Windows 7 - Schools Agreement upgrade disk

If this has been covered elsewhere I'd appreciate a link to that forum, here's my problem.

I work for a school they're running XP SP3 32bit. I ordered the Win 7 64 bit upgrade. Upon inserting the DVD i get the obvious error - "unsupported edition for upgrade...yada yada"

The disk doesn't boot either (tried on several different PC's, different hardware, dvd first boot device)

When I check the bootmgr file using notepad on the disk it reads in one section "BOOTMGR image is corrupt" - I think Microsoft have done that on purpose because it's a school licensed disk (volume license)?why else?

I booted into & installed my copy of Vista 64bit, left the key blank and then installed the Windows 7 upgrade on top of it. Registered ok over the phone - but now many files don't install or work. Office 2007, Thunderbird among others.

How do I get to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 64 bit - as the disk doesn't boot. The 32 bit version has the same problem.

Disk contents: - green disk with silver border says "not for OEM or retail distribution"
boot
efi
sources
support
upgrade
autorun.inf
bootmgr
bootmgr.efi
setup.exe

Not sure if this version will work if i try to make a bootable flash drive

...please help

First, as you learned, there is not a direct "UPGRADE" path from XP to Win 7.

I'm having a little difficulty with what you want to do.

Do you desire to install Win 7 on one or many computers?

The new windows activation procedure will rise up and bite you if you try to install a single-license version of Win 7 on more than one computer to use on more than one computer at one time. Essentially - one computer = 1 license.

There are several tutorials here on using upgrade discs which also explain the qualifiying conditions. If you are trying to migrate and retain your data when going going from xp to win 7 then you will be using a different procedure.
Download details: Windows 7 Upgrade Paths

also of probably interest is:
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Download - Microsoft Windows

Wipe the HD first to get rid of the conflicting boot sector code: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Boot the Windows 7 DVD to Custom Clean install: How to Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD

Don't try your Product Key at first, uncheck box to activate when connected to internet. Instead do one of the workarounds given here to install to cleaned HD: Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Thanks for the replies

I wish to install Windows 7 64 bit on all office computers using a volume license key (Microsoft have supplied me with the DVD and a volume license key)
I want to just do a clean format, I don't mind if i have nothing from the previous OS

I'll try this but the bootmgr doesn't work on the physical media (DVD) as far as I can tell, MS have disabled this making the installation DVD unable to boot. Despite setting the bios to boot from DVD/CD first i still don't get an option to boot from the DVD Microsoft sent me even on a "brand new hard drive off the shelf"

How would I create a new bootable DVD using the files on the un-bootable Windows 7 64 bit disk?
Can I copy the files from the DVD and create my own bootable disk?

Thanks again.

You can use a trial of PowerISO to check if in fact the DVD is bootable or not, from the link below.


Download a Free Copy of PowerISO

click to enlarge

leakingpaint,
if the dvd is unbootable, then contact the supplier of the DVD.

If that fails,contact Microsoft. I'm very sure that they will be interested in hearing about a supplier of defective dvds.

How old are the PC's in question? I have a couple of PC's here that have a BIOS that does not support the Windows 7 boot loader. I get a code 5 error and the same DVD is bootable in my newer PC. These same PC's won't boot from a windows 7 USB thumbdrive either, and again I can boot from that same thumbdrive and install windows 7 from it on my new PC. I got around it by booting up into XP and starting the install from there. I just did a custom install. My DVD wasn't an upgrade version though it was a full version.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Download - Microsoft Windows

Try DBAN or Partition Wizard CD's which will autostart, wipe the HD with zeroes, then the Windows 7 DVD should autostart install on empty HD.

Do you have another bootable CD you can try to see if the problem is with your optical drive? If you have XP you can try install from it as Alpha suggests.

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive

See Option Three in this tutorial at the link below for an out-line on how to use the Partition Wizard program to do a wipe "secure erase" a specific partition on the HDD.


Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD