Not too confusing I hope :). I bought an upgrade to move from XP to win7. I wanted to put the upgrade on a new HD so I could keep the old install intact while getting Win 7 working. Good thing too because I have had all kinds of problems getting everything to work. The Win 7 install went fine the first time and the next day the new HD died. Got that replaced and installed again and all seemed fine. I swear that I activated the program but maybe I missed the error message the first time. I had most of the software I use loaded and then I got busy with a customer and went back to XP to get the work done. Yesterday, I decided to finish the install and Win 7 working in production and my 30 days had timed out. When I tried to activate the the program I got the error that I could not do a clean install with an upgrade version.

Today I started over by installing XP on my new drive and then installing Win 7. I am sure now that it activated properly and I am about 50% done installing software again.

The big issue is I did not see any visual clue that windows was not activated until it timed out. Oh well. Live and learn. I really didn't need those two days anyway.

See you later.

>>Hi All,
>>
>>I just had a very frustrating experience with Windows 7 that I thought I would share. Some time ago I added a new HD to my computer and installed Win 7 upgrade that I had purchased. I did this because I have never liked upgrading an existing install. All went well and I can even remember activating windows. I installed most of my programs I use and had it just about ready to use. Then I got busy taking care of a customer and stayed with XP for over a month. Yesterday, I started finishing my new install and all I got was a black screen that said I did not have a valid copy of windows. I tried to activate again but I received an error that my copy of windows had to be used for an upgrade not a clean install. I called MS and they said that I had to install XP first and then install Win 7. I explained to them that the drive that had XP on it was visible to Win 7 but they said that would not work. So a day and a half of work done the tube. GRRRRR.
>>
>>Not sure if anyone has any ideas but maybe someone my see this before they make the same mistake.
>
>I find this rather confusing.
>First you've said you bought an upgrade and you did this because you've never liked upgrades.
>How can you install most of your programs if you never got the OS upgrade finished?
>Lastly - if you buy an upgrade version of windows you can't do a clean install.