Windows 7 Reinstall

[chrisdr]

Hi,

I am about to do Windows 7 repair installation as per this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

One thing concerns me - I am running Windows 7 Ultimate which was upgraded via Anytime Upgrade from Home Premium.

So, when it comes to the activation key, which one do I use? The original Home premium key (and reapply the Anytime Upgrade) or the new Windows Ultimate key?

Thanks

Chris

 

[theog]

If you use the original Home premium key, this would most likely downgrade your rig, therefore use your Ultimate key.

What problems are you having with the PC?

 

[Bill2]

I dont think the Anytime upgrade key will work with a repair install. Suggest you use the home premium key, then anytime upgrade to ultimate, then create an image of the system using macrium/acronis/windows backup. That way you wont need to AU each time.

Of course creating an image from a repaired system is far from the perfect choice. If I were in your place, I'd back up my data, gather my app cd's together, do a clean install of the home premium, upgrade, install all the drivers and apps, tweak and then save an image.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello chrisdr, welcome to Seven Forums!


Bill is giving you good advice about doing a clean install then creating an image if the 'repair' doesn't sort the issues you're having and using the image you create you'll never have to do another clean install.

Imaging with free Macrium

If you have a full retail activation key for Ultimate do the clean install with that, you will have a much better, stable system in the end.


After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive, running this "clean all" then using the outline in Step Two #2 to create/format and mark Active a single 100GB partition using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional partitions after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation


Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

 

[chrisdr]

If you use the original Home premium key, this would most likely downgrade your rig, therefore use your Ultimate key.

What problems are you having with the PC?

Thanks - It is a bad experience with service pack 1. It failed, and left my machine in a bad state. Tried recommended fixes, but the only alternative seems to be a repair, or reinstall.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Is the Ultimate key full retail or an upgrade key?

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

 

[chrisdr]

I dont think the Anytime upgrade key will work with a repair install. Suggest you use the home premium key, then anytime upgrade to ultimate, then create an image of the system using macrium/acronis/windows backup. That way you wont need to AU each time.

Of course creating an image from a repaired system is far from the perfect choice. If I were in your place, I'd back up my data, gather my app cd's together, do a clean install of the home premium, upgrade, install all the drivers and apps, tweak and then save an image.

Thanks for the advice, will use the original key, and then do the AU. Doing a backup first, to be safe.

You are correct that a fresh install would be better, but I don't have time to reconfigure everything - it is a development machine, with a lot of tools installed.

Chris

 

[theog]

I have added a note in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/95744-windows-anytime-upgrade-how.html for SP1, take a look.

 

[gregrocker]

I just recreated this scenario by imaging HP to a partition, using Anytime to Upgrade to Ultimate. The only installer version it will then allow to run a Repair Install is Ultimate. However because I don't have an Anytime Upgrade key (I inserted a full retail Ultimate key in Anytime) I cannot test whether it will accept an Anytime key after Repair Install. This is an unresolved issue which you can test if you want to help others.

To run an Ultimate Repair Install, Back up your files and a Win7 Backup Image externally so you can go back. Unlock all versions if necessary in your installer by extracting the ISO from DVD using ImgBurn, run the ei.cfg removal tool, then burn another DVD with ImgBurn at 4x speed or run the extracted files from the deskstop.

Choose Ultimate version, agree to stay connected to Internet, choose Upgrade install as shown in tutorial.

If it won't allow Anytime Key to activate after Repair Install, you can run another Repair Install which changes version back to Home Premium, by changing the keys shown below to HOMEPREMIUM for the EditionID and Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM for the ProductName, run a Home Premium Upgrade, insert your original HP product key, save an image of HP then Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate with Anytime Key.

http://techie-buzz.com/how-to/how-to-use-regedit.html

If this fails, you can reimage back to Ultimate or clean reinstall Premium to Anytime Upgrade again.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

 

[chrisdr]

I just recreated this scenario by imaging HP to a partition, using Anytime to Upgrade to Ultimate. The only installer version it will then allow to run a Repair Install is Ultimate. However because I don't have an Anytime Upgrade key (I inserted a full retail Ultimate key in Anytime) I cannot test whether it will accept an Anytime key after Repair Install. This is an unresolved issue which you can test if you want to help others.

To run an Ultimate Repair Install, Back up your files and a Win7 Backup Image externally so you can go back. Unlock all versions if necessary in your installer by extracting the ISO from DVD using ImgBurn, run the ei.cfg removal tool, then burn another DVD with ImgBurn at 4x speed or run the extracted files from the deskstop.

Choose Ultimate version, agree to stay connected to Internet, choose Upgrade install as shown in tutorial.

If it won't allow Anytime Key to activate after Repair Install, you can run another Repair Install which changes version back to Home Premium, by changing the keys shown below to HOMEPREMIUM for the EditionID and Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM for the ProductName, run a Home Premium Upgrade, insert your original HP product key, save an image of HP then Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate with Anytime Key.

How to Use Regedit

If this fails, you can reimage back to Ultimate or clean reinstall Premium to Anytime Upgrade again.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

Thanks for the help - My first problem is that I don't own a Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) DVD. Trying to do the upgrade using my Home Premium disc fails - Can't upgrade from Ultimate to Home Premium.

So, I need to get a Windows 7 Ultimate (X64) DVD before proceeding.

Thanks

Chris

 

[gregrocker]

My first problem is that I don't own a Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) DVD. Trying to do the upgrade using my Home Premium disc fails - Can't upgrade from Ultimate to Home Premium.

So, I need to get a Windows 7 Ultimate (X64) DVD before proceeding.

You missed this part about how to unlock all versions in your WIn7 DVD:

Unlock all versions if necessary in your installer by extracting the ISO from DVD using ImgBurn, run the ei.cfg removal tool, then burn another DVD with ImgBurn at 4x speed or run the extracted files from the deskstop.

 

[chrisdr]

Thanks for everyone's help:

Managed to sucessfully repair my installation, however it didn't solve the problem. Reinstalling SP1 resulted in the same trashed OS

After some hair pulling and searching, finally discovered the root cause. There is a bug in the SP1 installer which screws up the system if language packs have been installed.

Let me explain - As part of the upgrade process, SP1 uninstalls language packs, however there is a memory leak, which can cause the system to run out of memory, if enough language packs are installed.

The severity of this depends on how many language packs are installed, and how much physical memory is available. I am not sure how many installed language packs it takes to hit this issue, but I think it is safest to uninstall all before installing SP1.

Chris