Ultimate upgrade failure!

C

cliftonbry

New Member
Recently I purchased the Windows Vista Ultimate for one of my older computers. I did this after running the Vista Compatibility Program and given the green light to upgrade to Ultimate. My system is currently running Vista Home Basic (32 bit).

I ran the Window Vista Ultimate with service pack 1, it ran its own compatibility program and I was able to continue. The installation goes smooth until the very end when windows is rebooting after the completion of the upgrade. This is where I have problems. It stops and tells me that my upgrade was unsuccessful and it’s reverting back to the previous OS, Windows Vista Home Basic.

This is very frustrating. I tried twice to install this upgrade, to include tweaking my system and making sure I had plenty of room on my hard drive. Also, I uninstalled Service Pack 2.

Seeing that I did everything I could, I need to know if I have the wrong version of Windows Vista Ultimate and if so, do I need to do a clean installation, using this version. Any assistance from the Forum will be appreciated. Thank you.
 

My Computer

System One

I will answer your question in a way that will surprise you. Regardless, of the results of the upgrade, ALWAYS do a clean install. Upgrades begin and end with problems. If you have the upgrade DVD, you can still do a clean install.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade-vista.html?ltr=C

Any problems, malware, virus, corruption that you had with the old OS, will carryforward to the upgrde.

Which would you prefer, your old car totally repaired, including a paint job or a new car. The same reasoning applies to upgrades. Other than marketing and sales reasons, I see no reason for MS to even suggest upgrades.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I think the only Windows upgrade I ever did that worked was Windows 3.1 to Win95. I think your options are, do the clean install as richc46 pointed out, or run the installer from Windows and see if it gives you the option of a Custom install. I've had good luck with these most of the time. It takes longer than a clean install, but the advantage is portable programs that weren't put under Program Files may still run just by making a shortcut.. and you have your old files in Windows.old in case you want to rummage through them. Once you're done mucking around in Windows.old you can use the Disk Cleanup utility to expunge all that stuff.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G
    2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
TY for the rep and kind words, Cliftonbry. I can tell you from experience that a new install is not difficult and not very time consumming. The actual install takes less time than an upgrade. As you need your programs you can install them, making one long tedious job very easy.

Since you showed so much appreciation for my suggestion, I will give you another. Do not give your key number, when asked; also, untick the box allowing automtic activation. Use your computer, test it be sure you like it and then (before 30 days) activate with the key. The first thing that you do after activation is make a system image on a separate hard drive and update it once a month. Doing this insures that you will never have to activate again and, in addition, you will never have a problem that you cannot solve.

Best of luck to you my friend.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
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