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I'm using Win7 all the time and want to upgrade to Win8 Pro. So, I bought the upgrade DVD from a local MicroCenter store.
According to the EULA, however, if I upgrade using Win7, then I can no longer legally use Win7 on this PC -- which would be a bad situation for me.
So, instead, I want to use Vista as the "qualifying OS" -- as I have an old copy of Vista Ultimate that I removed from this PC when I migrated to a much smaller SSD.
Question is, though, since I only have Win7 installed at present, and don't have room on the SSD to reinstall Vista AND then install Win8, how can I use Vista as the "qualifying OS" for the upgrade? Does it prompt for an OS version and a key?
I've been told to use the Upgrade Assistant, but when I launched that, it wanted me to go to MS and purchase an upgrade -- which I already have in DVD form. So, I don't want to buy it again.
When I messed around with Win7, I actually installed it several times in different ways -- which you could do because you could install it without using a key; but in the case of Win8, I believe you have to provide the key during the install. So, that doesn't give me any flexibility with trying different installation schemes.
So, one approach is to do the following:
1) Replace Win7 on the SSD with Vista
2) Boot using the SSD to confirm that Vista works OK
3) Boot from the Win8 DVD and "upgrade" using it, but do not transfer anything -- basically, this would be a clean install.
4) Boot from CD and remove Vista from the SSD
5) Reboot from MR CD and "restore" the current Win7 image in place of Vista
6) Reboot using the SSD
While this would get me BOTH Win7 and Win8 on the SSD, the problem is, the boot loader setup would boot me into Win7. However, I DO have EasyBCD on Win7, so if I ran it and added an entry for Win8, then I could reboot, but this time, into Win8.
Once in Win8, would there then be a way to "repair" the boot loader files so that the Win7 files are replaced by Win8?
According to the EULA, however, if I upgrade using Win7, then I can no longer legally use Win7 on this PC -- which would be a bad situation for me.
So, instead, I want to use Vista as the "qualifying OS" -- as I have an old copy of Vista Ultimate that I removed from this PC when I migrated to a much smaller SSD.
Question is, though, since I only have Win7 installed at present, and don't have room on the SSD to reinstall Vista AND then install Win8, how can I use Vista as the "qualifying OS" for the upgrade? Does it prompt for an OS version and a key?
I've been told to use the Upgrade Assistant, but when I launched that, it wanted me to go to MS and purchase an upgrade -- which I already have in DVD form. So, I don't want to buy it again.
When I messed around with Win7, I actually installed it several times in different ways -- which you could do because you could install it without using a key; but in the case of Win8, I believe you have to provide the key during the install. So, that doesn't give me any flexibility with trying different installation schemes.
So, one approach is to do the following:
1) Replace Win7 on the SSD with Vista
2) Boot using the SSD to confirm that Vista works OK
3) Boot from the Win8 DVD and "upgrade" using it, but do not transfer anything -- basically, this would be a clean install.
4) Boot from CD and remove Vista from the SSD
5) Reboot from MR CD and "restore" the current Win7 image in place of Vista
6) Reboot using the SSD
While this would get me BOTH Win7 and Win8 on the SSD, the problem is, the boot loader setup would boot me into Win7. However, I DO have EasyBCD on Win7, so if I ran it and added an entry for Win8, then I could reboot, but this time, into Win8.
Once in Win8, would there then be a way to "repair" the boot loader files so that the Win7 files are replaced by Win8?