Need clarification and advice about upgrade XP 32-bit to Win 7 64-bit

[Snicklefritz]

I had a lengthy two-hour conversation with the Microsoft help desk last night, the details of which can be seen in the image of the chat log that I uploaded to imgur here: http://i.imgur.com/V8rK8qA.png


In a nutshell:

1) Have full version of XP
2) Upgraded to 32-bit Windows 7 (from university bookstore). It worked perfectly.
3) Computer died (mobo failure)
4) Upgraded computer parts (new mobo, AMD FX-8320, and 16 GB DDR-1600 RAM)
5) Read this microsoft page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US [...] -windows-7
6) The article from Microsoft seems to indicate that going from Windows XP 32-bit to 64-bit Windows 7 is simple.
7) Bought student copy of Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade disc (not the retail upgrade kit with two discs...special "students only" single upgrade disc) from University bookstore.
8) Following Microsoft article instructions, I...
9) Formatted the hard drive (after backing up of course),
9.5) Had to create slipstreamed Windows XP disc since my full copy did not include SP2 or SP3,
10) Installed Windows XP 32-bit full install,
11) Booted Win 7 64-bit upgrade disc and did a CUSTOM install
12) Cannot do the standard upgrade from XP to 7, have do choose the "custom install" option which acts, from what I understand, as a fresh install. The Microsoft article gives details on how to do this.
13) Once installed, Windows 7 64-bit is working at 99% perfect...except,
14) Periodically get Blue Screen errors, antivirus software can't perform a full scan without locking the computer up or blue screening after about 10,000 files
15) Finally had time to explain my situation to Microsoft help desk last night
16) They say that, because of differences in architecture, cannot upgrade from XP to Win 7.

My question: Did the guy truly understand that I did NOT do an "upgrade" in the traditional sense and that I instead did a "custom install?" What am I missing here? Why does their article give every indication that the upgrade is possible when their help desk says it is not?

 

[nickbits]

Try different drivers for your hardware. I had to install * older* drivers for one of my ATSC tuner cards than what came with Win7/64 to fix my blue screen errors.

 

[nsafreak]

If loading different drivers doesn't work it is possible to do a true clean install of Windows 7 upgrade versions without loading XP at all. From Paul Thurrott of the Windows Supersite:

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!
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[JackMDS]

The word Upgrade is an Abstract word that can cover many functional actions.

The Upgrade as you think about is called inPlace Upgrade and it is availbale when you upgrade from Vista to Win 7.

Win XP and Win 7 are almost a decade apart and thus Upgrade from WinXP to Win 7 means, we will sell you a less Upgrade version Win 7 because you already once bought Win XP. It does not mean that Win 7 installation will install on top of Win XP and will make everything functional on the WinXP installation.

No matter what make a backup of all your data files to an external hard drive. If you want to be "uber" sure you can also "Ghost" the whole XP installation onto the external hard drive too (using one of the for pay or freeware Image creation apps).

In general - http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/windows-7-upgrade-scenarios


😎

 

[ViRGE]

My question: Did the guy truly understand that I did NOT do an "upgrade" in the traditional sense and that I instead did a "custom install?" What am I missing here? Why does their article give every indication that the upgrade is possible when their help desk says it is not?

Microsoft has a funny definition of "upgrade". In reality you cannot upgrade from XP to 7 due to the massive changes that occurred to Windows between those two releases. Microsoft's "upgrade" install is essentially a clean install that keeps your documents folder and a few other odds and ends.

My suggestion would be to wipe your machine again and do a clean install of Windows 7. After that point if you're still having problems then it's almost certainly a hardware/driver issue.

 

[Snicklefritz]

Fixed. It was a hardware error. Apparently, one of the pieces (mobo, CPU, or RAM) was faulty. Neither the Microsoft guy nor I could figure out which one (though I did a half dozen successful runs with MemTest86), but Micro Center let me return them all for replacements. With the new parts, the installation went swimmingly. Thanks for your suggestions, anyhow.

 

[grss1982]

Fixed. It was a hardware error. Apparently, one of the pieces (mobo, CPU, or RAM) was faulty. Neither the Microsoft guy nor I could figure out which one (though I did a half dozen successful runs with MemTest86), but Micro Center let me return them all for replacements. With the new parts, the installation went swimmingly. Thanks for your suggestions, anyhow.

Usually when you get BSOD's it's usually a driver or hardware issue. As for the MS technician, he may have misunderstood you.

What's clear though is if you go from XP to Windows 7, MS still defines it as an "upgrade" even though you did a custom installation.

 

[corkyg]

It is all according to how upgrade is defined and used. As is said above, Microsoft is viewing it from the perspective of buying an upgrade version of the new OS. Having said that, you cannot do a direct upgrade from XP to 7 regardless of bandwidth. You must do a clean install, and you can use the upgrade version of 7 to do that.

You can do a direct upgrade from XP to Vista. And, then you can do a direct upgrade from Vista to 7. But that is somewhat hokey, however, it does work.