Clean/Fresh install with Enterprise and/or Ultimate

[Guest]

I know this has been gone over but I haven't seen an Enterprise thread.
So here at our school, we received a Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise
Upgrade DVD as well as an Ultimate Upgrade DVD. We also received 4 CDs of
Business Upgrade and 4 CDs that are Enterprise Upgrade.

So...let's concentrate on Enterprise and Ultimate.
1. Do I need to have XP installed on a drive before I can install Enterprise
or Ultimate?

2. As a school with a Campus Agreement, is there such a thing as a DVD or
set of CDs that can be booted to and installed on a hard drive THAT HAS NO OS
on it?

3. If we need to have XP installed prior to installing Ent/Ultimate - is
there a way to tell the install to NOT keep the previous version of XP? I'm
talking about the Windows.old folder.

4. I have yet to be prompted for a key code upon installation. Is this
normal? If there truly are all versions on a DVD and they are "unlocked" by
the product key you type in, then how is my install explained?

Thanks,
pez

 

[Mike Brannigan]

I know this has been gone over but I haven't seen an Enterprise thread.
So here at our school, we received a Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise
Upgrade DVD as well as an Ultimate Upgrade DVD. We also received 4 CDs of
Business Upgrade and 4 CDs that are Enterprise Upgrade.

So...let's concentrate on Enterprise and Ultimate.
1. Do I need to have XP installed on a drive before I can install
Enterprise
or Ultimate?

as a rule yes the upgrade DVDs are supposed to be run from inside a
qualifying existing installed genuine and activated operating system such as
Windows XP.

2. As a school with a Campus Agreement, is there such a thing as a DVD or
set of CDs that can be booted to and installed on a hard drive THAT HAS NO
OS
on it?

The full products allow a boot from media and install to a bare drive -
however under the Volume License you may only have access to upgrade media -
see you agreement administrator for more information on products available
to you.

3. If we need to have XP installed prior to installing Ent/Ultimate - is
there a way to tell the install to NOT keep the previous version of XP?
I'm
talking about the Windows.old folder.

No - the Windows.old (and Programs.old) will be created if you do an install
and choose to not do an in place upgrade, of course you can remove this
post install and your system will be the same as one installed from bootable
media to a bare drive.

4. I have yet to be prompted for a key code upon installation. Is this
normal? If there truly are all versions on a DVD and they are "unlocked"
by
the product key you type in, then how is my install explained?

The Ultimate Edition should prompt for a key - the Enterprise Edition may
not as you are expected to be working against a Key Management Server (KMS)
within your network.
Usually you must at least choose the version of Vista to install UNLESS your
media only has one version on it -as is the case with Enterprise.
If you do get to choose the type then you can still add your product key
later.

For your Enterprise install contact your campus admin about the process to
activate as they may be using a KMS or they may issue you with a key and you
may be required to perform a couple of extra steps to ensure this goes
smoothly.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mike. Unfortunately, I'm sort of taking the lead with figuring this
stuff out so there really is no Agreement Admin to go to. We're having a
conference call with our reseller on Wednesday so I wanted to get some info
beforehand.

One thing though - they told us that Microsoft WAS ONLY issuing Upgrade
DVD/CDs and that there was no such thing as a "stand-alone" installer.

Are you familiar with the terminology so I would know what to ask for?

pez

 

[Mike Brannigan]

Thanks Mike. Unfortunately, I'm sort of taking the lead with figuring this
stuff out so there really is no Agreement Admin to go to. We're having a
conference call with our reseller on Wednesday so I wanted to get some
info
beforehand.

One thing though - they told us that Microsoft WAS ONLY issuing Upgrade
DVD/CDs and that there was no such thing as a "stand-alone" installer.

Are you familiar with the terminology so I would know what to ask for?

pez

Hi - yes almost without exception volume licenses sold by Microsoft are
upgrade licenses and thus the media is upgrade media.
The issue here is that an upgrade XP CD would allow a full clean install but
an upgrade Vista DVD or CD is usually for use only as an upgrade from within
an activate OS.

Other methods of purchasing products are available as upgrade or as your
contact has called it stand alone - also often referred to as Full version.

So it looks like you are not able to get a hold of Full media under your
volume licensing agreement (this is normal).

There is of course a kind of work around if you want to do an old style bare
drive clean install.
Just boot from the DVD, and when prompted to enter the product key - do not
and then select the version of vista you want to install - do a full clean
install.
Once that is done run the upgrade over the top of the clean install from
that runing clan Vista - so it is still clean but this time enter the
product key.

 

[Guest]

THANKS Mike.
None of our Upgrade versions are bootable.
What now?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

The Vista upgrade DVDs are indeed bootable.
There might be a problem with the boot options in your BIOS settings.

If all else fails, you can do a quick XP install, then open the Vista DVD
from within XP.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Mike Brannigan]

THANKS Mike.
None of our Upgrade versions are bootable.
What now?

If you are certain that your media is not bootable - I suggest you do lots
of checks to ensure that is definitely the case then your options are to do
an XP install and then upgrade.
Or image you are doing a corporate/campus large scale deployment and build a
gold image using the upgrade over an XP and then deploy this completed image
to your machines.
This is all documented in the BDD and AIK for Windows Vista, This would be
an acceptable method of a campus rollout - however if this is just for you
then you have to accept that this is an upgrade and if your media is
definitely not bootable then you do an upgrade from within a running XP
install.