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Confused Over Custom Installation
Confused Over Custom Installation
- My daughter has XP Pro on her school computer. She purchased the Educational Version of 7, and I created a bootable DVD. However, based on the experiences of a fellow IT person, I am confused. He installed a couple of weeks ago from a similar DVD he made with his purchase. Now he cannot activate the installation. He call Microosoft last night to find out why. They told him that the custom install of 7 has to be on top of an existing installation of XP since the Educational Version is an upgrade. That answer is a surprise.
Assuming a clean installation from the bootable DVD, does 7 look for an existing installation of XP and then wipe the partition? My understanding is that there is no upgrade from XP to 7. If that is not the case, what is the procedure? We don't care about saving the content of her existing XP installation since she is fully backed up.
Answers
- In order to install an Upgrade version of Windows 7, you have to have a qualifying Windows operating system actually installed, such as Windows XP. The Windows 7 Upgrade installation procedure will perform a license compliance check of a qualifying Windows operating system license which will allow you to install and activate the Windows 7 Upgrade license.
Please review the following:
1. Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and follow the recommendations in the report.
2. View the Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 Tutorial
3. Boot to the Windows XP desktop
4. Insert the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD in the DVD drive
5. Select Custom Install to begin a clean install of Windows 7
Note: Do not boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD. The Upgrade license will not be accepted!
Carey Frisch- Marked As Answer byRonnie VernonMVP, ModeratorSaturday, November 07, 2009 7:56 PM
All Replies
- The terminology 'upgrade' has caused quite a bit of confusion when trying to update systems with XP installed.In some cases when 'upgrading from XP' people have chosen to format their drive before beginning the install procedure. This has resulted in a 'full' clean install because there is now no previous qualified upgrade path on the drive to be verified. Therefore, when they go to activate, it will try to activate as a non-upgrade (full, clean) install instead of an upgrade install.To 'upgrade' from XP do the following;Boot the dvd from the bios. When the install procedure starts up it will look for an existing installation of a qualifying upgrade path (XP in this case). Select to do a 'custom' install and install to the partition that has XP on it. Before the actual install begins you can select the option to format the drive but it is not necessary to do this. If you choose not to format, Win7 will create a folder named windows.old where your old OS will be placed, along with the data on the partition, and then the install a fresh copy if Win7 will proceed. If you did choose to format the drive after the install procedure started be sure to carry on with the installation - do not restart the install procedure.
- Proposed As Answer byOldHobo Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:49 AM
- In order to install an Upgrade version of Windows 7, you have to have a qualifying Windows operating system actually installed, such as Windows XP. The Windows 7 Upgrade installation procedure will perform a license compliance check of a qualifying Windows operating system license which will allow you to install and activate the Windows 7 Upgrade license.
Please review the following:
1. Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and follow the recommendations in the report.
2. View the Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 Tutorial
3. Boot to the Windows XP desktop
4. Insert the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD in the DVD drive
5. Select Custom Install to begin a clean install of Windows 7
Note: Do not boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD. The Upgrade license will not be accepted!
Carey Frisch- Marked As Answer byRonnie VernonMVP, ModeratorSaturday, November 07, 2009 7:56 PM
- Well, OldHobo and Carey do not agree.
OldHobo: "Boot the dvd from the bios."
Carey: "Do not boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD."
Which is correct?
If I have a wiped hard drive, do I install XP on it and then do the custom install from the DVD (boot from the bios)? - Hi
Carey is correct you are installing the windows 7 from within a licensed version of XP so the upgrade can take place. After its done its initial checks from within XP the computer will restart and install from setup.
Please back up all your documents, photos and other things before you start.
You will need to do a clean install as indicated so your docs will be wiped.
malc - I'm sure Carey is correct, but I'm not sure that OldHobo is incorrect, based on many other posts I've read on other boards. Hopefully OldHobo will weigh in here. The disagreement between OldHobo and Carey does not eliminate my confusion, it exacerbates it.
- Wow, interesting! My understanding is that when you boot the install dvd the program searches for a qualifying upgrade version on your hard drives. Once it identifies it, it tucks that info away and allows you to carry on with the so-called 'upgrade' install. This sounds reasonable to me. Otherwise how would one go about installing a 64 bit upgrade over an already installed 32 bit version of XP or Vista since the 64 bit installer will not run in a 32 bit environment. I could be wrong, but.....Anyone else care to chime in????
- If you got the $30 educational version, that is a full version - not an upgrade. Either way, you can boot from the DVD regardless of whether it is an upgrade or not. I'm not sure why so many people insist you can only run the upgrade from within Windows - it's a myth.
The installer will check to see if a previous version is present, and set a flag in the registry - but otherwise, the full and upgrade DVD's are identical. Upgrade keys are only allowed if the flag is set. Full keys are allowed regardless of the state of the flag.
If you are handy with regedit, you can check to see if the installer thought it was doing an upgrade or a clean install:
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp
If you aren't handy with regedit, just run the setup from the current Windows 7 installation. It does not matter that it isn't activated, the upgrade will proceed just fine. Afterwards, the install will activate regardless of key type. Well, OldHobo and Carey do not agree.
OldHobo: "Boot the dvd from the bios."
Carey: "Do not boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD."
Which is correct?
If I have a wiped hard drive, do I install XP on it and then do the custom install from the DVD (boot from the bios)?
OldHobo is correct. Carey is not correct.
The problem here is that Carey is offering advice in consideration of the 'recommended' procedures, but he is exceeding that advice to also make definitive statement regarding what "cannot" be done. Anybody even remotely familiar with Windows should know that there are ALWAYS numerous approaches which can be taken to achieve the same end, and installation of Windows is no different in that regard. Just because a procedure is not the 'recommended' procedure doesn't mean that it won't work!
If you have an already wiped hard drive then:
* It would be best to install the qualifiying version first, so the the installer can detect and flag its presence, in order for an upgrade key to be accepted later on.
* If the installation is conducted to a clean hard drive regardless, then should the install key be an upgrade key the relevent registry edit will need to be performed, to flag the install as an 'upgrade' so that an upgrade key can be accepted for activation purposes. (see the link provided by Seth Henry)
By the way. Some keys procvvided via the 'Student Upgrade' special offer have been full license keys, whilst some have been license upgrade keys. Trial and error may be required in oreder to determine if the specific key obtained is a full install key or an upgrade key.
