STILL confused about "Upgrade" installation process.

[mcleod55]

I wouldn't think the Enterprise 90 day would work since the key is in the program already. They are making this more difficult just by keeping everyone in the dark. Including their own employees.

 

[Dickstar]

Does it actually do a genuine advantage check, or does it just checks if it's activated or not? A buddy of mine has a pirated XP that is activated, and he wants to buy the upgrade version.

 

[SIW2]

That's not exactly the spirit of the thing is it?

We will wait to see how MS have handled the install to blank HD with no previous o/s.

 

[gregrocker]

Does it actually do a genuine advantage check, or does it just checks if it's activated or not? A buddy of mine has a pirated XP that is activated, and he wants to buy the upgrade version.

Help your bud dig up a copy of the free RC which can be activated with widely-publicized activation keys and which MS has announced can be used for the Upgrade.

Just be sure to make and save a Backup Image of the finished job with the new Win7 Backup Imaging utility so that reinstall is never again necessary, since the RC expires in June and after that he would need XP/VIsta to reinstall.

 

[DavidVI]

So is it known now its out? I havent had time to trawl through this thread as i'm off away.
But I have Vista home premium 32bit and im guessing I can't get a 64bit upgrade version id have to buy the full thing?

Also you can't reinstall it more than twice? Or did I read something wrong?

Thankyou
David

 

[tw33k]

You can reinstall it as often as you like on the same machine. However, if you change too many components ie: mainboard, hdd etc, you'll need to call M$ to activate it again

 

[gregrocker]

I asked and got this from MS Technet experts on the EULA:

If you upgrade an OEM (comes with machine) XP/Vista, the Win7 Upgrade license becomes locked to the machine, too. There is nothing revealed about how or whether they can enforce this. In fact one MSVP says they wouldn't know if you took the Upgrade and used it on another machine when the first one dies.

However, if you use a retail copy of XP or Vista to upgrade, then the Windows 7 upgrade is tied to the XP/Vista copy and is as portable as the qualifying OS and can migrate to other machines over it's life, as long as it is not on more than one machine at a time.

All of this is in the EULA which you can Google. The wording is tricky although it does verify everything said above the way I read it. Apparently most all of it is not enforced in practice.

 

[gregrocker]

Although not an issue for me directly as a TechNet subscriber, the "Upgrade" install process was still bugging the hell out of me and some of my House Party guests are beginning to inquire about the exact upgrade details. So I wrote to Microsoft. I've attached the reply I received yesterday.

Most of the folks I will be doing upgrades for are Dell users so I phrased my questions in that context to alleviate their particular fears.... not that it should matter for others. Dells are a bit unique in that they ship a pre-activated full OS disk and not a "System Restore" disk.

The rumors of clean installs with an upgrade disk apprear to be true.
But, it also appears that one doesn't just slip in the Vista disk when prompted. The upgrade process must see a fully installed and activated qualifying version before it will allow a complete disk format to pass a flag that allows the upgrade key to activate Windows 7. I guess the "flag" would be held in the RAMdrive during installation or placed in the System Reserved partition.

I think this is the pertinent part:
" If you choose to use the upgrade version of Windows 7, if you ever had to format your computers you would have to install your original copy of Windows Vista and then install the upgrade to Windows 7. This must be done using either method of installation with the upgrade version.
If you wish to bypass the requirement of installing your Vista during every computer reformat then I suggest you purchase the full version and perform a clean installation. This would enable to re-install your operating system and get your computer up and running much quicker."

So, the clean install process is clearly more complicated but doable. And in the case of Dell users, the process will be a little quicker for future reinstallations because we can get Vista installed and activated from a USB key in about 10 minutes. Won't have to sit through all of the driver and crapware installations of some "System Restore" processes. It shouldn't matter that many of the drivers aren't present, just that Vista is installed and activated.

View attachment 31321


Tom

ZRTom, since you cited this post in another thread saying I am giving out misinformation about the Upgrade needing to be started from the qualifying OS, and not from boot, I re-read the message to you from MS which you say proves this.

Can you show me where in this MS message it says or even implies
that one can boot from the Upgrade disk to perform their clean install?

The only previous method for clean installing from boot using a Upgrade disk was the Vista "upgrade over upgrade" trick, which MS specifically foreclosed months ago.

So what again is the misinformation I am giving?

 

[jackdawg]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

 

[dnelms]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

I want to see someone who buys a brand new HDD and gets the upgrade disc to install to that, with no old OS present. Given all that has been written, I do no think it is possible, but it's what I'd like to do in an ideal world. I do have Vista, so I would be trying to circumvent the upgrade price.

 

[gregrocker]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

Was the WIndows 7 install disk booted or was the install run from VIsta environment?

 

[gregrocker]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

I want to see someone who buys a brand new HDD and gets the upgrade disc to install to that, with no old OS present. Given all that has been written, I do no think it is possible, but it's what I'd like to do in an ideal world. I do have Vista, so I would be trying to circumvent the upgrade price.

Yes, it would be as if MS shipped full retail keys with all upgrades.

 

[jackdawg]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

I want to see someone who buys a brand new HDD and gets the upgrade disc to install to that, with no old OS present. Given all that has been written, I do no think it is possible, but it's what I'd like to do in an ideal world. I do have Vista, so I would be trying to circumvent the upgrade price.

The thing I don't remember is whether I formatted the hard disk myself or let windows setup detect an existing installation and format my hard disk. I did this 3 months ago when the RTM was leaked.

I remember installing Ultimate by mistake and then editing the ISO and reinstalling after selecting Home Premium.

 

[jackdawg]

Clean Install of Win 7 Upgrade Home Premium on a blank hard disk worked and activated.
(there was a partition before C: with the OEM Win Vista Setup files, if that makes a difference)

Was the WIndows 7 install disk booted or was the install run from VIsta environment?

Booted.
Then I installed Win 7 Ultimate by mistake.
Then I edited the ISO and installed Win 7 Home Premium.

The only thing I don't remember is when I formatted the hard disk. Outside the Win 7 Setup or inside the Win 7 setup. This may have an impact on whether it considers it an upgrade or not.

However, the Win 7 Ultimate before Win 7 Home Premium was definitely not activated.

 

[timsart]

Update on my Windows 2000 to Windows 7 upgrade saga.

Update on my Windows 2000 to Windows 7 upgrade saga.

Followed up with the Microsoft Store after receiving my two Windows 7 Professional Upgrade packages from my retail vendor (not the MS store). These were purchased during the original 50% off upgrade offer back in early July.

I gave the MS Phone Rep. my case number. And, as promised I was issued 2 full version keys to replace my upgrade version keys. (Issue was that Microsoft withdrew allowing upgrades from Windows 2000 in mid-September, but had stated that W2K qualified for upgrade from late June until mid-September on their website and store site.)

The issued keys show up in the MS Store under my account along with the links for the download media "full" version. I was directed by the MS Rep. to download the ISO files, which I have done.

Interestingly enough, the SHA1 & ISO/CRC check sums are exactly the same as the RTM files listed on Technet, but the file name is shortened. (Windows7Professional32bit.iso VS. en_windows_7_professional_x86_dvd_x15-65804.iso, on technet)

Also, I did a quick comparison of the files on the retail upgrade DVD against the downloaded full version's iso and it's DVD once I burned them. The file count and size are exactly the same (2.34 GB (2,518,513,058 bytes) and 874 files, 200 folders on 32 bit). The DVD's name label is also the same (GRMCPRFRER_EN_DVD for 32 bit).

(I downloaded and checked both the 32 bit and 64 bit ISOs.)

So, without doing a check sum comparison of all 874 files individually, it appears that the retail upgrade media and download full version media are exactly the same. Interesting.

These 2 blog links may help put the upgrade media on clean hard drive issue to bed.

Finally, some answers to Windows 7 upgrade questions | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

Have not had a chance to test personally, yet, but they seem to cover all possible options and work-arounds.

I will probably try a clean install with either my Home Premium upgrade or Pro upgrade disks into a VirtualBox virtual machine just to test the above link's data for myself sometime this week. I'll post my results.

That's it for now.

 

[SIW2]

Thanks tim ,

Glad to hear your full versions after all.

Yes the installation media is the same.

 

[scubasteve]

Well, I finally tried my clean install...and for what it's worth, this is what happened:

• Replaced my boot drive with a brand new hard drive
• Booted from an install DVD created from the 64 bit Win 7 Pro Upgrade ISO, which I created from the Digital River files
• Installed Win 7
• Tried entering the key at Install...and it didn't like it
• Proceeded without the key...and booted into Windows
• Tried activating the OS with the upgrade key...again with no joy
• Did the fllowing:
  • Used Regedit to change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE from 1 to 0
  • Opened an elevated command prompt as administrator
  • typed slmgr -rearm
  • rebooted
• Tried activating again after boot...and life was good.

Definitely easier than installing twice...but man, I just wish that it had asked me for my old XP key. I have one. I just wanted to start with a new hard drive. What a pain.

Thanks to all the folks here who offered advice.

cheers,
Steve
(typing in an activated Windows 7 )

 

[halp]

I entirely forgot about this thread, but as you all probably know by now I was able to perform a clean install with upgrade media. The only issue was that I had to call Microsoft and use their automated phone system to active it, which took less than 5 minutes. Thanks to those of you who helped.