Windows Vista forum: Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit

Is this Win 7 DVD an upgrade disc from the maker or is it a Retail Full Version 64 bit Genuine Win 7 DVD?

Is your system 64bit capable?

When you insert the DVD and boot up, are you attempting to Install or Upgrade?

Are you Installing onto a new partition, or deleting the existing Vista partition and installing over that?

Mark

One other problem you're going to run into later, is that Win 7 Home Premium is not a valid upgrade from Vista Ultimate. If you look at the first table here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772579%28v=ws.10%29.aspx you see that if you go down to Vista Ultimate, it says the only valid upgrade is Win 7 Ultimate.

So the first thing you need to do is either go back and buy the full retail version of Win 7 Home Premium or buy the upgrade version of Win 7 Ultimate. There's no point in resolving your other issue if you're just going to hit another snag later that we can't help you with.

Also, it's been years since I've seen a system that doesn't come with some kind of one-time boot menu triggered by a keypress pre-POST. No need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order. If your system came with Vista, it should certainly fit that description.

No need for Win 7 Ultimate as a full retail version. The upgrade version would work fine, OR you can get the full retail version of Win 7 Home Premium, but I think the price is about the same either way.

Once you get past your current problem you'll be asked to provide some kind of proof of ownership for a qualifying product, and Vista Ultimate won't do it. I suppose it's possible if you have the XP Pro disc handy you might get around it that way. I honestly have no idea what the implications would be of that one license wise.

Dear Forum,

This is a very late response, but I promised to report on resolution to this problem. Here's what I did:

1. Blew away Vista Ultimate: a) Wiped "C" drive. This was done since I couldn't solve "ntldr missing" when
attempting to do an upgrade to Win7 Home Premium 32-bit or 64-bit.

2. Installed WinXP Pro SP3 (32-bit) from Full Retail disc. Recovery was routine, since I only use "C" drive for OS. After installation, I ran this OS for several months to ensure that I had a fully functional system.

3. Installed Win7 Home Premium SP1 Upgrade after running Win7 Upgrade Advisor and resolving as many issues as feasible. After a flawless Installation, Win7 resolved all driver issues,except for my printer, and restored all settings. Printer installation and configuration was done as a separate step.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I installed Vista at all since it proved to be an incredible waste of time. Now that my main desktop is back in service, I have time to work on my next system build. For that I've purchased Win7 Ultimate Full Retail. Thanks to CNET Forum. You provide an invaluable service.