Windows 7: Windows 7 upgrade taking over 48 hours, no progress in progress bar

Hi all, I've recently tried to upgrade to windows 7 home premium 64bit from windows 7 ultimate 64bit (licencing issues). It's a bit strange, but it does seem to work for people. Anyway, I progressed to the 'upgrading windows' section of the upgrade without any problems, until I hit 'transferring files, settings, and programs' on which it has been dwelling and there has been no change in the progress bar for about 48 hours. The hard drive does seem to be doing stuff, but I can't see why it would ever take this long and why the progress bar wouldn't move.

So, my questions are, should I be worried? Is this normal? What should I do?

Thanks.

Do a clean install.

But how would I go about that? Will I be able to get back to my old version of windows and salvage some files still? Or will I lose all of my files by that process? I mean, I'm going to have to cancel the upgrade, which can't be particularly healthy.

It is not possible to upgrade to a lesser edition, Ultimate to Home Premium. To upgrade to same version's better edition (Home Premium to Professional or Ultimate) is only possible by using the Windows Anytime Upgrade.

Tutorial: Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to

Kari

Hi Joely, welcome to the Seven Forums.

It is not possible to upgrade to a lesser edition, Ultimate to Home Premium. To upgrade to same version's better edition (for example Home Premium to professional or Ultimate) is only possible by using the Windows Anytime Upgrade.

Tutorial: Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to

Kari

You should always have your files backed up against possible HD failure, even more so during any install which can fail in some cases.

In-Place Upgrade is not available for within Win7 as you've found out. This is done via Anytime Upgrade as stated, which also offers a considerable price break.

There is no possible corrective value in performance to upgrade to a higher version of Win7 as it is the exact same OS with just a few extra expensive features unlocked. The issues would simply be carried over. What were the exact licensing issues?

You can browse in to see if your files are intact in their folders or have been already placed into a windows.old folder in C drive, then copy them out to external using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Where did you get Win7 Ultimate?

Right. I've decided I'm going to wait a little while longer, then cancel the install and restore from a recent backup. For those wondering, I tricked the registry into thinking I was already using windows Home Premium.

What was the licensing issue?