Windows 7 Can you clean install over a W7 updated?

[sa330206]

Originally I "updated" my Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Professional (student version). Unfortunately this seems to be a little unstable. Would I be able to insert my W7 Professional upgrade cd and then "custom" install over my partition that has my W7 professional on it already or would it say my key is invalid?

 

[tblount]

Boot to the install disk... go to custom and Remove the partitions win 7 has created and install. It will take your key no matter how many times you do it on the same computer. When you activate your key is recorded with your bios id number... so as long as you have the same bios you can use the same keycode.

 

[sa330206]

So as long as I use the disk partitioner on the Windows 7 Upgrade cd (vs using a 3rd party application), I should be able to clean install over my Windows 7 Professional that I previously updated from RC1? Originally I tried just doing a clean install of W7 but this wouldn't work because I have the upgrade version and not the full version (and didn't have XP or Vista installed). I just want to make sure this will work before I take the time to do it.

 

[tblount]

So as long as I use the disk partitioner on the Windows 7 Upgrade cd (vs using a 3rd party application), I should be able to clean install over my Windows 7 Professional that I previously updated from RC1? Originally I tried just doing a clean install of W7 but this wouldn't work because I have the upgrade version and not the full version (and didn't have XP or Vista installed). I just want to make sure this will work before I take the time to do it.

Worked for me. Also I used the upgrade ... the upgrade IS the full version.... it just won't boot on its own if you downloaded it UNTIL you make a bootable usb or disk with the tricks people have been posting.

I posted the way I did it on my blogs.

 

[thenzfarmer]

So as long as I use the disk partitioner on the Windows 7 Upgrade cd (vs using a 3rd party application), I should be able to clean install over my Windows 7 Professional that I previously updated from RC1? Originally I tried just doing a clean install of W7 but this wouldn't work because I have the upgrade version and not the full version (and didn't have XP or Vista installed). I just want to make sure this will work before I take the time to do it.

Hi. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64bit which I bought through the student deal which means it is an upgrade.
So of course I did a clean Install! As a result, the product key wasn't accepted by Microsoft.
So I called Microsoft Support and after 30min of trying to understand each other, the technician had me go through the following steps. This validates your W7 upgrade key after a clean install.
To start off, click on Start and search "regedit". Run it as admin (right click - run as administrator) and follow these steps:

expand - HKEY_Local_MACHINE
expand - SOFTWARE
expand - Microsoft
expand - Windows
expand - CurrentVersion
expand - Setup
Click on: OOBE
Double click on: MediaBootInstall
Enter "0" as Value Data, check the base is haxadecimal and click "OK"

Then open the cmd-prompt - click on start and type "cmd" in search and run as admin (right click - run as administrator)
Type the following: Note there is a space before "slmgr" and another before "-rearm"

cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -rearm

Once the command is entered, press "ENTER", restart the computer and activate your valid key (Start - right click on computer - Properties).
Worked for me.