A warning about doing a clean install of Win 7 upgrade

[trents]

There are two main methods of using the upgrade version of Vista and Win 7 to do a clean install.

1. Do an initial "custom" install of the OS (don't enter the product key and don't try to activate; don't bother with updates) immediately followed by a repeat "upgrade" install begun from within Windows by removing and reinserting the install disc after booting into Windows following the initial custom install. Essentially, this uses the first install as the basis for the upgrade.
2. Doing a "custom" install and then doing a simple registry hack so you can activate the product.

#2 Works quite well and takes less time but I discovered two problems with it. The first problem is that if your master boot record (mbr) gets corrupted you won't be able to fix it with the upgrade install disc. You will get an error message telling you that you are using the wrong version of Windows to do the repair.

The second problem is that it will not allow you to do a dual boot setup with a Linux distro. The Linux (I used Ubuntu) installer cannot see the existing Windows OS for some reason.

Conclusion: Though the method #1 of doing a clean install of Windows with an upgrade version is more time consuming, it won't bite you in the butt down the road.

 

[c627627]

Thank you very much for posting this.

 

[c627627]

just curious, why is method 1 better than 2?

He posted that registry edit will result in you not being able to use Windows 7 upgrade disc to repair the boot record plus there may be problems with multi-boot configurations, if you decide to add Linux.

 

[raident30]

just curious, why is method 1 better than 2?

 

[trents]

I wish I had thought to try this at the time but it occurs to me that one could temporarily undo the registry hack in order to repair the master boot record or to install Linux and then change it back afterwards so as not to lose the product validation. Not sure if that would work but it's worth a try.

 

[c627627]

Yes, if you already installed. However, the wider point is, what else is affected that we do not know about and therefore, why take a chance when simply running the setup again would remove that doubt, along with not having to worry about this problem.

 

[redduc900]

You could probably just create a System Repair Disc from within the Win7 GUI, burn it to a CD / DVD, boot to the System Recovery Options menu--> Command Prompt, and type bootrec /fixmbr

 

[trents]

You could probably just create a System Repair Disc from within the Win7 GUI, burn it to a CD / DVD, boot to the System Recovery Options menu--> Command Prompt, and type bootrec /fixmbr

Good idea! That might be the most simple approach if it works.

 

[c627627]

• To edit the boot menu on a separate hard drive [drive disconnected from its system and temporarily connected to another system], use EasyBCD to correctly set the booting process:
http://neosmart.net/download.php?id=1
[Scroll Down and use any Name & Email to Download]
or
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642


EasyBCD > File > Select BCD Store >

1. First Browse to the ROOT directory of the drive
2. Then type BOOT\BCD > Open

This will open the *.bcd file inside the hidden BOOT folder on another drive and inside its BCD subfolder.