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Upgrading to Win 7 Home Premium SP1 from Vista Home Premium SP2

Trying to upgrade a Vista Home Premium SP2  to Win 7 Home Premium SP1 on ACER Aspire Laptop with 2 Gb Memory, 120 Gb HD, 2 Ghz 32 bit

first attempt I removed symantec AV and ran upgrade Failed with message "The upgrade was not successful.  Your previous version of windows is being restored."

Restore was successful.  System was workable.

Attempt #2 I found a message that provided details to try
Thru MSCONFIG Hide MS Services. Disabled all other services.  Disabled all Startup items
Open CMD as administrator
typed net user Administrator password
typed net user Administrator /active:yes
Restarted computer then restarted Win 7 upgrade again.  FAILED Again no error messages.

Restore was successful. System was workable.

Help.  I do not want to do a clean install.  files are not well organized.  I did make an acronis [2012] true image before the first attempt.

At the point of failure on attempt #1  I did see the BSOD flash by but could not read it.

Not sure if BSOD happen on attempt #2

Computer is not here.  It is at friend's house.

Help!!

Bob
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LeeTutor
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You can disable the Automatic Restart on Error option that is the default action in Vista, so that the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error message and STOP code can be read, as explained on this page:

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/disable_automatic_restart_to_read_blue_screen_messages.htm
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bob8627

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LeeTutor

Thank you very much for the suggestion.  Will make the change.  Do you have any other suggestions?  Three hours is a long time for one test.

Thanks again,
Bob
Without knowing what the BSOD error was, it is difficult to know what else to try except general error correction methods, for example:  you could run CHKDSK on the hard drive of the Vista computer to see if there are errors that can be corrected.  You could run the System File Checker by going to an Administrative Command Prompt and typing:

SFC  /SCANNOW

The previous errors from the attempted installations of Win7 might be available in the Event Viewer logs.  Here is a basic page on how to use that:

http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/windows-vista-event-viewer
If you haven't already done so, run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and correct any problems it identifies.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor?SignedIn=1
From what I've read on here it's probably a driver issue.  You'll have to do what LeeTutor said above to disable the automatic restart, then in the BSOD you'll see an ALL_CAPS_LINE_LIKE_THIS.  That's what matters.

It could simply be the video card driver.  Go into Device Manager and uninstall the video card under "Display Adapters".  Then try to perform the upgrade.

If it still doesn't work, you may just not be able to perform the upgrade and will have to perform a clean install of the system.  Basically, copy all of your files to a flash drive or external hard drive, then reinstall Windows, wiping everything out on the computer, then copy your files back to your computer.

Out of the 100+ Windows Vista upgrades to Windows 7 I did last year, about 70% of them works, the others turned out like this and I had to do a clean install.
Even though Windows 7 upgrade failed, did you check to see if there were any recent BSOD dump files in c:\windows\minidump folder?  The filename will contain the date.

In addition to the Windows 7 upgrade advisor, run the System Update Readiness Tool  - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-is-the-System-Update-Readiness-Tool

Remove all security related apps - use removal tools - http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146

Run SFC - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

Check Acer Support for Windows 7 drivers for the system in question - http://support.acer.com/us/en/default.aspx

Disconnect peripheral devices - printer, mouse, etc...

Regards. . .

jcgriff2 MVP
Given that the upgrade failed under clean boot conditions (MSCONFIG disabling all but MS services and all other start up items), this unit may not be capable of running Win 7.  As has already been suggested, check Acer's support site for this particular model's capability of running Win 7.  If no Win 7 drivers are offered, then it's likely that this model wont run Win 7 and because no Win 7 drivers are offered, this is the manufacturers way of showing their non support for Win 7.

I've seen a HP model that came with 3GB RAM, an Intel Core2 Duo 2Ghz processor, a Nvidea 500MB dedicated video card and a 300GB hard drive NOT supported for Win 7.  This list of hardware clearly indicates Win 7 should run on it, but the upgrade attempts failed.  HP had no Win 7 drivers and no workable drivers could be found.  The unit had to be restored to Vista.
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To All,

Thank you for all your suggestions.  Unfortunalely, I will be unavailable until April 19th to make any tests.

Blessings,
Bob
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After two failures this info solidified the approach I need to convince the client to accept this solution

Thanks again,
Bob