By "clean", do you mean format hard drive before I install? I don't know. How does the software know it is a upgrade then?
Can't anybody read. Can we get past this? I know, I know.............
Stop regergitating the same crap. It's like the only thing going on here is seeing who has the most post in the forum.
How about reading the whole thread and see what has been stated and dicussed before we waste more time. You would think this being a Windows forum someone would be make sure they understand the problem before they give the same cookie cutter answers.
Your problem: Upgrade hangs
Solution provided several times: Do a clean install.
That Problem is solved... now you have a new problem. Your upgrade key code won't activate windows. It's only crap if you don't understand what's going to happen when you do a clean install.
It's not about posting the most messages.. unless you go to the Water Cooler section.. then you could say that.
If and when you get the CLEAN install loaded correctly, the solution for the no activation is to boot to Win 7 on the hard drive and then run "SETUP" from the DVD and do an "UPGRADE". This usually takes about 20-45 minutes, once the upgrade is complete the activation key will be accepted.
Does that create a ton of duplicate files? Seems to me that the clean install is no longer clean even though the remnants of Vista aren't causing problems. I would think the registry would need some serious optimizing.
No, it does not create a bunch of duplicates. It is the only way it will work without hacking the registry.
There is an easier way.
Your problem: Upgrade hangs
Solution provided several times: Do a clean install.
That Problem is solved... now you have a new problem. Your upgrade key code won't activate windows. It's only crap if you don't understand what's going to happen when you do a clean install.
It's not about posting the most messages.. unless you go to the Water Cooler section.. then you could say that.
How do you make a clean install with an upgrade key? At some point don't you have to prove you have xp ... by bootnig to xp or ??? or use a workaround?
This has always confused me and apparently many others. Somehow they end up with xp on a partition and a bootmanager error, or it keeps loading XP, when they finish the install and try to boot into Win 7.
I have an answer for your good question (I actually had the same question too!): because the so called \"upgrade\" contains a full version of the program, so I was told by an expert at a CompUSA store. According to the expert it's supposedly a \"mistake\" MS repeated, they did the same with the Vista upgrade. I see it another way though, it is no mistake at all, either it was the only way to upgrade from Win XP or since they promised the new OS within a year, that was the only way to meet the deadline!
Hope this helped, good luck!
EDAL
My point was that a "workaround" is required... not because MS was facing a deadline... it was to create confusion - by design - so that people would buy the full version and pay twice as much. If everyone knew how easy it is to pay half price for an upgrade key and use it to do a full install.... wonder how much profit Microsoft would lose?
Well, I finally was successful with the istallation. It took me a minimum of 10 attempts to get it to load without hanging, by the time I got the upgrade ran on top of the install. Took better part of five hours. Even after install it would just freeze up, so I updated my BIOS. Held my breath through that task, was glad to see that finish. Don't know if that fixed the problem or not. Doesn't seem to like it when I install my chipset drivers. Will work on that more tonight.
Hardware should be no problem, Phenom II X4 955, and ASUS M4A79XTD EVO mobo. I do suspect mobo issues, but I can't find where anyone else has had this problem.
Got the rest of my drivers and some software installed last night without a hitch. Everything seems to be working well and stable.
So far I like 7. It is just as responsive as XP, that worried me after using Vista on a laptop. I'm sure the more familiar I become with it the more I will like it. It just has a nice feel to it the way it responds. Vista to me was like Nortons made a operating system. Constantly reminding you who is in control.