Try to Upgrade (or repair) from Trial to OEM --- not working

I recently bought an OEM Windows XP x64 version from Newegg.com. According to
this post (http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64/archive/2006/05/29/97575.aspx),
it shouldn't be a problem to do an upgrade if the trial version has not
expired. My trial version has NOT expired.

In fine fashion, nothing I touch ever goes according to plan. Here's where
I'm at. I started the "upgrade" and I think there are 4-5 steps to complete
the upgrade/installation. It got to the 3rd (I think) step where the files
were being read from the XP x64 disk. The computer restarted and proceeded
into a constant loop of restarting over and over again.

So then decided to try the "repair" method. I get to F8 (agree to license),
hit the "r" for repair, Windows then copies the files from the CD and comes
back with the message "Setup has already attempted to upgrade XP x64... to
complete the upgrade hit Enter; to quit, F3; for a fresh install ESC. Are you
kidding me!! How frustrating!! I hit the Enter to complete the upgrade and
just as I thought get thrown back into the same loop as before.

Some other things that may help. My trial Window XP x64 is on an E:
partition of a SATA hard drive. Windows 2000 Pro is installed on another SATA
hard drive (C drive. I'd like to keep my Dual boot and keep XP x64 on the
E: drive. It looks like during the install Windows has placed some file on my
C: drive... is that part of the installation process... why would it access
my C drive? Is this install trying to install on my C: Drive?? The files I'm
talking about are in the following folders: $WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS

During the two attempts to upgrade/repair I used the F6 during process for
windows to install my controller drivers. I've had to do this with all my OS
installations.

Any help in getting me out of this loop and installing XP x64 without having
to do a clean install? Thanks!

 

You shouldn't have had to use F6, and that may actually have created the
problem. When running from within an existing version (ie, as an upgrade),
it should have grabbed the existing drivers.

As for what to do now, I'd start by setting your boot up to not
automatically restart on failure - that way you can give us the failure
code, so we have a chance of sorting it. It's possible that you're now in a
place where there's no real way to win and you'll have to do a fresh
install, but first things first - we need the stop message.

(BTW, the reason it puts files on your C: drive is that C: is your boot
drive. And the last OS installed controls the boot drive in a multi-boot
scenario.)

 

I think trying to an "update" was the catalyst to your
problems. I have been with this forum since before the
final release of Win XP x64 and the method of getting from
the Trial version to a full OEM version has always been to
do a Repair Install after getting past F8 for the EULA. It
has never been posted that one should do an "upgrade" from
the current installation.

You may well be stuck as a result and you're only option may
be to wipe out your current installation and start fresh.

 

You shouldn't have had to use F6, and that may actually have created the

The loop happened before I tried the F6. After I discovered I was in the
loop, I booted from the CD (my only other choice) and was then asked to press
the F6 to load additional drivers.

Stop error is: 0x0000001E
With my original trial version, I could never do any updates. Never knew
why, and could never google a concrete answer as to why other than the trial
version would not allow updates. Would it be too hard for a simple message on
the Microsoft download page to say "the trial version cannot do updates??"
Anyway, just another beef of incomplete documentation.

The last OS I installed was the XP x64 trial version on my E: drive. My
computer would automatically boot into XP x64 unless I changed it to Windows
2000.

Thanks for your help!

 

The only way to preserve the drive letter enumeration across operating
systems at the time of installation is to be able to run Setup for the
second OS from the desktop of the first (then Setup uses the enumeration
already set up by the running OS). Unfortunately, as you know Vista x64
Setup is itself a 64-bit program and cannot run from your 2000 desktop.
Since you had to boot with the dvd there was no way to preserve W2k's same
drive lettering.

 

True for Vista, but XP64 will enumerate drives on the first boot according
to the Win2k enumeration, with very minor exceptions. I have on numerous
occasions gotten XP64 to enumerate the letter I wanted by playing with the
drives that are connected, how they are connected and whether they are
primary or logical.

 

Sounds like you may be hitting the 'hit any key'. That should only be done
on the first try. You should not have to do an F6 as you already have
drivers. After the process of upgrading completes, you will have to
reinstall all of the updates from Windows Updates. If the trial copies
wouldn't allow the updates, we would not have had so many complain about the
time required to reapply updates they had already done. Is there a
possibility that your installed version is a later version than the one you
got one the OEM CD from NewEgg?

 

Thanks for your response Colin. Unfortunately I'm sure what it means, or how
it pertains to my problem. Sorry, not real tech saavy. I'm basically asking
how I can install XP x64 as a dual boot on my particular system. The trial XP
x64 (without sp2) installs fine as a dual boot.

Here is where I am at this point. I tried an Update (from trial version to
OEM full version, sp2), Repair install, and now a clean install (reformatting
the partition) of XP x64 (sp2) on my E: drive partition (the partition is on
a separate drive than my C: Windows 2000 install). I get the same stop error
(0x01E). http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=183169
Not sure what to try next.

I found this site
(http://www.chovy.com/personal/install-sata-hdd-on-asus-a8v-deluxe-motherboard/),
which describes the installation procedure for XP on my particular MOBO (I'm
not using RAID however). See comment #9289, as it describes my same problem
with XP x64. Although he doesn't give his particular Stop Error, I'll bet
it's the same as mine. It seems he has tried everything without success:
"I have an ASUS A8V Deluxe board and trying to setup two 74Gig raptors as
Raid 0 using VIA chip. I am able to Raid them and install Winodws x64 on
them, however as soon as Windows x64 restarts after finishing installation,
my computer keeps restarting. I tried flashing BIOS to the latest revision,
tried the 64Bit version of VIA controller drivers, same problem. I tried
unpluging any other hardware leaving only the basic hardware components, same
problem. I tried 3 different sticks of RAM in different sockets, same
problem. I am going insane. Can my mb be bad? The strange thing is that I
have another regular SATA drive which had windows 32Bit installation on it. I
tried to connect it, and I was able to boot in to windows."

Still searching for a solution. Thanks.

 

John... sorry I didn't see your post before my last post. Just to answer some
of your questions. The first time I tried to do the upgrade (from trial to
OEM), I did not hit the F6 key. I only hit the F6 key when I knew it failed
to do the upgrade. And, No, my OEM version includes sp2, so I assume this is
a newer version to the trial. The trial does not include sp2, and I could
never get sp2 to update the trial version... forgot the error I was getting.

I think my MoBo is to blame. With all the searching I've done on this issue,
there have been nothing but problems with it (ASUS A8V Deluxe).

 

If the trial did not incorporate SP2 then you would not have been able to do
a repair install at all. The cd and the installed software have to be at
the same service pack level in order to do a repair install. If not, it
fails (by design). You could have done a repair install only if the trial
and the new cd were both Gold or both at SP2 level.

 

I've come to the conclusion that sp2 will just not work on my system. I'm
tired of trying to get this to work.

Question: Can I go back and install the trial version of XP x64 and register
it with the EOM license of the XP x64 sp2 I just bought? I will use sp1 until
something changes where I can upgrade to xp2.

Thanks,

 

The Trial version will not accept an OEM key, and an OEM
version will not accept a Trial key. I have personally
tried it.

 

Sorry, but the trial version is a time out version and the only way to apply
your license is to upgrade with the OEM version. It is hard to believe the
trial is still at SP1, but personally I would try installing the clean SP2
you just bought. Good luck.

 

If XP64 and XP32 have the same functionality, then this apparently doesn't
work. I had to do a reinstall of XP32 with sole SATA-drives. I tried to do
a clean install, but since the floppy-drive is dead, I could nto load the
SATA-drivers. The I thought to outsmart the system, and start the
installation from within the running Windows, and it started briefly, and
then said it could not read the C:-drive. That was the end of that :-(
I used nLite to create a custom CD with the drivers included, and voila, a
clean install was possible

jud

 

Can I somehow install only sp1 from my OEM disk? Any other suggestions?

Microsoft, why don't you put up the most recent version of XP x64 as the
trial version so those of us who would like to test before we buy it can do
so!! Why would you put out an old version to test??? Yes, the old version
works for me, but the new one, I can't even install!!! Thanks!!

 

There never was a separate SP1 package. XP Pro x64 released at service pack
level 1 already when it came out. SP1 is simply built in.