Can't go from 32 bit Vista to 64 bit Win 7 with Upgrade Edition

[Viventis]

Update: MS tech support is wrong. You can boot from the upgrade disk and do a clean install. I did it! See my later post for details.

My three Win 7 Upgrade disks finally arrived. The first machine to be upgraded is my Vista 32 box. I decided to install Win 7 64. I knew that I would have do a "Custom" rather than "Upgrade " install and reload my programs. But, to my shock and horror I have learned that the Upgrade Edition does not allow a switch from 32 Vista to 64 Win 7 at all. You get a compatibility error when you run setup.exe. I just talked to 2 different techs at Microsoft that confirmed that a Full version of Win 7 is necessary to swith from 32 Vista to 64 bit Windows 7. It can only be done with a "clean" install whuch is not the same as a "custom" install. A clean install can only be done with a full version.

You can never upgrade from 32bit to 64bit...

[Viventis]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

You can never upgrade from 32bit to 64bit...

Of course that is true. But even the official MS forums are saying that you can do a clean install with the Upgrade Edition and that the software will verify your elligibility to use the Upgrade Edition during the process. MS just told me you can't. I am going to try anyway!

If you go to this link http://community.winsupersite.com/bl...-answered.aspx
You will see many people discussing the upgrade disc installs. I saw someone posted this near the bottom of the page...

Here are my experiences trying to clean install Windows 7. First up is the successful try.

My home computer had Vista Home Premium 32bit installed on the C drive. I had 3 games installed on a 2nd physical D drive. I ordered Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade from Amazon.

Last night I, unplugged the hard drive containing the C drive. I unplugged the SATA cable to be exact. This left only the “D” drive which was not bootable. I booted my computer from the 64bit Windows 7 upgrade DVD. I choose the advanced install (or is called custom?). I formatted the drive. Windows 7 finished installing. I activated Windows 7, and even installed Microsoft Security Essentials which has its own check. There was no visible check for an older O/S. I didn’t have to put in an old media. There was no Windows.old folder to delete, just a clean install.

My other experience was with my work computer. I downloaded the Windows 7 Pro 64bit upgrade ISO from Microsoft’s eopen site. I burned it to a DVD using Windows 7 RC ISO burner. This DVD was not bootable. So I had to format my computer, install Windows 7 RC, upgraded to Windows 7 RTM, and delete the Windows.old folder. Before this I tried upgrading from Vista Pro 32bit to Windows 7 Pro 64bit and that didn’t work.

I had two different experiences with media from two different sources.

So the questions is…was my D drive that was part of a Vista installation but only had three games installed and no operating system enough to pass the upgrade check? If yes, then what was it about that drive that was enough? Or was there no upgrade check?

[ViN86]

FWIW, I believe that upgrade key will work with a retail disc. (can someone confirm this?)

[mojoman0]

www.winsupersite.com

Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media: The Answer
I was so hoping to have better news to share, but with all the conflicting reports and my own troubles testing this while on the road, it's been a messy 24 hours. However, after staying up late last night and working through a few different scenarios, I think I do have a (fairly) simple way to clean install Windows 7 with Upgrade media. That is, it should be easier than the old "install it twice" hack that I previously documented for Vista (though that should still work as well).

Put simply, the goal here is to clean install Windows 7 on a virgin, unused PC. You can boot and run Setup with the Upgrade media for Windows 7, but when you go to activate, it won't work.

Thanks to Kevin Fisher and a bit of testing, I have a simple workaround that does work.

After performing the clean install, ensure that there are no Windows Updates pending that would require a system reboot. (You'll see an orange shield icon next to Shutdown in the Start Menu if this is the case).

Then, open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0".

Open the Start Menu again and type cmd to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose "Run as administrator." Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm

Then tap ENTER, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows.

Voila!

A couple of notes here.

Others have reported that simply installing Windows 7 using Upgrade Media and then activating just works. It certainly doesn't hurt to try this, but my guess is that there was a version of Windows on the hard drive that Setup detected, thus making the install and activation work properly.

I have not tested this yet, but I assume if you launch Setup from within your previous version of Windows, choose Custom, reboot, and then wipe out the previous Windows version during Setup, that that will work as well.

And I'm just about positive that the old "install twice" hack from Vista will work too.

I will test all of this thoroughly when I get home. But for now I wanted to cut through the baloney and cut and paste jobs out there and give you something that really does work.

Again, thanks very much to Kevin for this information.

Huh? Not sure what you arer talking about Vin86. What upgrade key and what retail disc?

[Viventis]

Even though MS tech support said I couldn't do it, I tried a "clean install" by booting my Win 7-64 Upgrade Disc and following standard procedures. (I had Vista 32 installed) The install doesn't ask for your CD key until much later in the install process. I was afraid that by the time I entered my CD key, my Vista would be gone.

My upgrade CD key was accepted without a problem. I was not asked to insert the Vista disk. It just worked! I have succesfully activated the Win 7-64 installation with MS so I am sure I'm good to go.

So it is possible to clean install from Vista 32 to Win 7 64!!!

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by Viventis

Of course that is true. But even the official MS forums are saying that you can do a clean install with the Upgrade Edition and that the software will verify your elligibility to use the Upgrade Edition during the process. MS just told me you can't. I am going to try anyway!

Please let me know what your definition of a CLEAN INSTALL is.

Good to hear it Viventis so the quote from the link I posted was correct and you were able to do the same thing he did.

[Viventis]

Originally Posted by Sazar

Please let me know what your definition of a CLEAN INSTALL is.

BY "Clean install", I mean that you boot from the Win 7 Upgrade DVD and choose "Custom (Advanced)" as your install option. The other is "Upgrade". These are the same choices that you are given if you install from within Windows Vista. However, you can't install Win 7 64 from within Vista 32 because you get an incompatibility error.

[K007]

yea u cant install due to the nature of the way the executable are