Before I started my upgrade from XP to Win7 I read several articles and message boards about the process to see if there was anything new or any issues I should know about. Several people commented about having problems with a clean install using the upgrade version. Apparently when trying to enter the upgrade product key they were getting an error. The work-a-round offered on the same message boards is to simply click “next”, without putting in the product key, and add it later after the installation is complete. Sure enough, I did encounter an error saying the “product key is not valid” so I did click next, bypassing the product number entry, and completed my installation. However, when I tried to enter the product key after the installation, so I could validate Win7, I got the same error saying my product key was not valid. Well, that work-around wasn’t much help.
What I finally figured out is that the problem only occurs during a clean install on a freshly formatted or new hard drive using the upgrade version of Win7. The reason is that when entering the upgrade product key the installation process must find a copy of XP on the hard drive to verify ownership of a previous version of Windows.
Because I had decided it was an opportune time to replace my old hard drive with a new one prior to installing Win 7, there was no way for the installation process to verify ownership of XP and allow the upgrade. The only way I found to get around this problem was to install XP on my new hard drive, and then do the upgrade installation of Win 7, choosing “custom (Advanced)” when ask “Which type of installation do you want?” The Win7 installation process puts XP into a directory named windows.old which remains on the hard drive and can then be found when the upgrade product key is entered. When I installed XP on my new hard drive I didn’t install drivers or validate prior to proceeding with the Win7 upgrade. Windows.old can be removed after the installation to free up hard drive space.
The instruction sheet included with my new copy of Win7 said that you must do a clean install to upgrade from XP and only says that after you have saved your files to an external drive, “insert the Windows 7 DVD into your PC and when ask “Which type of installation do you want?” click “Custom (Advanced).” When you do click on “Custom (Advanced)” this is when you will see the information about how Win7 will put XP into a directory named windows.old.
The problem for many of us that have done clean installs in the past is that a clean install has always started with formatting the hard drive, and validating our previous version of Windows by inserting the disc into the CD or DVD drive to be found by the new installation process. I didn’t think anything of it when I decided to put a new hard drive in my PC at the time of the upgrade as I have done this may times in the past.
The Win7 instruction sheet didn’t say “Format the hard drive” but because the instructions didn’t actually say “Don’t format the hard drive”, didn’t say anything about how the installation process creates windows.old, and didn’t say the installation wouldn’t work unless XP was on the hard drive I didn’t realize this installation was different than previous versions.
I did not appreciate having to go through all of the time and trouble it took me to install my newly purchased version of Win7 and verify my previously purchased version of XP and I think a little more information should have been provided on the instruction sheet. In all fairness all of this information is available on the Microsoft website. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Windows-7-activation-error-invalid-product-key but unfortunately I didn’t realize I needed this information until I was already in trouble with my unsuccessful attempts at the upgrade and by then I didn’t have internet access to do further research.
Yes, just a little more information on the instruction sheet would have been very helpful.
Posted by kapell 
