Upgrade XP to 7 using HP discs

HatMan · 29 Sep 2011 at 21:41

Hi All,

I have a HP Business laptop with XPP on it. I also have a genuine HP Window 7 recover disc, that was supplied with the laptop. The disc that is structured as follows...

Folders are...

SW
swsetup
TOOLS
media.tag
noiso.flg
OSLANG.CPQ

The image is about 3.43Gb in size.

Nothing happens if the disc is inserted. I cannot boot from it etc and as far as I can see, nor should I be able to. So my question is, what is it and how can I use. I also have other HP discs that came with it as well namely.

Applications and Driver Recovery DVD
Applications and Driver Recovery Supplement CD
Operating System CD XP Pro SP2 Multi User Interface for system restore
Operating System CD XP Pro SP2

Many thanks

Meatball · 29 Sep 2011 at 21:57

Does the laptop have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) on it? It's usually on the bottom. If so what does it show the laptop being licenced for?

If the laptop came with 7 but your business installed XP, yes you should be able to upgrade to 7 as the laptop is licenced

.

HatMan · 30 Sep 2011 at 09:03

No the COA is for XPP, and yet the 7 disc was supplied with it in the pack of discs. I am guessing it was supplied by mistake as I have no other license in the pack to use.

Meatball · 30 Sep 2011 at 13:40

So there's no Windows 7 COA on either the laptop or within the documents supplied with the laptop? That will have the Serial Key printed on which is what you need! If it's a business laptop I wouldn't be surprised if they opted for Windows 7 > XP downgrade program meaning the laptop is only licenced for XP.

marmalade · 30 Sep 2011 at 19:01

What version of Windows 7 does it have on the disk

marc2003 · 30 Sep 2011 at 19:26

the activation stuff might be built into the windows 7 image but the only way you'll find out is by installing it. maybe take an image of the XP install, try it out and if it's no good, you can quickly get XP back on.

ian54 · 30 Sep 2011 at 21:01

AFAIK you can't "upgrade" XP to 7, it's a complete re-installation, so somehow you have to boot from a 7 disk.

Is there an option when you boot for a "recovery mode", probably booting from a separate partition ?

HatMan · 1 Oct 2011 at 10:31

The version is x64 Pro. The ISO is not bootable. I think it needs another programme to be running first before hand. I appreciate the help thanks. I have just been given a genuine copy of 7x86Home from a 3 license family pack so I may end up just using that. But I would rather not waste a license if I can help it. P.s no there is no licensing information regarding the 7 iso at all, so the theory suggest a downgrade may well be correct.