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#11
Did you speak to a live Microsoft rep? (Just curious.)
There are ways to install to a blank drive using an upgrade license without having the qualifying operating system installed:
Doing a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version
Incidentally, if you have a 32 bit OS installed, to install a 64 bit version, you have to boot directly from the DVD. You can't launch the DVD from within a 32 bit OS.