Ok... I've succumbed to the whole "give it a try" nagging. Well.... It gets to the point where it asks you to choose a colour scheme, but my keyboard and mouse seem to be not working. Nothing happens, forcing me to reset, after which I get a message saying its failed and will roll back to win 7. That was a waste of 25 quid then. I've no idea what to do. I can't do a clean install as its an upgrade.
1) you can do clean install, you only need an (probably activated) installation of Windows on your disk. That is what i had - installed Windows 7 on clean, then booted the Windows 8 media, choosed clean install and installed it. The only difference between a real clean install and upgrade clean install is that you will end up with one Windows.old folder. None of W7 apps, settings or documents were transfered, as that is what i choosed with the clean install option. 2) you can even skip the W7 install part, GoodBytes posted a guide somewhere in the Windows 8 thread. Install W8, some registry setting (something-OOBE), slmgr /rearm, reboot, activation.
Sounds like USB detection problem. Unplug Mouse and Keyboard, and plug them back in. Or try different USB ports. If you are using USB 3.0, it might be conflicting with Windows 7 drivers, as Windows 8 has USB 3.0 native support. You can always clean install with an Upgrade license. Depending if you got the disk or the download version and if you run the setup within Windows or not it varies. If you run the setup within Windows, you should have the option to do a clean install in the setup wizard as you run it. If you have the downloaded version, and you entered the key and burn a disk or prepared a USB key, and prefer to do it via boot. You just boot from it, and it should work fine, as you already entered the product key and knows that you had a previous version of Windows. If you got a new HDD/SSD and have the disk, then Windows 7 Upgrade should work once you boot from the disk: Once installed, open the regedit, and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/, change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0, open command prompt as true Admin, type: slmgr /rearm, when it's done, restart your computer, and it should activate Windows just fine.
Try booting from it and doing a custom install make sure you completely wipe the HDD first, I did the a custom install from a upgrade disk I found if I had a previous install it wouldn't work but with a completely clean HDD it installed fine and activated with NO hacks at all
Hmmm... I need it to just upgrade what's there, keep all settings, all apps, and all files. I don't have time for a clean install, especially if I have to hack and mess around. I don't know if its crashed, or just doesn't see my keyboard and mouse, but 4 times I've tried now, and I just can't get it to do anything at the choose your colour screen.
I've tried swapping ports... Same deal I don't have the time to do tat now, so will have to wait until I have... Probably next week.
After some research it looks like you have a program or drivers that is breaking the upgrade process. Windows 8 does a lot of stuff on the back, while waiting for you to pass through the setup question, so that it makes the process faster. In Windows 7 (if you can get back to it), make sure that any special motherboard features software/driver are removed, like OC software, USB ON while system is off, and all those fancy things. Remove any security software you have, I would even go by removing VPN. You are not the only person with this issue, and the general conclusion is telling Windows not to keep the apps and only transfer personal files, solved the problem.
I've burnt the downloaded files to a ISO and booted from it. It seems to be letting me install afresh. I'll keep you posted.
Remove whatever antivirus program you have installed. It can give a boatload of problems with Windows 8
It worked as a completely fresh install. Even let me repartition drives etc. Now the ball ache of re-installing everything!!! Win8 is on, along with Stardock's Start8... which works very BTW. Thanks for all the things to try, and suggestions. I know I never actually got my upgrade to work, but I suppose, in the long run, a clean install is always better.
Just to save yourself some time on the install of everything go to ninite.com and select your apps, it will always install them on the OS Drive however
Arrghhh! Crashed. Won't boot... N safe mode by f8... Great. S if it crashed and won't boot, I have to reinstall? Surely not. I'm not liking 8 so far.... Wish I'd stayed with 7
You may have hardware problem. Or your computer is OCed. You have too many issues within a single day. Either you are terribly unlucky, or Win8 made you discover a system stability problem due to faulty hardware or bad OC. Pin your most used folders and drives , and group and name your groups on the start screen, and you'll see it will much more enjoyable. You can't just use an OS for 2 min and judge on it either.
