Clean install with Upgrade version..

How to clean install from Windows 7 Upgrade media

Mike Halsey | Oct 22, 2009 | Windows 7 News & Tips blog

One of the biggest unanswered questions about Windows 7 is whether you can perform a clean install using the upgrade edition of the operating system.

With legacy versions of Windows you needed to ‘show’ it an install CD from your older version of Windows. The problem here is that Microsoft allowed OEM PC makers to customise these discs, sometimes to the point where they were not recognisable as upgrade media by the installer, even though you had a legitimate copy.

With Windows Vista they changed this but you had to perform a workaround to get a clean install. Firstly you had to install Vista upgrade without entering a product key, and then you had to install it again performing an upgrade on the version you had already installed. This was time-consuming and many people didn’t like it… understandably.

With Windows 7 Microsoft have only released the upgrade versions for the first time today and have been keeping very tight-lipped on this subject. The good, nay, excellent news is that performing a clean install using upgrade media is now the same as performing a clean install.

Windows 7 will just install merrily on your hard disk with it’s upgrade product code and activate. You don’t need an XP or Vista disc, and you don’t need to install it over itself. This is excellent news and, while I haven’t yet tried this myself, reports are coming in from across the web that this is indeed the case.

Many people will now ask if it’s necessary to buy the full version of Windows 7. Quite simply now the answer is that it isn’t. This means an significant price cut for Windows 7 over previous versions, effective immediately.

This guy didn't do anything. You can install windows 7 onto a blank hard drive. But you have to do it twice (like windows vista).

Me too

djjaeger82 said:

Hi everyone,
This is not necessarily the case. Clean install from upgrade disc only seems to work with a previous version of windows on the drive already (not necessarily activated). I did a lot of testing on this tonight when I tried to upgrade my primary workstation after resetting my RAID array (completely blank, no partitions, no data etc).

Please take a look here:
Doing a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

I know this isn't the same situation, but;
I downloaded the three files, extracted them and burnt them to a disk, I was able to install Windows 7 by restarting my computer, then booting from the disk. (I only had to do this because I was going from 32bit to 64bit) Otherwise if you are staying on the same "bit" versions, you can just run the CD/DVD whilst you are logged on.
Just pointing out that you do not need a operating system on the computer, to do a clean install, so long as you've made or own the disk.

Hi James,
But when you did this you didn't format your drive blank before you rebooted to run the setup from the DVD did you? There's a difference between formatting your machine DURING setup vs. having a blank non-partitioned drive prior to setup.

-Dan

Windows Pro 64 upgrade from Digital River.

made ISO as per other peoples instructions on here.

Booted from ISO.

DELETED existing C drive

re-added it as a new drive

FORMATTED it.

Continued with the install (which took a long time to complete the installation compared to the RC version)

It accepted my product key and activated 100% fine. So it looks like a clean install without prior op system does work.

while I didn't reformat before I ran the setup, I had reformatted completely before I ran the previously installed RC win7

With Windows 7 Microsoft have only released the upgrade versions for the first time today and have been keeping very tight-lipped on this subject. The good, nay, excellent news is that performing a clean install using upgrade media is now the same as performing a clean install.

Great news! Now that I cancelled all my $50 Win 7 Upgrades from Newegg. How can this be considering it would make buying the full retail version an idiotic idea?

Two things. Many of the so called upgrade keys sent out yesterday were in fact 'Full'.

Also it has been reported that the upgrade media will NOT install if the computer is virgin clean. The installer is smart enough to 'see' any sign of an old XP or Vista and if it can not find any reference of previous install, it will fail.

Nosmo said:

Two things. Many of the so called upgrade keys sent out yesterday were in fact 'Full'.

Also it has been reported that the upgrade media will NOT install if the computer is virgin clean. The installer is smart enough to 'see' any sign of an old XP or Vista and if it can not find any reference of previous install, it will fail.

It is my understanding that with the Discs that were part of the preorder, you can install exactly as you would with the full retail version. You can clean install on a formatted disk