Can't Upgrade to WIn 8

When I first tried to upgrade to Win 8 Pro (from Win 7 Pro) I kept getting a message that there wasn't enough memory in my System partition. After lots of research, I found this post:
http://www.eightforums.com/installa...-use-existing-partition-because-does-not.html
which references
Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD - Windows 7 Help Forums

I followed that and it worked like a charm.

I then tried to upgrade again and I was able to enter my product key. It went through the installation, rebooted a few times and then said "There was an error and you can't upgrade to Windows 8 and reverted everything back to Windows 7 just like I had it before (which was nice).

How do I find out why it won't upgrade? THe message gave no reason it couldn't. I'm sure there are logs somewhere but not sure what to do.

I have lots of memory, lots of storage. The Upgrade Assistant said everything was fine.

I'm at a loss!!

Hello RBeatse, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you like, you could clean install your Windows 8 upgrade copy instead.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/13375-clean-install-windows-8-upgrade.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Brink said:

Hello RBeatse, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you like, you could clean install your Windows 8 upgrade copy instead.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/13375-clean-install-windows-8-upgrade.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Click to expand...

As a last resort I know I can do that. I am hoping for something else so I won't have to reinstall everything. That will take me a much longer time.

Thanks.

Edit: Honestly, I am not sure that that will work either since I don't know why it failed. I would like to know that first.

RBeatse said:

I'm sure there are logs somewhere but not sure what to do.

Click to expand...

I think the log files are called setupact.log file and setuperr.log file under C:\Windows\Panther

No idea how you'd interpret them I'm afraid, unless the error message is something really obvious.

The message in setuperr.log was
"2013-08-03 15:55:31, Error CONX Path [C:\$WINDOWS.~BT] already exists but Setup was unable to delete it; hr = 0x800700b7. Please delete C:\$WINDOWS.~BT to proceed with setup.[gle=0x000000b7]"

Of course, I have no idea what that is.

I have uploaded the setupact.log file. Maybe that all means something to someone more knowledgeable than me.

It looks like the folder C:\$WINDOWS.~BT has been left behind from a previous installation.

You may be able to delete it with some of the ideas from here. I'd start with the Disk Cleanup and removing Temporary Windows Installation files. (Edit: not Previous Installations)

http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/18547-cant-delete-c-windows-bt.html

If this helps, when it was doing the upgrade it asked what I wanted to keep and the options were

• Personal File Only
• Nothing

There was nothing about keeping apps and/or user settings. I thought that since I have Windows 7 Pro and I am going to Windows 8 Pro, that all of my apps and such were supposed to move also.

Not sure if that tells someone something helpful.

RBeatse,

In that case, you might as well do a clean install if you like since the only thing that would be kept in the upgrade would be your personal files and nothing else.

You could manually back them up by copying them to another location, clean install, then copy the files back.

Well the cleanup worked to get rid of that directory, so hopefully the install will work now but....

As Brink says, I might as well do a clean install but I guess I don't understand the "why". Shouldn't it let me keep my apps? If I can't (with going from Pro to Pro, just one version apart) then who can? Everything I have read says that I can keep my apps and user settings so what am I doing wrong.

I'm sure you know what it is like trying to find all of your install disks and keys. This is going to take me weeks to get right and my wife is going to be pissed while everything doesn't work. I have even run the install as administrator just in case.

Thanks for all the help by the way, it is really appreciated!

I agree. Normally you should be able to upgrade from 64-bit Windows 7 Pro to 64-bit Windows 8 Pro and be able to "keep Windows settings, personal files, and apps" (everything).

There must be some difference between your W7 and W8 that will not allow an upgrade. For example, different language, student vs OEM or retail, etc....


http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2234-upgrade-install-windows-8-windows-8-1-a.html

Assuming this is the case, is there a Microsoft support line or official forum where I can find out the reason. I am willing to give an official person the two Product keys to figure out the reason. My current one has OEM in it and so I assume it is an OEM version (as I thought it was) and so, once again, going from an OEM Windows 7 Pro to a Retail Windows 8 Pro seems that like the most normal path but maybe I am missing something big here.

I'm sure someone who has access to the definition of the Product keys could tell me what is wrong but I'm not sure where to even start.

The only thing I can think of is a difference with your OEM Windows 7 that is causing your to only be able to "Keep personal files" or "Keep nothing" when upgrading to Windows 8.

However, with the issues you are having, I would recommend doing a clean install anyways to start fresh.


Windows 8 Upgrade Paths