Clean Installation of Upgrade

OK, I read that you don't get the option of doing an upgrade if you boot from
the Vista disk, so don't flame me on this.

Final question at bottom. First background to understand it.

In the process of upgrading my three computers at the house (both hardware &
operating systems) I need one of the PCs to be running the new operating
system with the final HD setup I want to get to so I can store the 100s of
MBs of music, pictures and video I've got. I'm awaiting memory for the
system I'm currently building on which I want to run Ultimate so I wanted to
do the upgrade on one of the other PCs first. I've purchased one copy of
Ultimate, but MS's Family Discount Program website isn't working so I can't
buy the two Home Premiums I want for the discount price.

Anyway, I set up the HDs in one of the secondary systems I the way I wanted
(RAID), booted off my Ultimate disc, performed a clean install of Home
Premium WITHOUT ENTERING A KEY and copied over the data from my main PC.

HERE's MY QUESTION: Once MS fixes their web site and allows me to buy the
discounted Home Premiums will I be able to put in the key they give me and
activate? Or will I have to start over with a clean install of XP on that
machine and then re-upgrade to Vista Premium?

"Bill Lee" <> wrote in message
news:02D3EDED-19B0-4F02-908A-...

> HERE's MY QUESTION: Once MS fixes their web site and allows me to buy the
> discounted Home Premiums will I be able to put in the key they give me and
> activate? Or will I have to start over with a clean install of XP on that
> machine and then re-upgrade to Vista Premium?

I'd imagine it would just be a standard retail key you get, so just punch it
in and it *should* be happy.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

I was one of the unlucky few to order the family pack discount online, but
the keys they sent me are invalid. The description of the product is
"Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade" which leads me to believe that you
really do need to do am upgrade install. I have tried both, though, and
neither will accept either of the product keys that I purchased. I think
microsoft took down the site because they discovered a problem.

"Bill Lee" wrote:

> OK, I read that you don't get the option of doing an upgrade if you boot from
> the Vista disk, so don't flame me on this.
>
> Final question at bottom. First background to understand it.
>
> In the process of upgrading my three computers at the house (both hardware &
> operating systems) I need one of the PCs to be running the new operating
> system with the final HD setup I want to get to so I can store the 100s of
> MBs of music, pictures and video I've got. I'm awaiting memory for the
> system I'm currently building on which I want to run Ultimate so I wanted to
> do the upgrade on one of the other PCs first. I've purchased one copy of
> Ultimate, but MS's Family Discount Program website isn't working so I can't
> buy the two Home Premiums I want for the discount price.
>
> Anyway, I set up the HDs in one of the secondary systems I the way I wanted
> (RAID), booted off my Ultimate disc, performed a clean install of Home
> Premium WITHOUT ENTERING A KEY and copied over the data from my main PC.
>
> HERE's MY QUESTION: Once MS fixes their web site and allows me to buy the
> discounted Home Premiums will I be able to put in the key they give me and
> activate? Or will I have to start over with a clean install of XP on that
> machine and then re-upgrade to Vista Premium?

I see from news stories that they've figured out that you can install the
30-day trial of Vista (i.e. without the keys), then from within the running
trial version you start the vista setup program, choose clean install and use
your upgrade keys to install and activate.

Looks like I'll have to move my documents off the computer, do the upgrade
and then move the documents back on, but at least I won't have to reinstall
and reactivate XP.

"Brian Williams" wrote:

> I was one of the unlucky few to order the family pack discount online, but
> the keys they sent me are invalid. The description of the product is
> "Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade" which leads me to believe that you
> really do need to do am upgrade install. I have tried both, though, and
> neither will accept either of the product keys that I purchased. I think
> microsoft took down the site because they discovered a problem.
>
> "Bill Lee" wrote:
>
> > OK, I read that you don't get the option of doing an upgrade if you boot from
> > the Vista disk, so don't flame me on this.
> >
> > Final question at bottom. First background to understand it.
> >
> > In the process of upgrading my three computers at the house (both hardware &
> > operating systems) I need one of the PCs to be running the new operating
> > system with the final HD setup I want to get to so I can store the 100s of
> > MBs of music, pictures and video I've got. I'm awaiting memory for the
> > system I'm currently building on which I want to run Ultimate so I wanted to
> > do the upgrade on one of the other PCs first. I've purchased one copy of
> > Ultimate, but MS's Family Discount Program website isn't working so I can't
> > buy the two Home Premiums I want for the discount price.
> >
> > Anyway, I set up the HDs in one of the secondary systems I the way I wanted
> > (RAID), booted off my Ultimate disc, performed a clean install of Home
> > Premium WITHOUT ENTERING A KEY and copied over the data from my main PC.
> >
> > HERE's MY QUESTION: Once MS fixes their web site and allows me to buy the
> > discounted Home Premiums will I be able to put in the key they give me and
> > activate? Or will I have to start over with a clean install of XP on that
> > machine and then re-upgrade to Vista Premium?

As an update on my situation, I'm in the same boat as Brian - Invalid update
keys sent to me when I purchased the Family Discount Plan. The keys won't
validate in the setup routine run under XP, they won't validate from within
the systems properties page of the version I installed without keys (which,
incidently, a tech support guy told me to do last night. He was surprised
that I had already done this) and won't validate within the setup routine of
a reinstall on top of the Vista installed without keys.

Makes you wonder why we're trying so hard to give MS money....

"Bill Lee" wrote:

> I see from news stories that they've figured out that you can install the
> 30-day trial of Vista (i.e. without the keys), then from within the running
> trial version you start the vista setup program, choose clean install and use
> your upgrade keys to install and activate.
>
> Looks like I'll have to move my documents off the computer, do the upgrade
> and then move the documents back on, but at least I won't have to reinstall
> and reactivate XP.
>
> "Brian Williams" wrote:
>
> > I was one of the unlucky few to order the family pack discount online, but
> > the keys they sent me are invalid. The description of the product is
> > "Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade" which leads me to believe that you
> > really do need to do am upgrade install. I have tried both, though, and
> > neither will accept either of the product keys that I purchased. I think
> > microsoft took down the site because they discovered a problem.
> >
> > "Bill Lee" wrote:
> >
> > > OK, I read that you don't get the option of doing an upgrade if you boot from
> > > the Vista disk, so don't flame me on this.
> > >
> > > Final question at bottom. First background to understand it.
> > >
> > > In the process of upgrading my three computers at the house (both hardware &
> > > operating systems) I need one of the PCs to be running the new operating
> > > system with the final HD setup I want to get to so I can store the 100s of
> > > MBs of music, pictures and video I've got. I'm awaiting memory for the
> > > system I'm currently building on which I want to run Ultimate so I wanted to
> > > do the upgrade on one of the other PCs first. I've purchased one copy of
> > > Ultimate, but MS's Family Discount Program website isn't working so I can't
> > > buy the two Home Premiums I want for the discount price.
> > >
> > > Anyway, I set up the HDs in one of the secondary systems I the way I wanted
> > > (RAID), booted off my Ultimate disc, performed a clean install of Home
> > > Premium WITHOUT ENTERING A KEY and copied over the data from my main PC.
> > >
> > > HERE's MY QUESTION: Once MS fixes their web site and allows me to buy the
> > > discounted Home Premiums will I be able to put in the key they give me and
> > > activate? Or will I have to start over with a clean install of XP on that
> > > machine and then re-upgrade to Vista Premium?