win7 upgrade

i have a win7 pro coming in from microsoft unfortunately i didnt realize i brought the upgrade and not the full version so my question is this.

i am going to install win7 on a separate hard drive with dual booting with my xp pro. with xp upgrade if it didnt find a previous version all you had to do was insert the 98 or 2000 cd and xp would then take off and install. can i do that with win 7 ???

 

so they changed that ability huh. used to be the upgrade if it didnt find an installed windows would just ask for the cd of a previous version to verify the install. i honestly thought i brought the full version but looking back i see i didnt. darn.

 

Using MS Win7 UPgrade Disk
MS is being very gracious per allowing XP upgrade to w7.
BUT ... you need to provide and surrender your current "Active Product Key" for XP / Vista. If your intent is to continue to use your licensed / activate copy of XP Pro (per dual boot) you can not surrender it's Product Key. If you own any computer that is no longer in use AND has a valid activated XP or Vista Key, your good to go.

Using MS Win7 UPgrade Disk - per new, empty HDD
Again, you will need to provide and surrender a valid activated XP or Vista Key (after w7 install has completed). Their are work-arounds posted on Internet for this clean-install process ... not sure will work in "creating a dual-boot" configuration.
Until "Arie ", site owner of these forums comments / bless the workarounds, I'm not at liberty to provide links for workaround.

 

dennis l

am not trying to ***** m.s. out of monies by doing anything illegal this win7 is going on my test machine just so i can play and get familar with it to assist client base. personally for now am sticking with xp. i do have another xp home cd that wouldnt bother me to give up the license for this. so based on what your saying i can still install win7 to this separate drive and dual boot but will need to provide the key from a different xp cd ?

 

Correct
UPDATE - With reservation the XP key should be at "Activated" status at time of surrender.

 

steven

it has been activated. was an old system that a client gave back to me to dispose of and he also gave me the original cds. that should work - right.

 

steve

no the old machine is in the dump. so what you saying is i cant do a dual boot on my test machine with this upgrade version of win7 ? i dont want to lose my xp on this machine. right now to me xp is the best thing out there so until i play with 7 i cant get rid of it yet. this machine is basically a transfer machine when i do clients drive data backups and bug cleanings.

so have i wasted a hundred bucks on this version ?

 

Depending on the version, OEM or Retail, of the other XP key you could create a dual boot of XP of which both are activated. Then upgrade the second install of XP.

 

whiskeyman

now that is an idea. the key is retail. honestly dont think ive ever done a dual boot with both op sys being the same. good thinking man.