Windows 7 Upgrade Q&A

[jeffbui]

Originally posted by: jeffbui
Q: Do I need an Activated copy of XP installed before I can upgrade?

Waiting for an answer to that.. Just purchased a new SSD for Win7, it would suck to have to install XP on it first before putting Win7 on it.

Replying to my own post because I have first hand experience after today. Windows 7 installed just fine but when I went to activate it, the key said it was not valid for clean installs. Looks like I'm going to have to secure erase, put XP on, and reinstall Windows 7 on top of it.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: jeffbui
Replying to my own post because I have first hand experience after today. Windows 7 installed just fine but when I went to activate it, the key said it was not valid for clean installs. Looks like I'm going to have to secure erase, put XP on, and reinstall Windows 7 on top of it.

Did you do the complete "double-install"? Meaning you did a "trial" install, booting from the DVD, installing your desired edition of W7, and NOT entering a Key. And then immediately running the install AGAIN from inside of Windows? This time you enter your Upgrade Key and do an Upgrade install (which can take a while).

 

[jeffbui]

Nope, I just did a trial install and now it won't let me activate. Let me try doing the install again.

 

[Majic 7]

Here is a link from sevenforums by Brink that shows how he clean installed an upgrade version to a new clean unallocated partition without doing the double install thing. Used a DVD upgrade version. http://www.sevenforums.com/ins...windows-7-version.html Post #6 has a link to his tutorial.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Majic 7
Here is a link from sevenforums by Brink that shows how he clean installed an upgrade version to a new clean unallocated partition without doing the double install thing. Used a DVD upgrade version. http://www.sevenforums.com/ins...windows-7-version.html Post #6 has a link to his tutorial.

I have my my current Full retail Windows 7 Ultimate on one drive, but this does not matter since it is not qualified to upgrade from.

I created a new 40GB unallocated partition on a separate physical RAID hard drives, restarted the computer, booted from the Upgrade retail Windows 7 Home Premium, installed, and activated with the included product key number without having to verify or check for any previous qualifying version of Vista.

I confirm that it works this way 100%.

He had a version of Windows on a drive that was installed in his computer at the time he did his "Clean" install. Somehow, I think that does matter.

I was able to do a clean install of the Family Pack onto a machine that had Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit RC1 on it. Even though it doesn't say anywhere that RC1 is a valid upgrade source.

So I think he's wrong, that the Full Retail Windows 7 Ultimate on his other drive IS considered a valid source to upgrade from, hence it worked for him.

 

[VirtualLarry]

24 Minutes Ago #47 (permalink)
Whattf
Junior Member

Join Date: Aug 2009
Windows 7 x64 RC
2 posts

Clean Windows 7 Install with Upgrade Media

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it possible to perform a clean install (on a blank hard drive) with Windows 7 Upgrade media?

I tested this out today and Yes, this is possible. It is the same steps as mentioned here http://www.winsupersite.com/sh...ista_upgrade_clean.asp for Windows Vista.

In short, boot your computer from the Windows 7 DVD select a custom install. Let it install on your system, when prompted for a serial number leave it blank and finish the steps in the activation wizard. This will allow you to use the software in a 30 day evaluation mode. Note at this point you will not be able to activate the software as it will return "Code: 0xC004F061 Description: The software licensing service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations." Then insert the DVD into your computer (if not already in there) and this time select an "upgrade." Once this reinstallation process has finished you should enter the serial number provided with the upgrade media and it will activate successfully!

 

[Jschmuck2]

Hmph - why didn't Digital River just make the stupid thing an ISO? Lamesauce!

 

[daishi5]

Ok, I have a digital river student download of 64 professional version. I had a problem with my dvd burner, but other than replacing that stupid drive the install has gone fine. This was marked on the site as a download, but I installed a brand new hard drive and more RAM when I did the install so it was a bare metal install. However, the key digital river sent me in the email is coming up as invalid.

I can't tell if the reason the key is invalid is I did a custom install on a bare metal drive, (there is no way in hell I am risking the data on the old drive) or if the problem is with the key digital river sent me.

I contacted support, but i just get to sit here and wait on my laptop hoping the get back to me soon.

EDIT: It appears you can do the install on a clean drive, but the key will not work unless it was an upgrade installation: Seems like an official answer

 

[Bateluer]

Why the hell didn't these idiots at Digital River just use an ISO in the first place? I could be mistaken, but didn't the order process specify that it would be an ISO? I'm building an ISO right now using the OSCDIMG command line utility linked to in previous posts. I will test with a Virtual Box machine prior and report back.

Edit - Works. Will be going live with this over the weekend. Or Friday night. Depends how adventurous I feel.

 

[imported_harlanpepper]

Originally posted by: daishi5
Ok, I have a digital river student download of 64 professional version. I had a problem with my dvd burner, but other than replacing that stupid drive the install has gone fine. This was marked on the site as a download, but I installed a brand new hard drive and more RAM when I did the install so it was a bare metal install. However, the key digital river sent me in the email is coming up as invalid.

I can't tell if the reason the key is invalid is I did a custom install on a bare metal drive, (there is no way in hell I am risking the data on the old drive) or if the problem is with the key digital river sent me.

I contacted support, but i just get to sit here and wait on my laptop hoping the get back to me soon.

EDIT: It appears you can do the install on a clean drive, but the key will not work unless it was an upgrade installation: Seems like an official answer

I did a clean install on an old but reformatted drive - also with the win7 64 professional student upgrade. I was running win7 RC beforehand, reformatted the hard drive, did a custom install from a DVD/iso, and it accepted my key fine. I would tend to think that there's a problem with your key and not your installation routine, because (unless I'm overlooking a detail in your post) our circumstances are pretty similar.

 

[imported_harlanpepper]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Why the hell didn't these idiots at Digital River just use an ISO in the first place? I could be mistaken, but didn't the order process specify that it would be an ISO? I'm building an ISO right now using the OSCDIMG command line utility linked to in previous posts. I will test with a Virtual Box machine prior and report back.

I fully agree - it's inane that they would make Joe Average jump through the iso creation hoop to make a bootable DVD. For what it's worth, the install disc via OSCDIMG worked without issue.

 

[daishi5]

Originally posted by: harlanpepper

Originally posted by: daishi5
Ok, I have a digital river student download of 64 professional version. I had a problem with my dvd burner, but other than replacing that stupid drive the install has gone fine. This was marked on the site as a download, but I installed a brand new hard drive and more RAM when I did the install so it was a bare metal install. However, the key digital river sent me in the email is coming up as invalid.

I can't tell if the reason the key is invalid is I did a custom install on a bare metal drive, (there is no way in hell I am risking the data on the old drive) or if the problem is with the key digital river sent me.

I contacted support, but i just get to sit here and wait on my laptop hoping the get back to me soon.

EDIT: It appears you can do the install on a clean drive, but the key will not work unless it was an upgrade installation: Seems like an official answer

I did a clean install on an old but reformatted drive - also with the win7 64 professional student upgrade. I was running win7 RC beforehand, reformatted the hard drive, did a custom install from a DVD/iso, and it accepted my key fine. I would tend to think that there's a problem with your key and not your installation routine, because (unless I'm overlooking a detail in your post) our circumstances are pretty similar.

I have no clue except for a post from a microsoft website by a microsoft mvp, but they really don't know for sure with things like this. I am trying to install my copy of XP again to install over it, but I may be in trouble with it, the disk has failed to install at least 2 files so far. I don't know how long this cd has been sitting in that old XP retail case. I have not heard back from support, so I really don't have any other choice but to try this.

 

[Jschmuck2]

I tested the built ISO in VMWare and all seemed to work just fine.

 

[imported_harlanpepper]

Originally posted by: daishi5
I have no clue except for a post from a microsoft website by a microsoft mvp, but they really don't know for sure with things like this. I am trying to install my copy of XP again to install over it, but I may be in trouble with it, the disk has failed to install at least 2 files so far. I don't know how long this cd has been sitting in that old XP retail case. I have not heard back from support, so I really don't have any other choice but to try this.

I'm starting to think (maybe this was stated explicitly and I missed it) that the student upgrade is actually the full version of 7 and different from the general-public upgrade packages, which the MVP was maybe referring to. All I could say is that you octuple-check the CD key (I'm sure you have). Other than that, good luck with the Digital River support and hope you make a breakthrough :beer:

 

[daishi5]

I did check that CD key, brought it up on another computer, wrote it down again, brought it up on my work laptop, and still no go. However, I failed at installing my windows XP again, the media is just to scratched. I redid the 7 install, and this time the key worked. I don't know if it was a fluke, or if the fact that there were a few (less than 15%) OS files from a previous version. It seems like the XP install failed way too early for that to be the cause, but whatever the reason, it works.

EDIT: I wish I could confirm that this was an actual work around, but I don't have any proof as to why this worked this time and not before.

 

[DefRef]

I set up my new rig with the RTM and tonight I decommissioned my old rig (one in sig at moment) and transferred the HD with the install and two other drives over as data slaves. For grins, I popped in the Win7 Pro upgrade disc and started it off from within Win7 RTM. It ran thru the install, but then hung up at "Completing install..." for a half-hour before I reset the PC. Of course, that boned the install so I was back to scratch.

I restarted off the DVD and went into the install menu and when it asked where I wanted to install, I selected the new prime drive and deleted the partitions I made and formatted it and its type shows as Primary. Now when I try to install, it gives me an yellow slam with message, "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the Setup log files for more information. There had been a 100MB reserved partition, but even then it didn't install.

What's happening that I'm not able to install at all, much less get to the key entry stage?

EDIT: I started the install again without going into the Advanced Drive options screen and it blazed thru. Now I'm at the key entry screen, wondering if it'll work.

2nd EDIT: I punched in the key that came with the upgrade and it took it and activated, so looks like I'm good to go. I wonder if it saw the other drive's Windows folder and took it?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: harlanpepper
I'm starting to think (maybe this was stated explicitly and I missed it) that the student upgrade is actually the full version of 7 and different from the general-public upgrade packages, which the MVP was maybe referring to.

If it's installing without a "double-install", it's likely a FULL version and not an "Ugrade-only" version. If you can do an install by booting from the DVD and if it accepts your Key right before you start the install, then it's not an "Upgrade-only" version.

 

[jeffbui]

I have a Win7-64 student key. Here's what I get when I enter the key using above guide:

"The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key:

Code: 0xC004F061

Description: The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations."

 

[biostud]

When upgrading from winXP can you choose to install win7 on another harddrive than c?
What happens to the data (not only windows folder) on the drive you install win7 on?

Otherwise it seems that you have to do either:
1. clean winXP install on that drive then install win7 upgrade from that installation
2. or do the double win7 installation

 

[pyro451]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Whereas, if you attempted to move your OEM XP from your old PC to your new PC, and then do the upgrade to Win7 then, you would be violating your XP EULA.

The XP on my current rig is Retail, not OEM, so I should be able to legally move it, right?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: pyro451

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Whereas, if you attempted to move your OEM XP from your old PC to your new PC, and then do the upgrade to Win7 then, you would be violating your XP EULA.

The XP on my current rig is Retail, not OEM, so I should be able to legally move it, right?

Correct. Retail copies of Windows can be moved, OEM copies can not.

 

[TheUnk]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: TheUnk
Stupid I could not install Home Premium over Vista Ultimate..

Because it's a "downgrade", you'll have to do a "clean install" (Microsoft's definition of "clean install").

They should have made it clear on the box instead of simply "Upgrade designed for Windows Vista".

 

[strikeback03]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: strikeback03
Also, what would be the legal story on purchasing a Retail upgrade and using it to upgrade a OEM version of XP? Would it then be licensed to move around as needed, or would that only be if upgrading another retail version?

"Legal Story":

Consider what the "Upgrade" license is for: It's a license to upgrade a PC that already has an existing license for a previous OS.

You can uninstall (or just delete) the Upgrade and put the Upgrade on another PC. But the new PC needs a base license for a suitable OS. You're not moving the whole (upgraded) OS from one PC to another PC. You're just moving the Upgrade license.

That new PC needs an existing license for a suitable OS, and it can't be the license from the first PC because that license is OEM and can't be transfered to another PC.

If the original PC has a RETAIL license, then, yeah, you can move both that license and the Upgrade license to the new PC.

I disagree. The Upgrade license supercedes the previous OS license, so as long as you perform the upgrade to Win7 legally, then you are free to move that license between machines as you chose. At least that's the way I see it.

Is the EULA online for me to read myself, or do I have to run the disc once it arrives to read that? See this thread for more information on what I am trying to do, but short answer is I want to use a Win7 upgrade on one computer for a few months, then move it to another.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: strikeback03
Is the EULA online for me to read myself, or do I have to run the disc once it arrives to read that? See this thread for more information on what I am trying to do, but short answer is I want to use a Win7 upgrade on one computer for a few months, then move it to another.

Since it's a Retail Upgrade, you can move the Upgrade to any PC that has a qualifying license for a previous operating system.

Microsoft normally keeps Retail EULAs available on their site, but usually only after the OS has been released. OEM EULAs can be tougher to find. Try searching for things like "Microsoft Windows 7 EULA" and see what comes up. I couldn't find the entire Retail or OEM EULA for Windows 7. Maybe you'll have better luck.

 

[jtvang125]

Bought 2 copies of Professional x64 from the Digital Rivers deal. I had Ultimate x86 RTM installed and couldn't get the upgrade to install either. Had to go through the whole work around of making an iso from the package. Installed on 2 machines just fine and took the key with no errors. Haven't activated yet but I'm pretty sure that should go through without a hitch as well.

These copies were claimed to be upgrades but I always thought that with upgrades you have to install within the OS to verify that you have pre-existing OS that qualifies. However by making the iso you can install it by booting from the disc.