Yes,I have installed Windows 8 on my netbook. But it has wiped out my Windows 7 completely. What should I do?

Also, I repeat:

Cannot do an upgrade from Win7 to Win8 DP nor DP to Win8 Beta nor from Beta to RC nor RC to RTM or GA. Any & all of these migrations must be clean installs.

YES, Upgrade discs can be used to do clean installs.

And, Yes, ALL the Windows 7 SKUs are on any Win7 disc... what you get or install is determind by the KEY. When the OS is purchased, one is not buying the disc, they are buying a license for a particular flavour of the OS & that is tied to the KEY.

Cheers,
Drew

Originally Posted by NaiyaShamiso

You can, but it will note of that and the product key wont validate, because it is a clean install and not an upgrade.

With the reinstall, most likely you will have to do a full format and reinstall using an external media. Meaning a reinstall from a DVD or flash media. You will have to reinstall to Starter and then upgrade to Pro again though. If you use the 7 Premium and put in your key for Starter, it should work fine. Then upgrade using the Pro key it should activate with out any problems.

No Naiya,I cannot.

Because I looked on the web and on Digital River and there are no ISO files for Windows 7 Starter no.And also Windows 7 Starter on my netbook came without Service pack 1. Because I bought it before they brought out the service pack. And most ISO have service pack 1 included. Which is another problem.

There are ISO files for Home Premium,Professional,and Ultimate. But none for Windows 7 Starter which is what I would need like you said.

So my only option now, to reinstall Windows 7 is to buy a valid and legal copy,either from Microsoft or from the local computer store that sells them.

But it must be a full installation CD, not just an upgrade installation CD.And this will install Windows 7 from scratch. And I will also need to buy a CD drive because my netbook does not have a CD drive. But I can plug the CD drive into one of my 3 USB sockets on my netbook.And it will work.

But they do not sell Windows 7 Starter edition. Only Windows 7 Home Premium and above.

But if I am going to do a clean install of Windows 7,I don't need Windows 7 Starter.
Because if I buy a Legal and valid copy of Windows 7,if it be Windows 7 Home premium, Professional or Ultimate. Then it will come with a product key in the box or on the CD I am not sure. But I will have a legal copy of Windows with a valid product key. And once I have finished the Installation,Windows should activate.

But I was warned that once I install say Windows 7 Home Premium on one computer,and activate it. I cannot install it on a different computer.Because according to the Microsoft website and what the customer service adviser told me. I can only use and activate one copy of Windows per computer. So if my copy of Windows has already been activated on another computer. Activation will fail and Windows won't activate.So you can only use and activate one copy of Windows per computer.

So if I wanted to install Windows on 2 computers,I would have to buy 2 different copies of Windows 7. And they would each have different product keys.

So if I want to reinstall Windows 7 there is no way out,I will have to buy a Windows 7 CD and a CD drive to install Windows 7 again.And if I cannot do this myself. I will have to take it into a computer repair shop and they can install Windows for me.But they will charge me for it but Windows will be reinstalled.

But I know there is no upgrade from Windows 8 developers preview. But what I meant was that before the preview expires,we may be able to do a clean install of the Beta version of Windows 8. The same way we did a clean install of Windows 8 developers preview from our Windows 7. Andrea Borman.

Originally Posted by Drew

Also, I repeat:

Cannot do an upgrade from Win7 to Win8 DP nor DP to Win8 Beta nor from Beta to RC nor RC to RTM or GA. Any & all of these migrations must be clean installs.

YES, Upgrade discs can be used to do clean installs.
.....
Drew

That is inacurate, you can upgrade from XP and 7 to 8 DP. that is stated on the MSDN website under the heading Notes about installing the Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Windows Metro Style Apps Developer Downloads

It is true that you might not be able to upgrade from DP to Beta, but after that it is such small changes that it might be possible to do. Some upgrade disks can do full clean installs, but the product key will no be valid.

Andrea you are right about the SP 1, that could be a problem. The worst that can happen is you have to reinstall again. No worse then you are now. With the DVD drive, just make a bootable copy on flash media. Flash media can be anything SD, Smart Media, xD, MMC, RS Memory Stick, Compact Flash, Microdisk, or even a flash drive/thumb drive/USB drive. I know I have the Microsoft DVD to USD Drive, that creates a bootable disk on a flash media, then you don't to have a DVD drive to install the OS any more. It is inacurate that the COA will not authinticate again after the first time. There is a limit on how many times you can to do it, but I think it is up in the 20s still, I'll have to do research to be sure about a exact number. It is true you are only allowed to have it on as many computers as you have licences for at one time. So one licence, one computer at one time. If you remove it from that computer then you are allowed to install it to another computer, then remove it from that computer and you can install it to another computer, so forth and so on. If you install your copy on two differnt computers it might validate on both, though you are violating the EULA and that could get you in a little bit of hot water.

Naiya,I am getting confused when you said I have to reinstall Windows 7 Starter and then upgrade to Professional again from that.
As I don't want Windows 7 Starter anyway because of the restricted features. And also Microsoft and the shops do not sell Windows 7 Starter CDs.They only come with the netbook pre installed. So installing Windows 7 Starter is not an option.

But my plan is that I want to buy a Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional full installation CD.That I could buy direct from Microsoft or at my local computer store. And also buy a plug in CD drive for my netbook. And do a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional to get back Windows 7. And I was told on the phone from the shop keeper that a legal Windows 7 CD has a valid product key. Which I must use to activate Windows.

But my question is if I buy a Windows 7 CD and do a clean install of Windows 7,will I be able to activate Windows with the product key that will be on my Windows 7 Home premium or Professional CD that I will have bought? Or will this not work? Andrea Borman.

If you get a new copy, unless it is another any time upgrade to the same edition, you will have to use the key that comes with it. The anytime upgrade key will only work corectly for updrading from one edition of 7 to a higher edition. So in your case going from 7 Starter or Home to Pro. I still say try using the 7 Home disk using your key for starter then upgrading to Pro, but it is up to you what to do. The SP 1 may cause a problem, but you wont know till you try. Other than that I don't see any reason it wont work. It will save you a good bit of money as well.

Naiya,

We are both sorta right & sorta wrong & moreover I am talking Best, Acceptable, Recommend or Supported practises or Paths; but, anyway, here are the specifics:

If you are running Windows XP and trying to install Windows Developer Preview, it will overwrite your Windows XP installation unless you do a Dual Boot.Notes about installing the Windows 8 Developer Preview

A clean install is supported on all builds, but you can upgrade if you are installing a download without the developer tools. You will receive the full set of migration options when setup is launched in Windows. To dual-boot, you must first boot from media and choose an alternative partition.

Install on:	Windows 8 Developer Preview with developer tools	Windows 8 Developer Preview without developer tools (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows 7 and Windows Vista	Clean install only	You can keep accounts, files, and settings
Windows XP	Clean install only	You can only keep accounts and files

Yes, that is what an upgrade dose, it upgrades what you have. One of my professors defined it well, any install that is started inside your current OS and replaces the current OS is an upgrade. It doesn't matter how it dose it, just that those two requirements are met. So setting up a dual boot can be started inside the current OS, though that is still considered a full install, because you have and can run both OS instances.

As you can see Vista & Win7 are grouped together while XP is separate. XP does not share the same platform @ the kernel level w/ the other 2.

The term 'upgrade' gets used rather loosely by many ppl. There are Paths that are not possible or not wise. Throughout the entire time I was Beta Testing Vista & Windows 7 for MS none of the Builds were to be done by 'upgrading'. We, also, have found that the success rate using any upgrade route was poor... unreliable & problematic. Not only are upgrade paths often impossible, they can often come back to haunt you later.

Drew

Originally Posted by NaiyaShamiso

If you get a new copy, unless it is another any time upgrade to the same edition, you will have to use the key that comes with it.

But I was asking about if I bought a full installation CD of Windows 7 Home Premium that come with a product key on the CD on in the box.So I am told. can I not just use the product key that came with the copy of Windows 7 Home premium that I am going to buy to activate Windows?

The anytime upgrade key will only work corectly for updrading from one edition of 7 to a higher edition. So in your case going from 7 Starter or Home to Pro. I still say try using the 7 Home disk using your key for starter then upgrading to Pro, but it is up to you what to do.

But I thought that if you download say a Windows 7 professional ISO from the internet,that you CANNOT activate a Windows 7 Professional install or OS with a Windows 7 Starter product key.

The SP 1 may cause a problem, but you wont know till you try. Other than that I don't see any reason it wont work. It will save you a good bit of money as well.

But my netbook came with Windows 7 Starter without any service packs. And my any time upgrade to Professional on that same netbook was done long before I installed Service pack 1. So that version I has of Windows 7 professional did not have a service pack either.That was installed long afterwards.

So if I were to install a Windows 7 Professional for example which had service pack 1 included in it. The activation could fail because my Windows 7 Professional did not have a service pack . So the upgrade or product key which did not activate anyway. Was a Windows 7 Professional without the service pack.Which is what I had. That is a version of Windows 7 without the service pack.

So if I buy a Windows 7 CD and do a clean install of Windows 7 that way. Will windows activate or not?

Windows 7 Starter is not an option as they don't sell Windows 7 Starter CDs only Home premium and above. And I cannot restore to factory condition because the Windows 8 install wiped out my recovery data or partition. It is not there any more.

So I think a clean install of Windows 7 any version,Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate is the only option. And there should be a product key in the Windows 7 CD or copy of Windows I am going to buy.Andrea Borman.

Diferences in the kernel are there, though that is not the major issue. Notice that upgrading from Vista and 7, accounts, files and settings can be transfered. Then upgrading from XP accounts and files can be transfered. Notice that neither one said anything about software. My guess would be that both will run like upgrading from XP to 7. It will take information from the existing install and keep it to the side, then do a format on the drive. Then transfer into the new system the old information. This could be a reason that neither will allow the transfer of software, like has been done in previous versions of Windows. I'm not sure why you say the term is used loosely. It is prety simple, start from Windows, replace current Winodws...that is an upgrade.

You can do that, but it costs money, and I am trying to save you as much money as posable. Right, your key wont activate anything but Starter. Though if you enter your key the very first time it asks for it, not matter what 7 disk you are using it should install 7 Starter. Then you can use your anytime upgrade to go Pro. I know that back in the day with XP our product key didn't work with SP 1 included versions. Though I was informed that this is no longer the case. So I cannot tell you 100% if it will work or not, because I have not tryed it.