Windows 7: Clean Install Activation Issue with Win7 Upgrades

I recently installed a new SSD hard drive and did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional on it. Regrettably, it's not letting me validate it with my product key because my original hard drive started with Windows 7 Home Premium (I have the product key for that) and I had downloaded the upgrade to Professional (I have the product key for that too), but because I went straight to Windows 7 Professional on the clean install, it won't accept my product key because it's just an upgrade. I get the reasoning behind that but there has to be a way (I hope) with BOTH product keys to verify I'm a legitimate user without reinstalling Home Premium just to turn around and upgrade to Pro? Hoping against hope!

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Is the original hard drive still in the loop, did you take it out of the system ?

Hello Lentaro, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if you may be able to activate using either OPTION THREE or OPTION FOUR in the tutorial below.

Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Hope this helps,
Shawn

@AddRam: old hard drive is now used for storage (e). SSD is c:

Thanks!

@ Brink: i did option 3 and it gave me a "0xc004f061" error ...

But does it still have windows on it or did you format it ?

@ AddRam: sorry, yes, the old boot drive, now e: drive, still has windows on it.

That could be the problem, you have to deactivate the other windows, either format it, or remove it from the system. Then try to activate again. Greg or Shawn should know more.

That error is what Option Three is for.

If it still doesn't help, then I would recommend to start over from scratch using OPTION FOUR to do a clean install with the upgrade instead.

You should format the old drive first as well, then use it as a data drive if you like.

The correct upgrade method to a higher version of Windows 7 is using Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to - Windows 7 Forums, which will accept a retail Professional key of the same bit-version even though an Anytime Upgrade key is what's intended and much cheaper.

However the workaround Shawn provided is a convenience for using retail Upgrade when the HD is new or wiped and no other OS can be seen by the booted installer to allow use of Upgrade version key.

Since you have an installation now I'd just run the Option Four Upgrade over itself as suggested.

Be sure to save a Windows 7 backup image of the completed install once it's set up and running as you wish, to use in place of reinstalls.