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General discussion

Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit

Mar 31, 2012 4:59PM PDT

My current system is running Vista Ultimate 32-Bit. Win7 Upgrade Advisor reports that 64-Bit Win7 Home Premium can be installed using "clean install" and booting from Win7 64-Bit DVD. However, after changing BIOS setting to boot from DVD, the process fails with "NTLDR not found. Restart to continue." How do I get around this?

Thanks for your support.

Discussion is locked

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Let's be sure.
Mar 31, 2012 10:32PM PDT

Is this Win 7 DVD an upgrade disc from the maker or is it a Retail Full Version 64 bit Genuine Win 7 DVD?

Is your system 64bit capable?

When you insert the DVD and boot up, are you attempting to Install or Upgrade?

Are you Installing onto a new partition, or deleting the existing Vista partition and installing over that?

Mark

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Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit
Apr 1, 2012 3:11AM PDT

Hi, MarkFlax,

1. The Win 7 DVD is an Upgrade disc.

2. Win 7 Upgrade Advisor reports that the system is 64-bit capable. This is also verified by other utilities, e.g., Speccy. Also, the CPU is a Core2D 6600, which Intel says is 64-bit.

3. Based on technical advice from various sources including CNET Win 7 Forum, I'm attempting to boot from the DVD so that I can do a "Clean Install." This is where I get the "NTDLDR not found" message.

4. I understand that a "Clean Install" will install into same (Vista) partition and create a windows.old when completed. However, the boot from DVD fails immediately, so nothing is done.

The installed system is Vista Ultimate 32-bit with 4GB (4 sticks @ 1 GB) RAM. Thanks for your support.

Lemaech56

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One other problem
Apr 1, 2012 1:06AM PDT

One other problem you're going to run into later, is that Win 7 Home Premium is not a valid upgrade from Vista Ultimate. If you look at the first table here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772579%28v=ws.10%29.aspx you see that if you go down to Vista Ultimate, it says the only valid upgrade is Win 7 Ultimate.

So the first thing you need to do is either go back and buy the full retail version of Win 7 Home Premium or buy the upgrade version of Win 7 Ultimate. There's no point in resolving your other issue if you're just going to hit another snag later that we can't help you with.

Also, it's been years since I've seen a system that doesn't come with some kind of one-time boot menu triggered by a keypress pre-POST. No need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order. If your system came with Vista, it should certainly fit that description.

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Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit
Apr 1, 2012 3:20AM PDT

Yes. I've seen this mentioned in many posts. Purchasing Full Retail version of Win 7 Ultimate was always a last resort, and I'll cave in if this is the only way to do this upgrade. Microsoft wins again. Also, I upgraded from WinXP Pro SP3 to Vista Ultimate 32-bit. At the time I didn't feel brave enough to go all the way to 64-bit, but that's where I need to be due to the scientific applications I use.

Thanks for your support. CNET Forums are the best.

Lemaech56

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No need
Apr 1, 2012 4:04AM PDT

No need for Win 7 Ultimate as a full retail version. The upgrade version would work fine, OR you can get the full retail version of Win 7 Home Premium, but I think the price is about the same either way.

Once you get past your current problem you'll be asked to provide some kind of proof of ownership for a qualifying product, and Vista Ultimate won't do it. I suppose it's possible if you have the XP Pro disc handy you might get around it that way. I honestly have no idea what the implications would be of that one license wise.

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Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit
Apr 1, 2012 1:59PM PDT

Well, I've just thrown in the towel and purchased a Full Retail copy of Win 7 Ultimate. This is definitely overkill, but I don't have the time to figure this problem out. Also, I plan to do a major build and will use the Full Win 7 Ultimate for that purpose. There is a bit of the system engineer in me that wanted to figure this problem out without buying more softweare, but that would have been too expensive.

Thanks to you and the rest of the Forum responders. I'm certain that I will have questions for the Win 7 Forum as a result of my upcoming system build.

Lemaech56

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Re: Can't Install Win7 Home Premium Upgrade 64-Bit
Sep 3, 2012 2:09AM PDT

Dear Forum,

This is a very late response, but I promised to report on resolution to this problem. Here's what I did:

1. Blew away Vista Ultimate: a) Wiped "C" drive. This was done since I couldn't solve "ntldr missing" when
attempting to do an upgrade to Win7 Home Premium 32-bit or 64-bit.

2. Installed WinXP Pro SP3 (32-bit) from Full Retail disc. Recovery was routine, since I only use "C" drive for OS. After installation, I ran this OS for several months to ensure that I had a fully functional system.

3. Installed Win7 Home Premium SP1 Upgrade after running Win7 Upgrade Advisor and resolving as many issues as feasible. After a flawless Installation, Win7 resolved all driver issues,except for my printer, and restored all settings. Printer installation and configuration was done as a separate step.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I installed Vista at all since it proved to be an incredible waste of time. Now that my main desktop is back in service, I have time to work on my next system build. For that I've purchased Win7 Ultimate Full Retail. Thanks to CNET Forum. You provide an invaluable service.