Upgrade Installation - To new SSD From XP

Morning All,

Firstly, Merry Xmas.

On to what I'm trying to achieve, my current machine is running XP SP3, I've recently purchased a 120Gb SSD drive, the current OS resides on a 320Gb standard drive.

I'm about to purchase the Home Premium Upgrade to bring myself to Windows 7, I've read through the majority of the tips / guides to upgrades, particularly in regards to the clean install methods.

My plan is to power up the new SSD drive and leave it unformatted / unpartitioned etc.

From there I believe the best method is to boot to XP and then load the upgrade DVD and point the Windows 7 installer to the newly installed SSD drive.

Key things I'm trying to achieve:
1. Leave my current XP drive intact / unmoved / unchanged, I have backed up, but my preference would be to be able to leave it as intact as possible and then clear out the old windows directory structure at a later date
2. Avoid a dual boot if humanly possible, I'm not wanting to retain XP as a secondary OS, only all the data on the drive it currently resides on
3. Avoid if possible any of the "hacks" for a clean install from upgrade media, I am licensed for my copy of XP and I'd rather proceed through the approved path rather than have to regedit, reinstall over the top of the windows 7 installation etc

Despite all my reading I'm a little unclear on points 1 & 2:
- My belief is that the install to a seperate drive should leave my existing HDD untouched, but unsure if the upgrade software might move it all to the new HDD and rename it?
- Due to booting from Windows XP and then installing to the new SSD, I'm suspicious it will create a dual boot automatically? Is this incorrect or avoidable?

I believe point 3 can be achieved by booting from XP and then running the upgrade software, so I don't think that will be an issue.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Cheers
Rob

Going from memory, you can disconnect the XP drive before you even start. That way, all boot files have only one place to go. I left my Vista drive connected and had NO issues.

You have to OWN a legit earlier OS to use the upgrade disc, but I don't think Windows 7 asks for verification. You don't enter any product keys from XP and so forth. This is acknowledged and known to Microsoft.

That's what I recall. Try it. If you fail, report back. You certainly don't need full retail.

There are no "hacks" to get the upgrade to work as expected. All I recall is a very small number of people who may have to change one setting somewhere. I don't recall what it was and it did not apply to me.

You can also avoid creating that 100 MB system partition if you want to by using DISKPART command.

Thanks Ignatzatsonic,

I'll give that a go, the hacks was more the registry edit referred to at:

Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

Appears MS allow it and even recommend the install windows 7, then upgrade path, but I'm hoping to avoid this if possible!

I'll give it a go with the original drive disconnected and post back what occurs, appreciate your help.

RobGallow said:

Thanks Ignatzatsonic,

I'll give that a go, the hacks was more the registry edit referred to at:

Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

Appears MS allow it and even recommend the install windows 7, then upgrade path, but I'm hoping to avoid this if possible!

I'll give it a go with the original drive disconnected and post back what occurs, appreciate your help.

Yeah, Paul Thurott is a guru. But it's only an unusual case that requires the registry edit he refers to.

MS knew that upgraders would not need full retail and left that "backdoor" open, although no one at MS would say so out loud before Win 7 was released. There was a lot of rumor and speculation in the air at the time.

If you install to a new or wiped HD with no OS, the Win7 Upgrade DVD will not see an OS and refuse the Upgrade version key up front. The solution is to leave the Key box blank and do the registry workaround (piece of cake) after install, then activate with Product Key at Computer>Properties.

I would not leave XP plugged in as it will configure a Dual Boot and place the boot files on XP HD which is trouble to repair.

Just do the registry workaround - it's simple and always works. Set a restore point in case you goof and need to start over.

Thanks Greg,

Yes, right on the money at this point, the installation went through smoothly (besides an annyonance of not finding KB / mouse on USB at the start).

So I've installed and left the key empty for the time being, once I've completed all the updates I guess I'll go with the registry work around. Preference would have been to not have to modify the registry, but that's life apparently.

Interesting to note the rejection on the key was not very informative, i.e. "Key is invalid" rather than any reference to it being upgrade software and no in place OS detected.

I'll definitely set a restore point prior, thanks for the tip. I'll post to confirm it all went well, appreciate all your suggestions.

Cheers
Rob

Ok, so install all completed and registered.

Rather than use the registry edit I just upgraded the in place windows 7 installation, quite a smooth transition and accepted the key without issues.

Again, thanks for the advice.

Cheers
Rob

rchris said:

I'm curious about how this worked out for you. By "upgraded the in place windows 7 installation," do you mean that you did the "Windows Anytime Upgrade" sequence or something else?

Thanks for any info.

EDIT: Oh, I think you mean the XP to Win7 inplace upgrade where you use a Vista Disk?

No, basically the process was:

1. Install fresh Windows 7 (Upgrade media) and it wouldn't allow the key from the upgrade software to be input, obviously because I'd removed the XP HDD and it couldn't see an "in place" windows installation
2. Reinsert the Windows 7 dvd and started it from within the new Windows 7 OS, instead of selecting custom I chose upgrade at this point
3. Runs through the windows 7 installation again, but this time it allows you to use the upgrade key without any issues

It appears it sees the existing windows 7 installation as a "in place" version, despite it not having a key associated with it yet at all.

Mine is not to reason why.... I just activated the key online as well without any issues, I think it's probably quicker to use the registry edit than this upgrade method, but it just felt a little less hacky doing it this way.

Thanks... that completely answers my questions. What is curious to me is that I've reinstalled Win7 onto an SSD and a regular HD that have been completed wiped clean and reformatted. In both cases, Win7 installed, I chose to "activate later" and had no problems entering the key later after installation was complete. I had expected to have to do something like you did, but never had to do so.

Don't understand why I didn't experience what the earlier post described, but maybe somehow Win7 could tell it was a reinstall. ???