Windows 7 - 8 Upgrade, Installation wont progress

Hi, trying to upgrade to 8, won't to upgrade, not do clean install so have to initialize upgrade from within windows, however when I try to start the upgrade, a small windows 8 windows opens, says preparing (as shown in the photo) then disappears and nothing else happens.
Have tried installing from safe mode with no luck as well.
thanks in advance

you can download and create windows 8.1 setup media > Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

then run the setup.exe from within windows 7

the windows 8.1 setup media will accept windows 8 and 8.1 product keys.. Note the edition downloaded must match the product key edition
ie download Pro if you have Pro product key

Thanks for the reply, sorry I should have mentioned that I've tried that. It was an online upgrade, tried to your idea and even tried a torrented version all have the same outcome