I got a windows 8 professional key from MSDNAA so I tried to upgrade my windows 7 ultimate x64 with the option to keep all the programs and settings but with the iso I downloaded from MSDNAA I keep getting the following error: First thing I did was checking my checksums and they were good, then I tried to download a bunch of different isos but I still couldn't get past this error. Then after reading some threads here I found somebody mentioning that the iso I tried is not an "upgrade" iso and so it wouldn't work for what I was trying to do. If the problem is actually related to the ISO not being an upgrade ISO, which one is an upgrade ISO? Nothing I could find would specify whether an ISO is upgrade or not. Could it also be something I have installed? I get this error before the installer can tell me what is good and what is not so I have no idea if there is something that may be conflicting with the installer, I could do an upgrade on another computer from 7 ultimate to 8 enterprise, I was forced to uninstall daemon tools and sandboxie. I uninstalled them from this one computer but it still doesn't work well. Any ideas?
Do you have only one partition or more? If more, did you save some system related files to the other partition?
Normally the WUA will point you to the required actions. In Basic you could upgrade from 64 to 64bit and 32 to 32bit in first line and secondly Enterprise to Enterprise only. From Home to Ultimate, you could upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from which version you have. Only exception is Starter, which you could NOT upgrade to Windows 8! If that all applies you shouldn't have problems, except that may some of your old Apps didn't work anymore. You also need to start the Upgrade process from within Windows 7 and NOT for the DVD/USB if you want to keep all data and programs!!
My own experience, I had Comodo firewall in Windows 7. In order to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro, I had to uninstall it before doing upgrade.
Normally it's enough for to turn off the Firewall and the upgrade will go ahead! That's how it works for me already 3 times.
I don't really have any firewall programs, I usually keep even windows firewall disabled because I have an hardware firewall on my network. Regarding the partition thing, the drive on which the windows 7 install I want to upgrade resides only has a single partition. The problem I get is only that "Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation." during the check after I choose to keep everything with the windows 8 pro installer, earlier yesterday I tried running the RP installer instead to see if it could at least give me the list of conflicting applications, which it did. After uninstalling these (sandboxie, daemon tools, tuneup utilities and perfectdisk) subsequent runs of the installer crashed inexplicably before even showing any results. Also every time I run the installer it takes about 30 minutes before crashing, I wasted a whole day just running it.
Please explain how you do the job. Start with the Media used for Windows 8, DVD or USB and all other step's. If you upgrade from Windows 7 the System Reserved Partition Size my isn't big enough, Windows 7 uses 100 MB while Windows 8 use 350 MB. May you use an Partition Manager like EaseUS or similar and shrink the C partition and after that expand the System Reserved Partition to 350MB. That I do every time I upgrade from Windows 7 to 8. As I check my own System Reserved Partition right now, with just a few Apps installed, it uses already 241 MB for Windows 8, so the 100 MB of that W7 Partition isn't big enough.
Here are my steps: > Put in the DVD I burned from an iso, the SHA1 sum coincided with microsoft's, I also tried to just extract everything from the iso and running the executable, same result > I insert the key (it's a valid and legit MSDNAA key for windows 8 professional x64) > I choose "Keep all Apps and Settings" > Please wait > Attached picture happens Also for some reason the hard drive from which this windows 7 is running doesn't seem to have a dedicated boot partition
I checked with windows disk management, minitool partition wizard and Paragon partition Manager, none of these programs show a reserve partition and all of them show that I have a single partition, screenshot here, the drive is F: well nevermind the screenshot, apparently it got autoresized and I can't post links
Sorry but those picture isn't readable for me, it's just to tiny!! I was just to try to install W8 on an HDD without existing System Reserved Partition and could NOT! So, that seems to be the problem.
I never had try to create the System Reserved Partition manually after I had an installed OS already. In windows 7 it was possible to install without that SR Partition but in Windows 8!! So you may didn't have an other choice as to re-install everything. And you'll need to completely free up the HDD for Windows 8 while the most easy way would be just to delete all existing partitions from that drive. Depend on your Windows 8 version and License (if you use one?!), you may need to install first Windows 7 and "upgrade" from their to Windows 8. You could use Windows Easy Transfer for to get the Data, Apps and so on out of Windows 7 first and use Windows Easy Transfer again in Windows 8 to get them back after you successfully installed Windows 8.
If it doesn't look similar to my screenshot, having this small extra partition as first entry on your disc, you will not be able to upgrade to W8 afaik. View attachment 17382
This is weird, I have no idea why my partition was not created, any chance of it working if I do some partition wizardry such as resizing the partition and making an empty one at the beginning of the disk? Also, are you guys really sure that the error could be actually related to the partition in the first place? Why would the installer look for the partition while it's actually scanning for compatible apps?
Paul, Windows 8 need 350 MB Partition as first one for to store the required System Restore Files. That's just a few of real System Restore Files, just those which is needed for booting the OS. As I was try to install Windows 8 without those Partition, I was directly get an installation error, so that Partition is needed. If from an old installation such Partition exist on an other (physical) HDD, Windows 8 may will install if the needed space is enough. Some people installing several OS's on different HDD's and using the Windows Boot Manager for to chose the Start Partition. In Windows 8 that has changed. If you install windows 7 beside of windows 8, while booting the Boot Manager will temporary change the boot files and the computer will once restart for to load those boot files of that OS which were chosen. Mal sehen wie das alles weitergeht!
I think it's because of the huge changes in Windows 8! The system files needed for booting are bigger than in Windows 7, that's one. Secondly, Windows 8 places it's Boot Manager ( files: bootmgr, BOOTNXT, BOOTSECT.BAK) and a Folder Boot (18,4MB), Recovery (203.3MB), System Volume Information and Recycle.bin on that Partition. Windows 7, if uses that partition of 100MB as well, have that files and folders too but Recovery! Here we go. Windows 8 will really need that partition of 350MB. That's why the computer will once restart if you use the Boot Manager for to chose between Windows 8 and other maybe installed OS's! You could try to create an empty 350MB Partition at the beginning of the HDD, but may didn't work!
It's impossible for the boot partition to be the issue, I just checked the other computer I successfully upgraded and it seems like it DOES NOT have a boot partition either
I don't know your hardware! I do know that I wasn't able to install Windows 8 without that System Reserved Partition. Sorry for could not help more.
when you say you weren't able to install Windows 8 without that System Reserved Partition, did you get the same error as me or something different?
Lol, a german speaking Thai. Seldom speciies lol anyway, I recorded my W8 disc layout for your reference: SSD 60 gig OZD and you can easily see a 100MB partition! It seems to be dynamic in size. View attachment 17383