Home Premium 64 bit to Ultimate 64 bit Upgrade Issues

[Gregg Fowler]

I have a Intel Core 2 Quad at 2.33GHz with 8GB ram and am having
difficulties getting Premium 64 to upgrade to Ultimate 64 bit. It makes it
all the way through until it is finishing up and fails stating it failed to
load device or devices. It does get the video and display drivers as the
display has already chaged. In the event logs there are errors that mention
Flash device failed to load and another that it could not find 32 bit
processor. I am thinking that both of these are related to Flash. Is Flash a
known issue in upgrading 64 bit. Would it be prudent to delete flash and
retry. I have tried twice and failed twice at seemingly the same point. If I
can't get the upgrade done, I may just clean install as I am thinking about
enabling RAID with striping over three disks and I would have to clean
install anyway. I am wondering why the upgrade is not taking. It seems it
should be a simple task since it is 64 bit already. If I do a clean install
I may image what I have first for a quick return if there are problems. Any
ideas?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Gregg.

You didn't say which version of Flash, but you might start your research on
Adobe's website. It's hard to get a straight answer there, but read here:
Flash Player support on 64-bit operating systems
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=6b3af6c9&sliceId=1

Or this one:
Install Adobe Flash Player
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Adobe has been VERY SLOW to make Flash work right on 64-bit Windows. We
have to read their pages VERY CAREFULLY to be sure they are talking about
64-bit; too often we follow their primrose path only to find - at the very
end - that they meant 32-bit, or at best, 32-bit Flash on a 64-bit OS. :>(

Perhaps your best plan would be to uninstall Flash in Home Premium x64, then
upgrade to Ultimate x64, and then try to install Flash again from Adobe's
website.

Personally, I almost always prefer a clean install to an upgrade. Even when
the upgrade works, many users have reported that they eventually reformatted
and did a clean install anyhow.

We all will be interested in hearing how this goes for you.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2009 in Win7 Ultimate x64 7000)

 

[RalfG]

You could try dual booting first to debug potential problems instead of
going straight to a clean install. Is there no upgrade advisor to warn about
potential issues in your existing OS? If it is only Flash preventing the
update I'd just uninstall it.

 

[Gregg Fowler]

You could try dual booting first to debug potential problems instead of
going straight to a clean install. Is there no upgrade advisor to warn
about potential issues in your existing OS? If it is only Flash preventing
the update I'd just uninstall it.

I think it might be flash. I am just not sure. It appears that might be an
issue because of the event logs. No there is no advisor for 64bit as far as
I know. I also do not think you can use an upgrade to dual boot. I think is
has to be installed on the same partition as the OS being upgraded. I may
try one more time with Flash uninstalled for the heck of it and if it
doesn't work do a clean install and build a three disk Raid array in the
process. Thanks for the replies.

Gregg

 

[RalfG]

I recall reading in a different thread that Flash is apparently incompatible
with 64 bit Vista. I recall the Vista upgrade advisor listing several apps
or drivers it recommended removing before running the upgrade. Some could be
reinstalled afterwards, some needed updating but some were not compatible
with Vista at all.

Quote: Re: Using 32 bit IE7 with 64 bit Vista
--

Adobe currently doesn't have a flash player which works with the 64 bit
Vista Home Premium edition. I'd like to use the 32 bit version of IE7
so that I can install and use the flash player.

endQuote:

I don't know if Vista 64bit upgrade is different but other upgrade packages
can be installed clean as a dual boot. Assuming you already have an empty
partition you can put the second OS into, boot into your normal OS then
insert the upgrade disc, when it starts look at the alternative installation
options it gives you, if any.