ffs microsoft, can't upgrade from XP to 8.1

jojo69

jojo69

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
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working on the GF's old dell, she has a valid 8.1 key she purchased

run the upgrade assistant, it comes back that the hardware is good

click next and it says windows 8 is not available for sale in your country/region

region is USA, checked region settings...W T F ??

google the problem and everybody says to set compatibility mode on the assistant to XP SP3, but the box is already running XP SP3 so that does not appear in the compatibility mode dropdown options

what the actual flip?? not available?

shaking my head
 
Write down the programs installed

Copy C:\Documents and Settings\%username% to an external harddrive + any other locations that may contain personal user files

Install 8.1 from scratch
 
ok yeah, except that, as I understand it, installation media is not available for download

we have a valid key, but no media, so our only path is the upgrade tool unless I am missing something

and why, oh why, is it "not available in your country/region" when we are in the US?? this is just so microsoft...classic, you have to upgrade...but the ways to do so are all broken
 
Yup, I thought they were doing it at one point but current research shows it's not readily available.
 
You can find legit MSDN/RTM ISO's on torrents. The one thing that kind of comes in real handy (legally) is for this very reason. Microsoft's network is complete and utter shit when it comes to getting a full retail ISO where you then have the key.

Those things should always be available from Microsoft. It costs them nothing data wise to store it.
 
ISO is perfectly legal to download, ffs. Just get one from a torrent and quit crying. It's the licenses they charge for (and which you have one of), not ISOs. Do you really think Bill Gates gives a hoot if people share install disks?
 
windows easy transfer is your friend it also gives nice reports of programs needed to install and id go with 7
 
Xinmosni said:
ISO is perfectly legal to download, ffs. Just get one from a torrent and quit crying. It's the licenses they charge for (and which you have one of), not ISOs. Do you really think Bill Gates gives a hoot if people share install disks?
Click to expand...

Kinda missing the point.. these workarounds to download media shouldn't need to be taken in the first place; they didn't exist w/ Vista or 7. As of now, there's no way to download an ISO directly from MS.

There's a lot of MS dropping the ball with Windows 8/8.1/8.1.1 which I attribute largely to them thinking their shit don't stink and not considering how bad Windows can bone itself. Two big ones imo, they killed reliable access to safe mode (how do you boot into windows to reboot into safe mode if you can't boot in the first place?). Also, they made it absolutely impossible to upgrade to 8.1/8.1.1 if you've used sysprep to relocate your home folder - something very common with SDD as boot and HDD as data.

*edit*

And another biggy, Windows Recovery is broken out of the box on a clean install of 8.1, and likely an 8.1 upgrade (since the 8.1 WinPE is bigger than 8 - Error 0x80780119). The hidden recovery partition on the C drive created during Setup isn't large enough to actually create the shadow copies it needs to be able to create recovery.

Don't ffs someone simply because you didn't have an issue. With all of the push to upgrade from XP, you'd expect there to be far fewer major hurdles hindering the process.
 
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OK, up till now I was just mildly annoyed and somewhat amused

As I indicated above, I ran the compatibility tool under XP and it said we were good hardware wize, well, after I stuffed some more DDR2 in anyway

so I pave the drive to 7 and go to upgrade

Oh, hold on, your processor does not support PrefetchW...nice, you know what Microsoft? fucking die in a fire. I ran the tool and it was like oh, you might have to install a new app for you webcam...not YOUR COMPUTER CAN NOT RUN THE OS!!

what a flaming bucket of fail
 
Xinmosni said:
ISO is perfectly legal to download, ffs. Just get one from a torrent and quit crying. It's the licenses they charge for (and which you have one of), not ISOs. Do you really think Bill Gates gives a hoot if people share install disks?
Click to expand...


riiiiiight

just install the OS from some random ISO file off some torrent site and then turn her loose to do her banking and stuff, you, sir, are brilliant
 
jojo69 said:
riiiiiight

just install the OS from some random ISO file off some torrent site and then turn her loose to do her banking and stuff, you, sir, are brilliant
Click to expand...



Only the ones that provide the checksum, which you can then verify yourself and is openly public from Microsoft when they release the ISO's on their site. Hence the "untouched" MSDN/RTM/Microsoft ISO.

There is no way in hell that md5/sh1 hash will come out the same if it was tampered with.
 
Is this what you tried?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only

I have a copy of the files on my PC right now via this tool -- I know it requires a lot of fiddling and fussing, but I think if I can manage it, you can get it downloaded and copied to a disc or USB drive -- and you have a Win 8.1 key too. I had to screw around for hours trying to trick this thing into allowing me to download Win 8.1 and then find a "generic" key to install cleanly with a Win 8 key...

Thinking on it, XP -- lol -- why the lengthy wait to upgrade? Just wondering....
 
true dat on the MD5 Liger88, but just one more hoop to jump through

sonsonate, yes, that site, it appears that the PrefetchW error is actually a mistake in the upgrade tool and a standalone installer should work, see http://www.eightforums.com/installa...ys-won-t-work-pentium-4-prescott-630-a-2.html

so yes, I am now learning how to "trick" a system to create the required ISO

It would seem the other option is to install 32bit 7 and upgrade to 32bit 8.1 from there as some posts suggests the PrefetchW error only manifests in 64bit

This is proving to be every bit as painful as any windows migration I have ever done...progress

As far as the wait, she had a valid XP on the box and it did what she needed
 
yeah, from XP SP3 to 8, or from 7 or 8 to 8.1, not from XP SP3 to 8.1

and then just cross your fingers and hope that your CPU meets the surprise PrefetchW requirement not mentioned when you started
 
jojo69 said:
OK, up till now I was just mildly annoyed and somewhat amused

As I indicated above, I ran the compatibility tool under XP and it said we were good hardware wize, well, after I stuffed some more DDR2 in anyway

so I pave the drive to 7 and go to upgrade

Oh, hold on, your processor does not support PrefetchW...nice, you know what Microsoft? fucking die in a fire. I ran the tool and it was like oh, you might have to install a new app for you webcam...not YOUR COMPUTER CAN NOT RUN THE OS!!

what a flaming bucket of fail
Click to expand...
Presumably you were running 32-bit Windows XP and are trying to install 64-bit Windows 8.1, which is why you confused the upgrade wizard (you can never upgrade cross-architecture). You can run the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1 on your CPU, but not the 64-bit version.
 
Edit: Nevermind, didn't see 8.1 doesn't even run.
 
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jojo69 said:
OK, up till now I was just mildly annoyed and somewhat amused

As I indicated above, I ran the compatibility tool under XP and it said we were good hardware wize, well, after I stuffed some more DDR2 in anyway

so I pave the drive to 7 and go to upgrade

Oh, hold on, your processor does not support PrefetchW...nice, you know what Microsoft? fucking die in a fire. I ran the tool and it was like oh, you might have to install a new app for you webcam...not YOUR COMPUTER CAN NOT RUN THE OS!!

what a flaming bucket of fail
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but if you try to install Win8 to an XP era computer you're the one failing. Just ditch the hardware or switch to linux - it's not like you can do anything else with it than browse the net anyway.
 
not mine to ditch

and according to my research the CPU will run 64 bit 8.1 if only I can get good install media, it is running 64 bit 7 right now...just no key

browsing the web and a little word processing is all it is for, don't be a hardware snob
 
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