Man Emasculated by "Floppy Problem"

Here's the rundown:

In my continued quest to pointlessly build a machine that far exceeds my needs, I've recently purchased two 30gig SSDs that I'd like to try setting up in RAID 0 to function as system/boot drive. I'm currently running Windows 7 pro 64, which I purchased as an upgrade through "the Ultimate Steal" student offer. Apparently, "upgrade" means that I cannot simply perform a clean install of Windows 7, but must first always install my previous version - XP - and then upgrade from that. *sigh* Continuing on in the vein of "pain in my arse," RAID drivers must be installed manually during OS installation; and while Vista and 7 can read from CDs and thumb drives, XP requires floppy disk. Minor inconvenience, or resounding dead end? Floppy disk? Sure, no prob! Dig through some dusty boxes - find an old, oddly-twisting ribbon - bada boom, bada bing. Only, I can't get seem to get a floopy drive to work [floppy ones either]. Copying driver files to diskette appears to work - files show up on the A: drive in Explorer - but if I eject the disk and reinsert it, "This folder is empty." Oddly, though, if I look in 'Properties,' files are being accounted for, capacity wise. And if I try to copy the files a second time, I'm questioned about duplicate files. Assuming the files were actually there - unseen - I tried going through with installation, praying that the files would be there when I needed them. They were not.

And, that's pretty much our story thus far. I've tried 3 drives, bought new diskettes, switched ribbons. I've rebooted, replugged, unplugged, uninstalled, driven, drove, and drivered. I'm at a loss. I humbly beseech the collective intelligence for enlightenment.

(I'd post my system specs, but I assume that info is available, since I answered all those questions during registration.)

Seriously!? Awesome, i'll give that a go. Thanks, Nova, I was told by I couldn't and just accepted it.

You really don't have to do an upgrade from XP with your upgrade version. I thought the Ultimate Steal was the full retail version anyway. If you have either XP, Vista, or 7 on your hard drive, Windows will recognize it and you can then format and install your OS. Even if the HDD is blank there are still way around it via the instructions on the link provided by DarkNovaGamer.

You simply cannot upgrade from XP to Windows 7 as only Vista is an upgrade path. MS packaged the Windows 7 upgrade with the ability to do a clean installation or the upgrade but if you have an OEM dependent PC you need the COA registration character set to activate your installation.

"It worked!" he declared triumphantly.

I had originally tried a clean install, but when the time came my product key didn't work - so much fuss over unchecking a box. I'm going to give Bill Gates such a noogie!
Thanks, everyone. This 7.3 WEI belongs to all of us....but mostly me.