Proposed Win8 Upgrade approach

[Mark Phelps]

Apologize if this has been answered already, but I looked through the threads and didn't see it.

I recently purchased the $38 Win8 Pro Upgrade from Microcenter (supposed, marked down from $199). From what I've read here, if I use that to "upgrade" my current Win7 pro install, that invalidated Win7 pro -- something I don't want to do.

But, before I return this (unopened), I though of something that MIGHT work -- and want to get feedback on this.

I used to have Vista on this PC but replaced that with Win7. That was a clean install, not an upgrade. Supposedly, I should be able to upgrade from Vista to Win8.

So, my plan is as follows:
1) Remove the drive currently hold Win7 pro from the PC
2) Stick in another drive, use my MR backup of Vista to restore it to that drive
3) Boot the PC, now running Vista, and use that to download the Win8 ISO.
4) Create bootable Win8 USB stick from that ISO
5) Swap drives -- remove Vista drive, put Win7 drive back
6) Boot from ISO and do "clean install" of Win8.

Questions:
1) Will this work? Since Vista won't be "present" on the PC during the Win8 install, if it goes looking for that, it won't find it.
2) Will this invalidate the Win7 install? My guess is it should NOT because I upgraded from Vista, not Win7

If folks have reason to believe this won't work, then please tell me -- and I'll return this to Microcenter and wait for the Win8 OEM version to be available.

 

[SIW2]

You can d/l an .iso from microcenter?

If you get it from MS shop, it is an esd directory - it does offer to create a somewhat odd .iso

I would be astonished if what you are proposing didn't work - but of course, haven't done exactly the same thing myself.

 

[SIW2]

I think you will find it doesn't do invalidating of keys. It just wants to see that you have qualifying version somewhere on your drive.

You may several - how does it know which it is supposed to invalidate?

That's not going to work .

 

[theog]

To dual boot

HD Drive 1, Windows 7.

Hd Drive 2, Vista, overinstall with Windows 8, which will make a Windows.Old folder.

For downloading.

   Information

If you need to download 32bit Windows 8, download from a 32bit PC.
If you need to download 64bit Windows 8, download from a 64bit PC.

 

[Brink]

Apologize if this has been answered already, but I looked through the threads and didn't see it.

I recently purchased the $38 Win8 Pro Upgrade from Microcenter (supposed, marked down from $199). From what I've read here, if I use that to "upgrade" my current Win7 pro install, that invalidated Win7 pro -- something I don't want to do.

But, before I return this (unopened), I though of something that MIGHT work -- and want to get feedback on this.

I used to have Vista on this PC but replaced that with Win7. That was a clean install, not an upgrade. Supposedly, I should be able to upgrade from Vista to Win8.

So, my plan is as follows:
1) Remove the drive currently hold Win7 pro from the PC
2) Stick in another drive, use my MR backup of Vista to restore it to that drive
3) Boot the PC, now running Vista, and use that to download the Win8 ISO.
4) Create bootable Win8 USB stick from that ISO
5) Swap drives -- remove Vista drive, put Win7 drive back
6) Boot from ISO and do "clean install" of Win8.

Questions:
1) Will this work? Since Vista won't be "present" on the PC during the Win8 install, if it goes looking for that, it won't find it.
2) Will this invalidate the Win7 install? My guess is it should NOT because I upgraded from Vista, not Win7

If folks have reason to believe this won't work, then please tell me -- and I'll return this to Microcenter and wait for the Win8 OEM version to be available.

Hello Mark,

Yes, that will work and will be perfectly legal with the EULA.

The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant just requires that you run it in either the XP SP3, Vista, or Windows 7 that you are upgrading from to confirm that you have a qualifying OS for the upgrade copy of Windows 8. That's all. You can do a clean or upgrade install with the downloaded Windows 8 Upgrade ISO file.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/11885-windows-8-upgrade-assistant-download-run.html


This will not invalidate anything. It's just that you agree as per the EULA to not have the qualifying OS (ex: Vista) installed so long as you have the upgrade copy of Windows 8 installed. If you uninstall the upgrade copy of Windows 8, then you could install Vista again if you like.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mark Phelps]

OK ... thanks for all the responses ... but I should have provided more details ...

First, I'm running Win7 off an SSD (small one, all I could afford), and it doesn't have room for Win7 + Vista + Win8 -- which is why I proposed "restoring" Vista to an empty hard drive and running the Win8 download while THAT was there so it would download OK. Brink: from what you say, I will have a qualifying OS present during the download, so I will be OK, right?

Second, I proposed Vista because I read in one of the many threads, that MS not only checks for the presence of a qualifying OS, but (somehow) captures the activation code for that OS -- and only THEN, will they allow you to download an installation ISO file. And after that, when you install Win8, that code then becomes "invalidated". So, if that is true, you can see why I'd rather get a copy of Vista invalidated, than my working copy of Win7. Brink: from what you said, since I won't be using Vista after I install Win8, sounds like I will be OK, right?

Third, I don't want to REPLACE Win7 on this PC, I want to dual-boot it with Win8 -- and I thought that you couldn't do that with the "VUP Upgrade" version that I bought. I know you can do a "clean install" with an "upgrade" version of Win7 -- because I did that when my Win7 version got corrupted and that was the only way to get it working again. But I read that MS had changed the rules, and you couldn't do that anymore with Win8. Brink: from what you said, these claims weren't true and I CAN do a clean-install from my "upgrade" version, right?

Sorry to keep asking, but I find all of this confusing.

 

[Brink]

It's no problem Mark.

An upgrade copy of Windows 8 can be used to do a clean or upgrade install.

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

You can use your Vista as the qualifying OS to be able to dual boot with your Windows 7 and upgrade copy of Windows 8. You will just need to have Vista remain uninstalled as long as you have the upgrade copy of Windows 8 installed to comply with EULA. That's all.

Nothing gets invalidated.

The information at the top of the tutorial below has all long details that can also help clarify more if you like as well.


http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/11885-windows-8-upgrade-assistant-download-run.html

 

[Mark Phelps]

It's no problem Mark.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/11885-windows-8-upgrade-assistant-download-run.html

OK, thanks for the feedback. I'll have to experiment to see what happens. I certainly don't want to have to buy it again -- since I already have the box in front of me. I also don't want to have to leave Vista installed, nor do I want to "invalidate" Win7 by doing an "upgrade install" with Win7 on the drive.

 

[Brink]

No worries. Nothing will ever be invalidated.

You'll be able to dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows 8.