Upgrading Windows 7 OS from HOME PREMIUM to ULTIMATE

I was running HP Home Premium 64bit and it became corrupted.
Instead of FORMATTING and Recovery and back to Home Premium, I decided to UPGRADE to ULTIMATE. The upgrade fixed the problems and I did not lose my Data. But a couple of boots later, something changed my C:/ drive designation to D:/ and nothing would boot.
So, I UPGRADED again to Ultimate and everything seems to work now but when it BOOTS, It asks if I want to use OS:

1. windows 7 ("Ultimate" word is missing but it seems OK and loads and works OK)
2. Windows 7 Home Premium (which of course hangs as it is now folder WNDOWS.old and WINDOWS.old.000)

What concerns me now is if I dont REMOVE WINDOWS.old and 000, somehow it will screw it up again and make my Ultimate OS drive D:/ again.

My C:/ drive is still all i have as HD so is really not a real Dual boot??? Everything is on C:/

Yahoo/Google only find fixes for DUAL boot and they are for XP, etc. Can not find how to get rid of the "Home Premium" choice

1. Anyone know how to CLEAN UP and Remove the Home Premium as a OS option? So if I dont catch the timer, it will not try to boot to Home Premium? (maybe OK as is second choice) but......

2. Microsoft says you can not use the "Windows.old" but does not say why it saved it and what it is for? Can I simply DELETE the Windows.old and old.000 as regular folders?

Where did you get Win7 Ultimate? How is it activated? How did you "Upgrade" to it when the only way to do so is Windows Anytime Upgrade which only unlocks the extra expensive features and doesn't even reinstall the OS?

Did your HP come with Home Premium preinstalled? If so you own that $100+ OS for the life of the PC to reinstall as often as you want. Most tech enthusiasts won't even run the factory install but instead choose to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get rid of the corrupting bloatware and duplicate utilities which have better versions built into Win7.

The only reason to upgrade to Ultimate is if you need one of the few extra expensive features in it to justify it's expense. Otherwise the solution to problems is to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Which of the extra features did you need? Compare Windows 7 Editions - Windows 7 Forums

Please run this program MGADiag.exe and post back the results so we can analyze them.

gregrocker
Yes, I purchased a HP Desktop and a Laptop Pavilions and they both came with Home Premium 64bit.
1. Did your HP come with Home Premium preinstalled? YES
2. Where did you get Win7 Ultimate? How is it activated? I can not do without my Desktop so to see if I could recover, a friend loaned me a flash drive with Ultimate on it to see if it would reload some of the OS files. Home Premium would not fix or REPAIR with any of my DVD/CD. Like most Microsoft OS, it kept dying a slow death every day. It seem to recover my OS OK for now. But if I can get all this working again, I will get a real copy of Ultimate because, Microsoft shot me down when they got rid of MESH. That stupid Home Premium has no Remote desktop communications and no way to control my desktop remotely. Tried 3rd parties but could not find one that was free I liked so why not use the money for Ultimate.

Your are correct, When i get time, I would like to do a clean start without HP as i let my warranty expire on my Desktop.

I would use TeamViewer which works perfectly and doesn't cost hundreds of dollars more like Ultimate. TeamViewer Download

You could have removed the ei.cfg file in the flash stick Sources folder and had all-versions to select Home Premium during install. Better yet start fresh with the latest official installer instead of one you don't know. Everything you need is here to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If you stick with the tools and methods given in the tutorial above you will get and keep a perfect install, which will stay that way as long as you do.

Give up? The Home Premium choice during start-up can not be removed without a format and reload?

So do you plan to keep Ultimate and buy a key for hundreds of dollars more when you already own a copy of Home Premium? If you were going to do this you should have bought Ultimate Anytime Upgrade and gotten a price break. But you'd sill have to reinstall Home Premium to insert the Ultimate Anytime Key.

So I would follow Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a perfect reinstall of Home Premium which you already own, unless you're set on paying more for Ultimate.

Did you boot the Ultimate installer to install over Home Premium on C? And now the problem is that you have two listings on a Dual Boot Menu , one for labeled Windows 7 which boots Ultimate and one for Home Premium which doesn' t boot anything? Check to be sure now.

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums

i'm not a big fan of windows upgrades. by the time your finished correcting errors you would do well to backup, fresh re-install windows ultimate and restoring all your data and applications.

Lets say I do the OEM from a clean start, per your suggestion/links.

What version is that OEM called?

I own a Home Premium, but is the bloatware HP.
Isn't that OEM the base OS without any features? Far below the Home Premium?

I don't understand how a free OEM can be better than even HP Home Premium?

Cant see Microsoft giving anything of use, free.

Isn't even HP better than a BASE OEM? Or is the Factory OEM the equvalent of the Home Premium HP started with?

CORRECT? or did I miss something?