Ultimate to Home Premium Questions

shablah · 29 Jun 2011

Hi, Savvy Sevenoids.

I need to replace my current install of 7 Ultimate x64. I was victimized by a dirtbag shop owner/builder. My copy is not pirated, but it's of a nature that I'm unauthorized to have. Let's leave it at that.

I've bought Home Premium x64 (at least I HOPE it's x64; forgot to ask) from the MS WGA victims department, God bless them. I neither asked for nor needed Ultimate from that shop owner. I'd *love* to be able to change over to Home without wiping and reinstalling, especially for the sake of my drivers.

I see in this thread here on this site that it can be done, or at least could back in April 2010 when the thread was written. Can it still be done using the steps in the link provided in that thread? And if it can, or if there is another way, is it absolutely legal to switch it out instead of reinstalling?

Thanks a million!

shablah · 29 Jun 2011

Another quick question -- if I tried to just switch keys, and it went wrong, could I then do a clean install? As in, is there a limit as to how many times I can attempt (or do) installs/reinstalls on the same computer with a retail copy directly from MS? Thanks!

ignatzatsonic · 29 Jun 2011

Retail disks can be reinstalled an unlimited number of times.

shablah · 29 Jun 2011

Awesome. Hopefully I can switch my Ultimate key to Home Premium, but if that goes wrong, this is good to know. Thanks a lot.

Bare Foot Kid · 29 Jun 2011

Hello shablah, welcome to Seven Forums!

Give the registry workaround a go, if it doesn't work, it just doesn't work and if you've created a system restore point first, you have almost nothing to lose; though I will say when I tried it, I couldn't get it to work at all.

Here's a lot of useful info if you have to reinstall, which I'll bet you have to do in the long-run.

It would be best to do a complete wipe of the Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive and then start the installation process again, have a look at Step One of the Optimize tutorial below; after you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, then boot the Windows 7 installation media to do the wipe secure erase to the HDD / SSD and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Whether you use diskpart to run either the clean all command to completely wipe a HDD / SSD or just the clean command to remove the format configuration data and don't use diskpart to create at least a single partition to do the installation to, letting the Windows installer do the format, the new Windows 7 System Reserved partition will be automatically issued, if you want to make your own decision whether this partition is added, study these two (2) options below.

If you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.

Either way, running the clean all then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

shablah · 29 Jun 2011

Great! I'm O/C about system restore points, and I'm glad to hear that I'd have nothing to lose. I'm also O/C about my colors, fonts, etc., and I'd hate to lose them. lol If I can get past that and the fear of driver reinstall problems (even though I have them rounded up by DriverMax), I may do a clean wipe/install.

Thanks so much for all of the great further info. Everybody's help is much appreciated!

Bare Foot Kid · 29 Jun 2011

Then "after" be O/C about keeping an externally stored image.

Imaging with free Macrium

shablah · 29 Jun 2011

Thanks for that. I've been using the backup/system image tool that's in the 7 control panel, but I'll look into Macrium.

Bare Foot Kid · 29 Jun 2011

You'll have less heart-ache using Macrium!

theog · 29 Jun 2011

Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers