Can i upgrade Vista to windows 7 from a mounted *iso file?

yes you can i have done it just click the setup exe file. what it does is it copies the setup files to the hdd first then installs

You cannot upgrade directly from Windows XP to Windows 7. Period. It will not carry over your files. Period. You can buy the cheaper "upgrade" version of Windows 7 because you already have XP, and you can "upgrade" your operating system to a more recent version, but you can not directly "upgrade" and have your files, settings, etc. carry over as most people want. You will technically be forced to do a full fresh install, even if you have the "upgrade" version. Period. I didn't make it this way, Microsoft did. And I answered a whole whole ton of questions about this when Windows 7 came out. It would probably be wise to go with Windows 7 at this point if your computer can handle it and the guy at the shop will do it for you without a high price. However, you'll need to back up anything critical if you want to keep it. Your files will NOT still be there. The smartest thing to do (if you can afford it) is for the guy in the shop to put a brand new hard drive in your computer and to install Windows 7 to that. You can then still connect remotely to your old hard drive, and pull off any files that are still there. If your old hard drive was the core problem (which the guy in the shop should be able to eventually tell), this protects you. And if it's not, you can now use it as a backup drive instead. But anyone telling you it's no problem to "upgrade" or that you have a choice between an upgrade and a full installation or that your files will still be there for you is wrong. XP to Windows 7 is *always* a clean install, but it can be done with the cheaper "upgrade" version of the software.

I don't think so you will need to burn a disk if you can

Maybe.

I wouldn't risk it, though. Just grab some DVDs and burn it to one.

no you have to burn to disk