Some bad news, About Win7 Upgrade

[Yaboze]

I might just buy the full version, this is retarded.

So can I upgrade my Windows 7 RC7100 to Windows 7 Pro since its activated?

[LurkerLito]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

So can I upgrade my Windows 7 RC7100 to Windows 7 Pro since its activated?

Yes apparently that is fine. Which IMO just sounds nuts, they gave everyone a free copy of win7 RC and you can upgrade that with an upgrade disc. But lets say that was your only OS you have now and then you need to reinstall a year from now, you can't install RC7100 anymore cause you can't activate it anymore, so your upgrade disc is useless. Even if you make a disk image of your current HD with the activated RC on it, if you changed your hardware enough that the system thinks the activation isn't valid anymore what do you do then?

I think it will all boil down to does the installed copy just have to be present on the HD with the "valid activation flag" in place, or does the upgrade disc actually go out to MS' servers to verify the activation on the disc is valid. If it's the latter there will be a ton of people in a few months time that will be having issues with the upgrade discs.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by Ghosthunter

This is really stupid...if this does not change by time they are about to release windows 7 i am going to cancel my preorder and maybe get the OEM version down the road when i really need it.

i was not really in a rush to upgrade anyway but with that price i figured who could pass up on it

Seriously? You reinstall the OS that often?

To be honest, I don't think this is a big deal at all. I am surprised they didn't do this with Vista. With WGA, all the tools were in place for it.

Originally Posted by LurkerLito

Yes apparently that is fine. Which IMO just sounds nuts, they gave everyone a free copy of win7 RC and you can upgrade that with an upgrade disc. But lets say that was your only OS you have now and then you need to reinstall a year from now, you can't install RC7100 anymore cause you can't activate it anymore, so your upgrade disc is useless. Even if you make a disk image of your current HD with the activated RC on it, if you changed your hardware enough that the system thinks the activation isn't valid anymore what do you do then?

I think it will all boil down to does the installed copy just have to be present on the HD with the "valid activation flag" in place, or does the upgrade disc actually go out to MS' servers to verify the activation on the disc is valid. If it's the latter there will be a ton of people in a few months time that will be having issues with the upgrade discs.

If you have a legal copy of XP or Vista you can make an image of that install, then restore that image before you install Win7. You can re-activate that too if you change your hardware. Even if you have the OEM version, just call MS and they will give you a code to activate (I have done it before).

I doubt many people are going from Linux to Windows 7, so the odds are really good that they have a copy of XP or Vista unless they pirated it.

[nekrosoft13]

my vista install is from around May 2007, updated to SP1, and SP2. Runs perfectly and error free.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by nekrosoft13

my vista install is from around May 2007, updated to SP1, and SP2. Runs perfectly and error free.

Yea once my OS is up and running, I don't re-install unless I really have to.

Ok after reading through the comments here http://digg.com/software/Vista_upgra...es_your_XP_key
I found out that idea that your older OS key is invalidated after upgrading to Win 7 and can never be used again is false. After upgrading it says it is illegal to use your older OS but it does not invalidate the key to never use it again. If I had to reinstall the OS in the future I still could. So all is ok again.

I'll just use the upgrade disc on my Win 7 RC install on this machine and then make a backup disc image. If I ever need to reinstall in the future I will either reimage the drive with my backup Win 7 image or install Win XP from my old disc then upgrade it.

[OrangeBlast]

wow, its been some time since I've logged in and posted, but it is worth it to chime in on this thread. This is crap. I bought my upgrade last night before the half off sale ends. I didn't know that this was how it goes when trying to install the upgrade. That's crap.

I'm totally contemplating going with the full version. ESPECIALLY given that I use SSDs in RAID0 for my OS installs. Reason is, I think that going the route of an activated OS first then doing a install of W7...may put a number on my SSD drives. Maybe technically it isn't bad...maybe it is...either way its a pain in the butt. And yes, given that we are enthusiasts, at least some of us are, this will be a major pain.

what about FW updates for SSD that perform destructive flashes....blah blah..either way, its a PITA.

Orangeblast are you running Win 7 RC now? You can use the Win 7 upgrade disc on it then after install use the backup tool in Win 7 to make a backup image of the drive. If you ever need to reinstall just use that backup image you made.

[Ghosthunter]

Originally Posted by ViN86

Seriously? You reinstall the OS that often?

To be honest, I don't think this is a big deal at all. I am surprised they didn't do this with Vista. With WGA, all the tools were in place for it.

I like to have that option and usually reinstall every 6 months or so,

I really don't think Windows 7 is that much of an upgrade to Vista to worth going through all these hassles

To be perfectly honest I still think Windows 7 should be a SP upgrade to Vista

[Ghosthunter]

btw the Microsoft store says you can do a clean install without having to have an OS on there?

http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft...oduct/B0F9E641

# Running Windows Vista?
# If you have Windows Vista, you can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade versions. You can do a clean install (back up your files, clean install, and reinstall your applications) or an in -place upgrade (Windows 7 installs over Windows Vista).

does this mean you still need windows vista first?

[Yaboze]

Hmmm, now I am even more confused.