Windows Vista Upgrade Problem

[bggowing]

I've got 3 computers in the district office running Windows Vista and Office 2007. I need to upgrade them to Windows 7 Pro and Office 2010. I have downloaded volume license copies of both W7 Pro and O2010. I keep getting the error message "Microsoft Setup Bootstrapper has stopped working". I've tried everything that I've googled which relates to DEP and I still can't get around it.

I'd like to avoid having to do a ground-up install of Windows 7 if I can. Any one run into this when upgrading from Vista? Any other program installs fine by the way. It's just these 2 MS products that are causing me to tear what little hair I have left out.

Thanks,
Brian

[cw4u]

Are you able to start the upgrade process from within Windows? Or are you booting up from the CD? On my MacBook, I had to copy the disc over to my hard drive and use that.

[bpalermini]

This does not answer your question directly but I strongly recommend that you do a clean install instead of an upgrade. That's what I did with my Vista machine after hearing about many, many issues with upgrading. You can also go 64 bit if you do a clean install which will take advantage of more memory than a 32 bit install.

You may need to call MS to get them to let you do a clean install as upgrade disks look for proof of XP or Vista on the drive before they run but it is worth the effort.

[bggowing]

Derek, either way I get the same result.

Bob, that's what I'm trying to avoid but I suspect I'm going to have to do that.

[bpalermini]

It only hurts for a couple of hours. After that you will be very happy you did it.

[cw4u]

Will they let you do a clean install with an upgrade only license? I know non-profit licenses for some reason are upgrade only which really hurts when you're building computers.

Doing a clean install should fix the issue but who knows. Just move your user profile over and it's not so bad.

[bggowing]

The Windows 7 license is actually both the full and upgrade versions so I've got a choice.

On 2 of the computers it won't be that big of a hassle. On the superintendent's computer it's a pain since he has sensitive data all over the place and he has to be in attendance while I copy the files over to a protected hard drive and also find all the programs that he has so I can reinstall them.

[blonborg]

Brian, if you're doing a fresh install, you might consider "upgrading" his hard disk. Disks are cheap these days. Take his current drive out and hand it to him for safe keeping.

Take his pc and "upgrade" it, installing Windows 7, Office 2010, and whatever else he needs. Once you're done, hook up his old hard disk and copy the data.

Wipe that disk to use as a spare or the next upgrade. bill

[bggowing]

Bill, since we had a spare, identical computer sitting around doing nothing I convinced him to let me upgrade that one then transfer his files over to that one along with any programs he needs. I'm going to let the old one sit next to his replacement in his office for a month so he can make sure that everything has been copied over. Then I'm going to take the drive out of the old one and install a new one and repeat the process for the office administrator. Thanks!

[bpalermini]

Sounds like a long and complicated process. You might never get the old machine back. I hope they learn something about keeping their data in one place.