Vista Ultimate would not allow upgrade due to Service Pack

[Jonathan Boyko]

Hey, all

I am having certain problem upgrading my Vista.

About two years ago I bought Windows Vista Ultimate x32 disc to upgrade my
older laptop. However, back then... Well, Vista was far from perfect back
then, no SP1... So I put it in a drawer.

Now I bought a new HP laptop, boasting Vista Home Premium SP1. Thanks to
Service Pack 1, Vista finally reached the level I can use it, so I thought
of upgrading Vista to Ultimate. Unfortunately, the Setup would not allow
me to upgrade, saying the version on the laptop is newer than the DVD installation
(laptop has SP1, DVD not).

Now, question, what should I do? Was buying Ultimate just a waste of money?
How do I go about upgrading it now? I tried to see if I can uninstall Service
Pack 1, however, the OS came with SP1 built-in, thus I cannot uninstall it.

Any ideas? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hey, all

I am having certain problem upgrading my Vista.

About two years ago I bought Windows Vista Ultimate x32 disc to upgrade my
older laptop. However, back then... Well, Vista was far from perfect back
then, no SP1... So I put it in a drawer.

Now I bought a new HP laptop, boasting Vista Home Premium SP1. Thanks to
Service Pack 1, Vista finally reached the level I can use it, so I thought
of upgrading Vista to Ultimate. Unfortunately, the Setup would not allow
me to upgrade, saying the version on the laptop is newer than the DVD
installation (laptop has SP1, DVD not).

Now, question, what should I do? Was buying Ultimate just a waste of
money? How do I go about upgrading it now? I tried to see if I can
uninstall Service Pack 1, however, the OS came with SP1 built-in, thus I
cannot uninstall it.

Any ideas? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

You probably wasted your money. Try for a refund. I assume that you did not
pay too much for an old version of Ultimate..

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Mike Hall - MVP,
Well, I bought it when it was still new.

That's it? M$ is *that* dumb? Or is it the greed talking?

Any ideas if its possible to slipstream SP1 into installation?

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



M> M>M> You probably wasted your money. Try for a refund. I assume that you
M> did not pay too much for an old version of Ultimate..
M>

 

[Curious]

What features are there in Ultimate that are not in Home Premium that you
need?
It may be possible if you can borrow a Vista 32 bit SP1 installation DVD to
use the key that came with your Ultimate upgrade DVD to do the upgrade.
If you have the retail version of Vista Ultimate Upgrade it should have come
with both a 32 bit installation DVD and a 64 bit installation DVD so if your
new laptop is 64 bit capable and you can borrow a SP1 UltimateDVD then you
may be able to upgrade direct to 64 bit.

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Curious,
Well, one of the options I want most is the ability to install Language Packs.
My Vista Home Premium is in Hebrew (installed particularly so I could upgrade
to Ultimate, as my DVD comes with Hebrew installation).

BitLocker would be nice too. Nothing to fancy on my laptop, but I had already
one stolen before, and wouldn't want my info falling into enemy's hands easily


---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



C> What features are there in Ultimate that are not in Home Premium
C> that you
C> need?
C> It may be possible if you can borrow a Vista 32 bit SP1 installation
C> DVD to
C> use the key that came with your Ultimate upgrade DVD to do the
C> upgrade.
C> If you have the retail version of Vista Ultimate Upgrade it should
C> have come
C> with both a 32 bit installation DVD and a 64 bit installation DVD so
C> if your
C> new laptop is 64 bit capable and you can borrow a SP1 UltimateDVD
C> then you
C> may be able to upgrade direct to 64 bit.
C> C>

 

[Dominic Payer]

SP1 can't be slipstreamed.

All Vista SP1 disks are the same, whatever the labels may say, the only
difference is whether they are 32 or 64 bit, so you could use your
Ultimate key with any 32-bit SP1 disk you obtain.

You may be able to borrow someone's 32-bit SP1 disk, or HP might, for a
fee, be willing to supply a SP1 installation disk to supplement the
recovery disk you already have.

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Dominic,
Strange.... I just read you can slipstream SP1 with vLite... Am I not correct?
I am unlikely to do so, but still...

If anything, it really makes me consider moving to another platform... I
mean, this is plain ridiculous.

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



DP> SP1 can't be slipstreamed.
DP>
DP> All Vista SP1 disks are the same, whatever the labels may say, the
DP> only difference is whether they are 32 or 64 bit, so you could use
DP> your Ultimate key with any 32-bit SP1 disk you obtain.
DP>
DP> You may be able to borrow someone's 32-bit SP1 disk, or HP might,
DP> for a fee, be willing to supply a SP1 installation disk to
DP> supplement the recovery disk you already have.
DP>
DP> On 12/07/2009 16:33, Jonathan Boyko wrote:
DP>

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Ehlo Mike Hall - MVP,
Well, I bought it when it was still new.

That's it? M$ is *that* dumb? Or is it the greed talking?

Any ideas if its possible to slipstream SP1 into installation?

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



M> M>
M> You probably wasted your money. Try for a refund. I assume that you
M> did not pay too much for an old version of Ultimate..
M>

Try here for instructions..

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-installation-dvd.html

Incidentally, the same applied to XP..

You can only upgrade to a newer version, and the SP's essentially make up a
new version..

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Mike Hall - MVP,
Thanks, mate.


---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



M> M>M> Try here for instructions..
M>
M> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-install
M> ation-dvd.html
M>
M> Incidentally, the same applied to XP..
M>
M> You can only upgrade to a newer version, and the SP's essentially
M> make up a new version..
M>

 

[Dominic Payer]

You can create an SP1 installation disk for e.g. Ultimate but you can't
create a general SP1 installation disk for all Vista editions.

This isn't a true slipstream of SP1 into the RTM source.

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Dominic,
Well, M$' reps say they can't help. I guess Bill Gates needs few more billions,
after all, he can't even afford that aircraft carrier for all his personal
jets...

Thanks a lot, guys (and gals?)

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



DP> You can create an SP1 installation disk for e.g. Ultimate but you
DP> can't create a general SP1 installation disk for all Vista editions.
DP>
DP> This isn't a true slipstream of SP1 into the RTM source.
DP>
DP> On 12/07/2009 18:00, Jonathan Boyko wrote:
DP>

 

[Mike Brannigan]

What features are there in Ultimate that are not in Home Premium that you
need?
It may be possible if you can borrow a Vista 32 bit SP1 installation DVD
to use the key that came with your Ultimate upgrade DVD to do the upgrade.
If you have the retail version of Vista Ultimate Upgrade it should have
come with both a 32 bit installation DVD and a 64 bit installation DVD so
if your new laptop is 64 bit capable and you can borrow a SP1 UltimateDVD
then you may be able to upgrade direct to 64 bit.

NOTE: You cannot upgrade from a 32-bit to a 64-bit OS, that processrequires
a complete clean install.

 

[Curious]

I did not mean to imply that you could do in place upgrade from 32 bit to 64
bit OSs I know that a clean install on either a newly formatted partition
or a clean install to replace an existing 32bit OS on a partition.
I was suggesting that it might make sense to go from the 32 bit Premium
direct to the 64 bit ultimate SP1 and not upgrading to 32 bit Ultimate and
then later upgrading to 64 bit Ultimate.

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Mike,
Thanks. I am familiar with that. Somewhat shame, though...

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



MB> MB>MB> NOTE: You cannot upgrade from a 32-bit to a 64-bit OS, that
MB> processrequires a complete clean install.
MB>
MB> MB>

 

[Jonathan Boyko]

Ehlo Curious,
Thanks for the help, mate

Borrowed an MSDN Vista SP2 disc from a customer of ours... Popped it in,
and it says I can't upgrade because my operating system is too old, this
time. Jesus tap-dancing Christ, is it *so hard* to make install process less
painful?

Downloded SP2, installed it, then ran the upgrade... It runs for, like, four
hours! I understand it unloads a WIM image to the hardrive, then unpacks
it, then consolidates it (whatever that means), then upgrades it... For Pete's
sake, I thought it took long to install/repair XP; now I long for the good
ol' times when only reason you couldn't upgrade was CD's original language...

---
Sincerely,
Jonathan M. Boyko,
TMidEast.Com.



C> I did not mean to imply that you could do in place upgrade from 32
C> bit to 64
C> bit OSs I know that a clean install on either a newly formatted
C> partition
C> or a clean install to replace an existing 32bit OS on a partition.
C> I was suggesting that it might make sense to go from the 32 bit
C> Premium
C> direct to the 64 bit ultimate SP1 and not upgrading to 32 bit
C> Ultimate and
C> then later upgrading to 64 bit Ultimate.
C> C>

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I am getting the same error with my upgrade disc. How did you end up
resolving this? Can I uninstall SP1 somehow?

You can only iunnstall a service pack that you installed yourself. If the
computer came with Windows preinstalled and the preinstalled version is SP1
you cannot uninstall it. The reason is that SP1 actually refers to the
service pack level of the system files and if those were the ones used by
the manufacturer to image the OS then there are no SP0 files stored on the
system to uninstall back to and no script saved to do it.