Vista Ultimate Upgrade on Blank HDD - Confirming Success

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

kring

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
165
Post deleted
Posting detailed workarounds to get a Full version of an OS from an Upgrade version are not allowed in this forum.
It's warez, plain and simple and you all know that.
You can say that the workaround exists, I don't care.
BUT you cannot post the details about it.

- odoe
 
How do you get rid of 30 day trail install, just delete the partition?
 
Oh i see, i read it wrong, i read it has you was installing windows vista form inside the 30day Vista, cool find ;)
 
I was going to post a question about upgrading from XP to Vista without having an original XP media disc, as our Dells didn't come with any, and I remember that you used to have to put in the older version CD into the drive to confirm you were eligible to install the upgrade when doing a clean install on a fresh drive.

I guess I'll have to do your method of installing Vista twice if I ever have the need to do a fresh install again.
 
Realized one small issue, If on the second install you choose a clean install.. it doesn't actually wipe the hard drive, it just renames the first install folder to "Windows.old" I just deleted the folder.

But for those doing this, you'll probably want to actually format the partition during the 2nd install to truly have a "clean" install.

I'm not going through a 3rd right now ! :)
 
Thanks for the detailed information kring!

Sounds good that you got the drivers working for the 64-bit version of Vista. I still haven't decided which to install, to bad you haven't tried games yet.

Thanks again!
 
Did you try the 64 bit version? MS said that a clean install could be done with that because it is not compatible with a 32 bit OS.
 
BigDaddy - I am running 64-bit... the clean install still requires a copy of XP, W2K, or Vista to be previously installed. I'm 1/2 way through app & game installs, should have atelest a little more information in about 30 minutes.
 
I should KNOW BETTER than to trust a MS person:rolleyes: . That info was posted on thier Vista OEM website. Thanks for sharing your experiences.:D
 
Interesting...so you install Vista without product key and then when install finishes, you reinstall with product key and it works? Nice fuckin find my friend! lol
 
If you're going to do an "Upgrade" you may as well just upgrade on top of XP, and tell it to format the drive.

I havent seen the "upgrade" version for x64 yet but since you cannot do an "upgrade" to x64 with the normal disks I dont see why that would change.
 
Ok. Installs have all gone well, here's my list of Apps/Games/Utils so far.

Nvidia 100.54
X-fi 2.13
nTune 64-bit
Logitech Set Point 3.3
Firefox 2.0
Adobe Flash 9
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
Adobe Shockwave 11? latest
iTunes
Winrar beta
Winzip 11
TurboTax 2006 home/bus
Java JRE 6.0 SE
Lexar ImageRescue
AVG Pro 7.5 AV
Azureus
MS Intellitype software (for keyboard shortcuts) latest
Doom3
Steam HL2
World of Warcraft
WoW Reader
Cosmos for WoW
All Windows Updates


Everything was the latest as downloaded from the companies website as of today.


Doom3 on Ultra 1600x1200 ran a solid 60fps.. so all is good there. oddly, I could not set High Quality Special Effects, Enable Shadows, or Antialiasing to enabled... if I set it, next time I started it was right back to disabled.... not sure why.. other then that, everything seemed fine.

Steam was a copy off backup HDD, not downloading 12GB's again. so by just copying the folder it had me login, it ran some client updates and game scans and I was up and running.

For World of Warcraft, the Cosmus UI updater has 1 issue, when it asks what type of build do you want to run (here's where you choose alpha) the dropdown is blank. but it still seems to patch cosmos. World of Warcraft loaded fine, but it's been a little erratic, in the sense that it's choppy and FPS has big sways, from 9 fps to 45 FPS, where as I use to get a pretty solid 50 fps and usually was stuck at 60 when in indoor areas. I'll keep playing with settings and such. I'll post more on this after I try redoing some settings and testing further.

I'm running temporarily a GeForce 7900GS 256MB, while I'm waiting for eVGA ships my trade-ups to a 8800GTX.
 
jtzako said:
If you're going to do an "Upgrade" you may as well just upgrade on top of XP, and tell it to format the drive.

I havent seen the "upgrade" version for x64 yet but since you cannot do an "upgrade" to x64 with the normal disks I dont see why that would change.
Click to expand...

That would be the best option IF you had a hard drive that actually had XP on it, but to install XP and SP2 update, then Vista Upgrade, I think your better off just doing the double Vista install if you don't want to pay for the full blown Vista. My 100% legit XP is working great, the last thing I wanted to do was blow it away, I kept it as backup for now in case Vista runs into issues, I just switch in my bios which HDD to boot to and I'm back in Vista.

For the first few months, I need to still have the option of going right back to my original XP.
 
kring said:
Ok. Installs have all gone well, here's my list of Apps/Games/Utils so far.

Nvidia 100.54
X-fi 2.13
nTune 64-bit
Logitech Set Point 3.3
Firefox 2.0
Adobe Flash 9
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
Adobe Shockwave 11? latest
iTunes
Winrar beta
Winzip 11
TurboTax 2006 home/bus
Java JRE 6.0 SE
Lexar ImageRescue
AVG Pro 7.5 AV
Azureus
MS Intellitype software (for keyboard shortcuts) latest
Doom3
Steam HL2
World of Warcraft
WoW Reader
Cosmos for WoW
All Windows Updates


Everything was the latest as downloaded from the companies website as of today.


Doom3 on Ultra 1600x1200 ran a solid 60fps.. so all is good there. oddly, I could not set High Quality Special Effects, Enable Shadows, or Antialiasing to enabled... if I set it, next time I started it was right back to disabled.... not sure why.. other then that, everything seemed fine.

Steam was a copy off backup HDD, not downloading 12GB's again. so by just copying the folder it had me login, it ran some client updates and game scans and I was up and running.

For World of Warcraft, the Cosmus UI updater has 1 issue, when it asks what type of build do you want to run (here's where you choose alpha) the dropdown is blank. but it still seems to patch cosmos. World of Warcraft loaded fine, but it's been a little erratic, in the sense that it's choppy and FPS has big sways, from 9 fps to 45 FPS, where as I use to get a pretty solid 50 fps and usually was stuck at 60 when in indoor areas. I'll keep playing with settings and such. I'll post more on this after I try redoing some settings and testing further.

I'm running temporarily a GeForce 7900GS 256MB, while I'm waiting for eVGA ships my trade-ups to a 8800GTX.
Click to expand...

are u using x86 or the x64 version?
 
SleeplessIncubus said:
are u using x86 or the x64 version?
Click to expand...

64-bit version

Update on steam, went to run lost coast and it doesn't work, tried a few more games and nothing is working, getting error "This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time" I also get a steam update for 1/17 that needs to apply, and I get the restart steam, however after restarting I'm in the same spot and 5 minutes later it asks to restart again.

Looks like Steam doesn't work with Vista 64-bit
 
For World of Warcraft, it's running good enough now, I have dropped the AA to 2X. and now I'm getting 60fps indoors and 35-50 out doors... good enough to play for me, it's not critical like a FPS.

I'm shot for the night, I'll post some more tomorrow

I'll be loading the following

Office 2003 Pro
Photoshop CS2
MS Money 2007
FlashFXP
and some other small apps.
Then messing around to see how everything works
I'll also try doing steam from a raw download install and post findings on that, to make sure the copy wasn't the issue.
 
kring said:
64-bit version

Update on steam, went to run lost coast and it doesn't work, tried a few more games and nothing is working, getting error "This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time" I also get a steam update for 1/17 that needs to apply, and I get the restart steam, however after restarting I'm in the same spot and 5 minutes later it asks to restart again.

Looks like Steam doesn't work with Vista 64-bit
Click to expand...

hmm thats kinda crappy. can u dual boot with both x86 and x64 on vista?
 
kring said:
I'm going though the upgrade now. here's what I can confirm so far.

The Vista Ultimate Upgrade will NOT install onto a blank hard drive. That is for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. What happens is when you try and go past the partitioning section of the install, it says your product key is for upgrades and requires an existing version of windows before being able to upgrade OR Clean install.

You can do the by-pass by NOT entering a product license when prompted, it allows you to complete the install and you receive a 30-day trial activation.

You can NOT activate Vista using the temp key and you can not enter your Retail Upgrade key, Activation fails with error codes.

You can NOT use phone activation, I tried and it states your key is invalid and the phone then hangs up on you... no way to even reach someone to speak to about this... I believe it's because it's trying to activate your 30-day trial key.

While in Vista running on the 30-day trial key, You CAN successfully run the Install again and during this install you can enter your upgrade key, it accepts it and setup continues past the partitioning! I chose to do a clean install, wiping the Vista I just finished loading to make sure I received the cleanest install for my final version.

After Rebooting on Round 2 of installation, I was SUCCESSFULLY able to activate my UPGRADE copy of Windows Vista Ultimate... Confirming the by-pass does work.

I can confirm that the X-fi drivers 2.13 do work fine for Vista Ultimate 64-bit, at least for windows audio at this point, haven't made it to test on games yet

I can confirm that Nvidia 100.54 drivers are working fine at least for Aero and on Vista Ultimate 64-bit, I havn't made it to gaming yet.

I'll post an update as I progress installation, for those who are on the fence.

I have run into 1 issue so far, I have a D-Link DWA-645 PCMCIA Wireless nic and the drivers do not work out of the box, I have no way to connect my system up other then another older D-link PCMCIA 54g card. So I was able to connect using the older card, but there is no way to get the new card working unless I am able to figure out how to have the card physically installed, yet have another method of establishing a connection... still scratching my head how I'm going to do this.

Congrats MS on what seems to be a great product so far, And a big thumbs down on the hoop jumping & time wasting I had to

I scored a 5.0 on overall system performance: (CPU-5.0,MEM-5.2,VID-5.9,GAME-5.8,HDD-5.6)

Overall Install is 2.5 hours not counting any customization or application install other then Nvidia and Creative drivers... I could have at most shaved off 30 minutes by not trying the activiation steps during the first install...

I'll post more information over the next few hours as I go further through the install process and get some apps/games/utils loaded.
Click to expand...
This works, for now. I wonder what will happen when Vista phones home to revalidate? Not finding the old OS coa, it just might turn on the old kill switch, and you will encounter "reduced functionality"Keep us informed if something like this does happen.
 
So what you're saying is that Windows Vista Upgrade sees an unactivated 30-day grace period version of itself as a viable product to upgrade from?

That's... hysterical. :eek:
 
Now there really is no reason to buy the full install ($400.00 version) of Windows Vista! Kudos to those that experimented and came up with this workaround to "upgrading".
 
and installed Vista via Microsoft's interpretation of a clean install and would now like to start with a freshly formatted HD; will we be able to reactivate Vista without a problem or a phone call? Anybody out there already reinstalled and reactivated? Any hitch?
 
With this "workaround" method, do you uncheck the box during the windows install that says:

"Automatically activate windows when i'm online"
 
Really annoying, just buy the retail version and save your self one install each time. How many times do enthusiats reinstall windows? For me, buidling a new comp and overclocking it the first time means reinstalling an OS about 3 times, and then 1-3 more times after that for whatever reason (HDD failure, virus, clean up), so thats 4-6 times total. So that ends up being 8-12 installs for upgrade users, dumb.

People spend $100-$300 more for a faster CPU/GPU, just spend an extra $100 for retail Vista and save your self an hour each time you install your OS; especially if Vista lasts as long as XP did, 5 years.
 
I wrestled with getting it installed on my Lappy, It was a real PITA, but it's a laptop...they always are. For the Desktop, I'm fortunate enough to have a school licensed copy of XP Pro that needs no activation, Just install it and BOOM. So I did the Vista upgrade, and it worked perfectly, did the clean install and deleted the old windows directory. I'm leaving my actual, retail version of XP Pro on the other HDD, just in case. Dual boot rears it's ugly head again. :cool:
 
...but I DID buy the retail version - Windows Ultimate Upgrade at Best Buy - but I was also aware that MS was (supposedly) monitoring activations, etc. more closely and I was simply asking if, I used the "workaround" for the clean install (since I wasn't aware of it the first time around) and reformatted my HD for an install with the workaround, was I going to have an issue with reactivating. Simple question looking for an answer from someone who may have tried over the last two days.
 
coachjohn said:
...but I DID buy the retail version - Windows Ultimate Upgrade at Best Buy - but I was also aware that MS was (supposedly) monitoring activations, etc. more closely and I was simply asking if, I used the "workaround" for the clean install (since I wasn't aware of it the first time around) and reformatted my HD for an install with the workaround, was I going to have an issue with reactivating. Simple question looking for an answer from someone who may have tried over the last two days.
Click to expand...

Simple question I agree. can't confirm, but you are not going to have issues, it's the identical hardware, so the key used to signature your PC is the same, it's only when you key changes due to significant hardware changes will it throw up a "wait a minute" flag. Motherboard always does this... but same hardware, just a reload, it will generate the same unique PC key.
 
....thanks for the quick response. With some of the subtle - and not so subtle - differences in licensing/installing/etc. between XP and Vista, I'm hoping to proceed on the cautious side somewhat. :)
 
so. . oldschool (now) question here but. . .will this little trick work with XP Pro upgrade?
 
coachjohn said:
...but I DID buy the retail version - Windows Ultimate Upgrade at Best Buy - but I was also aware that MS was (supposedly) monitoring activations, etc. more closely and I was simply asking if, I used the "workaround" for the clean install (since I wasn't aware of it the first time around) and reformatted my HD for an install with the workaround, was I going to have an issue with reactivating. Simple question looking for an answer from someone who may have tried over the last two days.
Click to expand...

Yea it works, you'll be able to reactivate and what not.

I was talking to everyone in this thread about full retail vs upgrade retail. This whole double install thing with the upgrade version is annoying. Might as well buy the full version and avoid one install; I would think it's worth the extra time saved.
 
provoko said:
I was talking to everyone in this thread about full retail vs upgrade retail. This whole double install thing with the upgrade version is annoying. Might as well buy the full version and avoid one install; I would think it's worth the extra time saved.
Click to expand...

You think it's worth the time saved to pay an extra 100...and that's fine. But some people ARE NOT plopping down 200-300 for new GPUs, and are interested in Vista, and for someone like me (X2 3800+, X850XT, 2GB RAM) who really can't afford to get the full version, and wants to be able to dual boot/keep using my XP Pro, this is a very viable option, and is worth the money saved to take the time to do it this way.
 
provoko said:
Yea it works, you'll be able to reactivate and what not.

I was talking to everyone in this thread about full retail vs upgrade retail. This whole double install thing with the upgrade version is annoying. Might as well buy the full version and avoid one install; I would think it's worth the extra time saved.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that by using this double install method, you are in effect ,pirating a full copy of Vista, when you only paid for the upgrade ,from a LEGIT OS. I think that very shortly, when the revalidation thing kicks in, a LOT of people are going to be seeing the "reduced functionality" message, that is seen when your bogus copy of Vista fails the auto revalidation thing. You want a full copy of Vista? Buy OEM. That way, you aviod the 2 install thing altogether. If you think that Microsoft is going to let this slide, you will be in for a rude awakening, when that upgrade key is canceled altogether.
 
Great find OP! and you really dont have to install 'twice' every time. right after you install the 1st time, can't you just burn the windows folder to dvd? so next time you reinstall, just load the folder back to a blank drive, and do the upgrade from there..
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top