-install Windows 7.

Having done the above, your computer should be in a stable condition, and good for the upgrade process..

Instructions re. back to factory installations using the recovery partition.

This is how the recovery partition is accessed for the most popular makes..

• For Dell, press CTRL + F11 directly after powering up the unit
• For HP, press F11 directly after powering up the unit
• For Toshiba, press and hold '0' BEFORE and during the power up
• For Acer, press and hold ALT + F10 as soon as you see the logo
• For Asus, press F9 as soon as you see the Asus logo.
• For Advent, restart your computer. Then Press F10 repeatedly until the message "Starting System Recovery" is displayed.
• For Sony VAIO, restart and press "F8" repeatedly until the "Advanced Boot Options" screen appears.

You may have to try more than once to get any of the above to work. If after repeated attempts, you have no luck or the machine reports that there is no recovery partition, your only option is to contact the computer manufacturer and ask for recovery disks for the model..