Install Win 8.1 pro on Win 7 PC

bonzo

bonzo

bonzo

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Howdy

Current machine, as i type, is Win 7 Ult 64 on SATA drive and decided to add a Crucial SSD and hoping to load Win 8.1 Pro onto it from a USB stick.

SSD installed and initialised fine, and give N drive letter

Being a bit green with tech, i thought i was doing the right thing by right clicking all the files on the Win 8.1 USB stick, copying and pasting into the new SSD N drive

Then click the setup.exe and off we go.. Product Key accepted and went to installing , but it got to 65% and stayed there. I waited 2 hours , came back and it was still at 65%

I abondoned and started again, but same thing. Was i too impatient ? Is it much longer to install than i thought ?

Am i even going about this the right way ?

What i would end up with is Win 7 on original C Drive ( optical ) and Win 8.1 on SSD ...hopefully
 
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You copied and pasted the setup files from the USB stick to the SSD? And then ran the setup?

Do you mind me asking why? You're asking a setup to run from the same hard drive that that setup program is going to then format and install Windows on. You need to boot from the USB.

Did you use the media creation tool to create the USB?
 
No no no...

You want to boot from the USB directly.

First, power down, and unplug the HDD with Windows 7 so only the SSD is connected. Boot into BIOS, and set the boot order to the USB first. Then restart, and it will go to the proper Windows 8.1 setup. Follow that and it will install Windows 8.1. Bare in mind, the last step is a massive prompt to upgrade to Windows 10 pro for free.

If you can't boot to the USB, make sure the USB is bootable, you can use rufus to make the ISO bootable: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
 
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Thanks a bundle - that will be my next attempt.

A friend told me something similar ( just to boot from USB but didnt say about the BIOS ) so i was watching the boot screen ( after detaching all drives accept the SSD and USB stick ) and POST is so fast i couldnt see where to change to boot from USB, so it just ended up as a black screen, obviously, as i had detached the C drive with Win 7

I will report back tomorrow and thank you promptly :)
 
It was a failure :(

disconnected all drives except SSD, and checked Computer to see that both SSD and USB were visible

Powered off and on, hit F8 and instructed to boot from USB. Good so far ..got asked to install windows, and slapped the Product key in, ...accepted and then got asked what type of install

Options were Upgrade or Custom. There were options to read as to why which was best but i didnt understand the explanations. The bit i did understand was that Upgrade required an installation of Windows, and since i had one empty brand new SSD installed and all other drives disconnected, there wasnt an install of Windows anywhere, so chose Custom

So i hit Custom, and was then given 2 options where to install. Reserved 128mb or the bit which was 223gb. ( its a 250gb drive ) But....

Right at the bottom of the screen there was an exclamation mark saying Win cannot be installed on that option. So i changed where to install and got the same message.
 
bonzo said:
It was a failure :(

disconnected all drives except SSD, and checked Computer to see that both SSD and USB were visible

Powered off and on, hit F8 and instructed to boot from USB. Good so far ..got asked to install windows, and slapped the Product key in, ...accepted and then got asked what type of install

Options were Upgrade or Custom. There were options to read as to why which was best but i didnt understand the explanations. The bit i did understand was that Upgrade required an installation of Windows, and since i had one empty brand new SSD installed and all other drives disconnected, there wasnt an install of Windows anywhere, so chose Custom

So i hit Custom, and was then given 2 options where to install. Reserved 128mb or the bit which was 223gb. ( its a 250gb drive ) But....

Right at the bottom of the screen there was an exclamation mark saying Win cannot be installed on that option. So i changed where to install and got the same message.
Click to expand...

There should be an advanced option to allow you to delete all the parititions. Once you delete all the partitions on the drive, select the unformatted raw partition you should now see on the list, and the install will do the rest.
 
Brilliant mr Orc

We have lift off sir !

I should have come here first but i was told it was simple to add an extra drive and install Win 8.1 on it, but they didnt figure in my terrible tech abilities

You have a 6 pack of Desperados winging its way through the net which you have to drink via Osmosis

Cheers !!! :)
 
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