Win 7 Home Premium Family Pack from XP Upgrade

[LeeJend]

Went to buy the Family 3 pack of Home Premium to upgrade my older PCs. The "expert" at Best Buy told me you cannot use the WIn 7 Upgrade Disk to go from XP to Win 7.

Personally I think this is bull droppings but now I'm uncertain and want confirmation.

Has anyone actually done a clean install using a Win 7 Upgrade DIsk to go from XP to Win 7?


Yes, I know there is not a simple upgrade option from XP to Win 7 like there is from Vista to Win 7 but it should still work as long as you are replacing a valid copy of XP.

Thanks.

 

[Johnny]

He was right, you can't.

 

[American Zombie]

Have to do a "custom" install which in the case of 7 is a clean install.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7

 

[SysProg]

You can "upgrrade" XP to 7 Home Premium but it is basically a clean install of Windows 7 (you have to reinstall ALL of your apps). I upgraded 2 machines early last year. Microsoft has a utility that you can download to XP and run (it is documented on a card inside the Windows 7 package). It basically backs up your XP data (not the entire system). After Windows 7 is installed, you run the same utility (from Start | All Programs) and restore your data files (it puts My Documents into the appropriate Library, same for My Picture, etc.).

Then you boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade disk (if you try to launch the Windows 7 Upgrade from XP, it tells you that you have to boot from the DVD) and upgrade your system.

Windows 7 will put everything from your C: (XP) into a folder called Windows.old and is thus a clean install of Windows 7. Now run the utility (mentioned above) to restore your data files and start installing your drivers and applications.

Note that if your C: is a hardware RAID, you do not need to install the RAID driver from a floppy like you did in XP. Windows 7 automatically detected that my C: was a RAID 0 (striped) and installed with no problems.

Good luck!

 

[Johnny]

He isn't talking about a clean install. He is talking about leaving xp in and upgrading to 7. That can't be done.

 

[LeeJend]

No, I was asking if there are licensing restrictions on the "Family Pack Win 7 Home Premium Upgrade" disks. I know you can't "upgrade" from XP to 7.

The guy at Best Buy was telling me you can't do a clean install using the "Upgrade" retail package disks. I do not beleive that was correct.

I was hoping to find someone who had used the Family Pack from an XP install.

 

[American Zombie]

Ya you can do it but whether or not it is legal I do not know.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media.aspx

Make sure to follow this or it will not work:

Note: In all of these methods, you should observe one simple rule. Do not enter your product key during Setup. Instead, you will attempt to activate Windows 7 manually after it is installed. So you can just enter your product key later.

 

[Johnny]

No, I was asking if there are licensing restrictions on the "Family Pack Win 7 Home Premium Upgrade" disks. I know you can't "upgrade" from XP to 7.

The guy at Best Buy was telling me you can't do a clean install using the "Upgrade" retail package disks. I do not beleive that was correct.

I was hoping to find someone who had used the Family Pack from an XP install.

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying. You can do that.