Windows 7 no longer accepts the CD from a previous version to qualify the upgrade. Windows wants to see an installed and activated version of a qualifying OS. I can't supply you with the upgrade path but that's what you'll need. I did perform an upgrade to Windows 7 with an upgrade disk by attaching my old hard drive to a motherboard port. It allowed me to install Windows 7 64 bit using the 32 bit version of XP as the qualifier. I know that if I ever need to do a clean install again, I need to have that old XP hard disk again so I have kept it aside. Since you have XP Pro, you will be permitted the Windows 7 pro version.
Hello,
Hope someone can help me. Here's my situation-
I have 3 computers still running Windows XP Pro. None of these computers will support Windows 7 simply because the hardware is too old.
Over the years, I have upgraded (hardware-wise) them with expansion cards, replaced motherboards, hard drives, memory, etc. In some cases, I had to reinstall Windows XP Pro.
The copies of XP I have are all upgrade versions and in order to perform a clean install of XP, I had to insert my Windows 98 CD for the install process to complete although I was performing a clean install each time and didn't keep anything from Windows 98.
In order to "get current", I need to replace my old computers (all of them are Pentium 4's) with new computers.
I wish to purchase new computers that will support 64 bit.
Can I purchse a 64-bit upgrade version of Windows 7 Pro and perform a clean-install onto empty hard drives?
Will Windows 7 accept the Windows XP Pro upgrade versions of the CDs as valid licences?
Thank you for your asssitance.
Ed

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