Best way to go from Win7 Premium to 7 Professional (Full edition)

[Darkstryder360]

Installed Professional 7 with Disc full edition on my PC 4 months back. Now I am getting a new PC, and it has 7 Premium built in, arriving tomorrow.

What I am enquiring is, the best way to get the Premium back up to Professional, as I am really hoping a Clean Install isn't the answer considering the effort it was for my old /current PC.

 

[Bill2]

Just run anytime upgrade on the new PC with the pro key. It takes about 10 minutes and doesnt touch personal data.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/95744-windows-anytime-upgrade-how.html

But remember, you cant use the same copy of pro on multiple PCs. If you use anytime upgrade with the pro key on the new PC, you must remove it from the old PC by formatting the hard drive or installing another OS or junking the PC.

Also remember to make a set of recovery disks on the new PC before you upgrade, that'll let you revert to factory home premium if desired. That'll also preserve a copy of the OS you paid for.

 

[Darkstryder360]

Thanks for that. Spent my day backing up using "Easy Transfer".

I am hoping that works, going from Windows 7 to... Windows 7. But I cannot understand how to Format my drive as my :C drive wont Format due to the fact of not having another OS on the system. Is it even possible?.. Unless I download an illegal XP copy or whatever as a basic OS system to then wipe the Product Key?

 

[pparks1]

You don't format with an anytime upgrade. You boot up into 7 Home Premium, run the "anytime upgrade" and it will convert that machine from 7 home premium to whatever version you upgrade to.

 

[Darkstryder360]

Even if the 7 Professional Product Key is already tied to this machine, I can use 'Anytime Upgrade' on the new PC to 'upgrade' it?...

 

[Ztruker]

No, not and use the same product key. You need a new Pro key for the new machine.

 

[Darkstryder360]

So another £150? No chance.

Read around and found I can call to speak to a representative. If that fails I will just stick with a wasted £150 quid on an OS I used for 3 months

 

[Ztruker]

What is in WIn 7 Pro that you need? There isn't really a lot of difference between it and Home Premium.

 

[Darkstryder360]

Just didn't want to have 150 quid wasted for no reason that's all lol.

 

[pparks1]

I am confused. Are you trying to use both your old computer (that you put Windows 7 Professional on) 4 months ago as well as the new computer that you will receive with Windows 7 Home Premium already on?

if so, you would pay whatever fee Microsoft charges to do the anytime upgrade on the new box. This appears to be an $89.95 charge for me in the US. Windows Anytime Upgrade: Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional for Windows 7 | Shop Home

If you don't wish to use both PC's at the same time, you will want to take your new computer (which won't have much on it), and then format and reinstall using the Windows 7 Professional media that you have. Of course, I wonder why you bought a machine with Windows 7 Home Premium, if you didn't intend on using it.

 

[gregrocker]

If you Delete Win7 Pro off the old computer, you can use it's Product Key to Anytime Upgrade your new Home premium to Pro.

During activation it may take a robocall to MS to exchange a series of numbers which change the hardware signature tied to that key in MS servers.

Otherwise use Home Premium to see if it has anything missing that you need - if so, buy the less expensive Anytime Upgrade key.

Anytime Upgrade is explained in the blue link which Bill2 posted at the beginning of the thread.

 

[Darkstryder360]

I had a PC running Vista 32. I bought the full Professional Edition on Disc for the 64bit 3 months ago to speed up my current PC.

Now, 3 months on, I have purchased a new PC from DELL, newer chipset, mucho more RAM.. All things that come with a decent PC. It comes default 7 Premium. All I want is to get the Premium up to Professional.

I have no care as to what happens to my current PC (which will be unused as soon as my new one arrives, maybe tomorrow).

...

And yeh Greg the thing I am trying to do is not payout more for the OS. I am sure the Professional full edition came with the option to use on other devices, (once removed from previous obviously), hence why I bought that one over the cheaper OEM disc.

 

[gregrocker]

In that case, I'd remove the Professional Product Key from the old install, insert it in Anytime Upgrade on the new one to unlock Pro features in a few minutes time.

To uninstall the Pro Product key, open an Elevated Command Prompt, type slmgr -upk, hit Enter. This will make the old Win7 become non-geniune until you run slmgr -rearm to reset the 30 day activation timeout if you decide later to start up the machine. Would you like to revert to the native OS on that machine instead?

This clears the way for using the Pro Product key to Anytime Upgrade the new machine. Type Anytime in Start Search box to start the process, insert key when prompted. After upgrade it may require activation robocall to change hardware signature in MS computers, which would cause the old install to deactivate upon connecting to the internet if you don't remove it's Product Key first. Hence when asked the key question "How many computers is this copy of Win7 installed upon" the only acceptable answer is one.

Commands same as here: SLMgr Commands and Options with Windows Vista Product Key Activation » My Digital Life

 

[Darkstryder360]

Thought I would report back after a month or so after your tip...

And it worked brilliantly. New PC runs my old key, and I am currently on my old PC due to extensive rendering times, leaving the new one to it.. and this just says it isn't a genuine copy. Which is fine, hasn't enabled the PC to completely collapse in on itself which is good.

Thank you for the helpful tip, albeit belated.

 

[gregrocker]

Try these troubleshooting steps for the new machine's performance problems.

 

[Darkstryder360]

Its ok, I am just rendering an animation in 3DS Max + Vray and its just hi res, and taking ages, thats all