Windows XP to Win 7 upgrade Failed!!

MattB · 20 Jan 2010 at 19:21

HI

I am trying to upgrade my copy of windows xp to windows 7.
Starts ok by shifting the old windows xp files but when it reboots to perform a clean install all I get is continues capital H scrolling up the screen on the left hand side.
Not sure if the problem is with the motherboard I have an Asus A8N-VM CSM.
I’m am at a loss so any advice would be much appreciated

Cheers

Matt

robnut · 20 Jan 2010 at 19:23

Doesnt it say you cannot upgrade xp and must choose clean install?

MattB · 20 Jan 2010 at 19:25

robnut said:
Doesnt it say you cannot upgrade xp and must choose clean install?

It does say that and I choose clean install which it starts ok and then on reboot i get the capital H up the screen and can't do anything else.

brummie · 20 Jan 2010 at 20:34

You cant upgrade from XP

MattB · 20 Jan 2010 at 20:50

brummie said:
You cant upgrade from XP

I have an upgrade disc which according to microsoft you can use to do a clean install

brummie · 20 Jan 2010 at 21:19

MattB said:
I have an upgrade disc which according to microsoft you can use to do a clean install

not from xp. Either Vista or 7 only.
I phoned them about it as i had quite a few to do for a company.

In the end they advised me to take in my win7 DVD, install that and then upgrade from it. I was not a happy bunny as it took twice as long to do.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18101573

MattB · 20 Jan 2010 at 22:08

Cheers for the reply brummie, just to clarify what you said, for me to install windows 7 n my xp machine, I would first need a full version of vista or windows 7 installed and then upgrade from that.
The reason I ask is before I bought my upgrade copy of win 7 I looked at this tutorial from Microsoft

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

Which appears to say that you can use an upgarde media as long as you choose the Custom option when installing.

TBH i'm not completly convinced by the tutorial as they also say it's quick and easy!!.

Cheers

Matt

brummie · 20 Jan 2010 at 22:28

I had the official MS Win7 upgrade disks to work from and it would not upgrade WinXP.
When the disk was inserted it would tell you to fresh install (cant remember exact wording). Was a real pain. Upon fresh install the key would not work and the prompt said i could only use the key for upgrading. :rolleyes:

MS were as helful as could be and even offered a new key to use instead of using my own which didnt matter anyway as when the upgarde was through you just used the upgrade disk key anyway.

FoxEye · 21 Jan 2010 at 11:27

brummie said:
not from xp. Either Vista or 7 only.
I phoned them about it as i had quite a few to do for a company.

In the end they advised me to take in my win7 DVD, install that and then upgrade from it. I was not a happy bunny as it took twice as long to do.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18101573

Wrong! He's (correctly) talking about a clean install, not the in-place upgrade.

You *can* use a 7 upgrade disk to clean install 7 on an XP system (or a Vista system, or a previous 7 install).

FoxEye · 21 Jan 2010 at 11:34

brummie said:
I had the official MS Win7 upgrade disks to work from and it would not upgrade WinXP.
When the disk was inserted it would tell you to fresh install (cant remember exact wording). Was a real pain. Upon fresh install the key would not work and the prompt said i could only use the key for upgrading.
MS were as helful as could be and even offered a new key to use instead of using my own which didnt matter anyway as when the upgarde was through you just used the upgrade disk key anyway.

Here's what happens when you try a clean install with the upgrade version.

1. Installer looks for existing XP/ Vista/ 7 install on your hard disk.

Note: It should look on all partitions, but some reports say a qualifying version of Windows has to be present on partition 1.

2. *After* this check is done, the installer gives you the option of modifying or creating partitions. Because the check is done before this stage, you can safely go ahead and format or delete your Windows partition now.

Note: this is the reason you *can't* delete or format your partitions outside of the windows 7 installer - the initial "do you have Windows installed?" check will fail if you do.

3. Your upgrade key will *not* be rejected if you do things right. If the previous Windows was not found by the installer, you get the error message (but you can work around it... more on that in other threads here.)

CHokKA · 21 Jan 2010 at 12:00

MattB said:
Cheers for the reply brummie, just to clarify what you said, for me to install windows 7 n my xp machine, I would first need a full version of vista or windows 7 installed and then upgrade from that.
The reason I ask is before I bought my upgrade copy of win 7 I looked at this tutorial from Microsoft

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

Which appears to say that you can use an upgarde media as long as you choose the Custom option when installing.

TBH i'm not completly convinced by the tutorial as they also say it's quick and easy!!.

Cheers

Matt

As far as I'm aware, this only applies to the US version of Windows 7. Microsoft didn't supply an upgrade version for us in the EU due to the whole browser selection issue.

You'll most likely have to format and reinstall Windows from scratch. It'll be better this way anyway as upgrading the OS doesn't always work out for the best.

FoxEye · 21 Jan 2010 at 12:28

CHokKA said:
As far as I'm aware, this only applies to the US version of Windows 7. Microsoft didn't supply an upgrade version for us in the EU due to the whole browser selection issue.

You'll most likely have to format and reinstall Windows from scratch. It'll be better this way anyway as upgrading the OS doesn't always work out for the best.

As noted above, if you have upgrade media, do not format outside of the installer, or your upgrade key will not work. Formatting inside the installer is fine.

Also Microsoft themselves at one point said they do not recommend in-place upgrades (even tho this is not an option here). Not only do they take 100x as long to do, but the end result may not be as robust as a fresh install.

brummie · 21 Jan 2010 at 19:34

FoxEye said:
Wrong! He's (correctly) talking about a clean install, not the in-place upgrade.

You *can* use a 7 upgrade disk to clean install 7 on an XP system (or a Vista system, or a previous 7 install).

Guess you've not actually tried the upgrade?? or anything else?? Why would microsoft lie to me?? Why would the key get rejected by windows upgrade?? :rolleyes:

JessicaD · 25 Jan 2010 at 15:58

MattB,

Please note that when migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 you will not have an "in place upgrade" option. You will however have the option to select "custom" install when prompted. The Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.
For more information on the Windows 7 Upgrade, please go here: http://bit.ly/3DvynK

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team