Students Reporting Problems With $29 Windows 7

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Do you have to have a legit copy of Windows to do the upgrade deal?
I bought it without thinking because I'm going to do a clean install. If you do, I suppose I can use my wife's Vista license to install this clean on my bootleg PC.
 
Am I the only one with problems even getting it to download? It gets to around 64% each time....then download speed drops from 500k to nothing. I checked all the stupid things like, full hard drive ect. But so far I'm stuck.
 
What? Just released and already problems? Yummy boy, don't antagonize the poor wintarded m$ fankiddies with such disinformation. Such glitches happen just to the rotten fruit (for example the devastating guest account file deletion show stopper, so hotly debated here), not $even... At least the latest apple ad was utterly untrue, microsuxx didn't repeat any of the previous problems with vi$hta windblow$... or?
 
[citation][nom]1xmattx1[/nom]Why bother with the silly upgrade for $30 from a 3rd party vendor?Why Not buy Windows 7 Professional !FULL! for $30 straight through microsoft? You only need a .edu email and you just call them up and ask them. See this post on OCForums for more info.http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=622265[/citation]

THIS GIVES YOU AN ISO FOR 32-BIT AND 64-BIT AND A 32 AND 64 BIT .EXE
 
Gotta love how it's none other than Marcus "Mac" Yam creating an article pointing out 7's minor problem.
 
jrocks84: Well my college has a deal with MS. The students and faculty get huge discounts on all of MS's software (they are licensed for students/personal use...not commercial, but thats since there is no difference....and i dont own a business or anything lol). Well you pay the 8 bucks and they hand you an envelope which comes with a holographic microsoft disc and a cd key. That simple :)
 
Here's the deal -- the problem was that if you were trying to install Window7 64-bit on a 32-bit existing OS. The installer program is 64-bit, which fails to run. Pretty boneheaded that there's no 32-bit installer included, since obviously if you're upgrading from XP 99% of users will be running 32 bit.

Interestingly, once I found the 'create a bootable ISO' method, things went a little better. I had some trouble doing the 'in place' install, and deleted the old boot partition, and then I was able to do a fresh install -- not an update at all. Go figure.
 
This problem stems from trying to upgrade from XP or 32 bit vista to 64 bit windows 7. When unpacking the initial setup file you download, you get an error msg but this is not correct!

The file has actually unpacked fine, but the problem comes when it tries to automatically run the 64bit program from inside your 32bit OS. Just follow the directions here: http://www.notebooks.com/2009/10/22/how-to-make-the-student-discounted-windows-7-upgrade-bootable/

I experienced this problem, then followed the directions here and now have a perfectly stable version of windows 7 pro running. Just be sure to change the boot drive to run off the install disc/flashdrive and then change it back after it installs to boot from the drive you just selected to install to so it can finish the process.
 
So my experience with the $29.99 win 7 purchase. I have to say that I went online and ordered windows 7 a few hours after release and downloaded the file. I have been running a dual boot xp/win 7 rc machine lately and the xp kinda went corrupt on me over the last month. I was primarly win7 anyway so wasn't a big deal.

So on windows 7 RC x86 pc I purchased the windows 7 x64 professional for $29.99.
I downloaded the downloader file
Downloaded the 3 three files the downloader file downloaded. Setup 1; Setup 2; and win7-p-retail-en-us-x64 file.
Ran the win-...x64file and comes up with an error about 1/3 of the way through. Attempt on different computers running win 7 rc x64 and windows xp results in same error.
Later that morning downloaded again don't get an error 1/3 of the way through but at the end of the extraction or whatever file conversion I do get an error. Same attempt on x64 windows 7 rc results in no error.

So attempt to install on my primary computer running x86 win 7 rc can't run x64 installation file. Email customer support on how to buy and back up dvd (still haven't heard back).
A little while later searched forums for similar problems found nothing on microsofts website. Found a tutorial on sevenforums.com to create an windows 7 iso file from the student download after about 20 minutes was able to convert my download to an iso. Created cd then installed windows 7 which I am currently using.

I have to say that it was a major headache and would have much rather just downloaded an iso file which is what I was expecting to begin with. The fact that microsoft told me nothing about this was fairly disappointing and on top of that I still have been unable to order a backup which was an option available on purchase but I thought i was downloading an iso file. Since I can't well at least easily go back and order a back up dvd I would assume the student 29.99 is pretty much for only college students with one primary laptop that you download and just update your vista laptop to win7.
Otherwise way too complicated and while I am not a computer expert per say i know that most of my classmates would not have been able to create the iso file I did nor known what that meant.
So while I very much enjoyed only spending 29.99 it was quite a bit of work and effort to get what I needed/wanted for the discounted price. Something microsoft needs to work on considering how easy of a time I had with the beta and RC.
 
I did a clean install on a brand new HD. The key kept getting rejected....because I didn't pay attention to the instructions. Once I re-read the workaround, and followed the steps, all went well.
Installation was somewhat quick. I can't complain too much for $30. It's Home Premium 64bit. I don't care that I can't run XP Compatibility mode and whatever else useless things (for me anyway) Ultimate has.

For $30 it is a steal!

However, I will agree that the 32bit/64bit conflict was somewhat annoying. Thing is...people were supposed to just DL the windows onto the PC they were going to 'upgrade'. I think a lot of people just wanted to do what I did....which is the workaround and do a 'full' install.
 
This sound fun!
Another M$ Win version, and it will be necessary for the people to mess around with it just as with a Linux distro.

At least the later is for free!
 
This sound fun!
Another M$ Win version, and it will be necessary for the people to mess around with it just as with a Linux distro.

At least the later is for free!
 
I don't get Microsoft nowadays, with all the billions they are making, how hard is it to hire someone to test this student upgrade before launch day. Win7 looks to be a solid upgrade to xp/vista, but this will be for nought if you cannot install it! It doesn't give users a very good first impression, does it?
 
[citation][nom]1xmattx1[/nom]Why bother with the silly upgrade for $30 from a 3rd party vendor?Why Not buy Windows 7 Professional !FULL! for $30 straight through microsoft? You only need a .edu email and you just call them up and ask them. See this post on OCForums for more info.http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=622265[/citation]


Digital River is who is handling this from microsoft. they change extra for dvd copy, i ordered the backup disc.
 
[citation][nom]ossie[/nom]What? Just released and already problems? Yummy boy, don't antagonize the poor wintarded m$ fankiddies with such disinformation. Such glitches happen just to the rotten fruit (for example the devastating guest account file deletion show stopper, so hotly debated here), not $even... At least the latest apple ad was utterly untrue, microsuxx didn't repeat any of the previous problems with vi$hta windblow$... or?[/citation]

Sir,
I am writing you to inform you that I shall be from this day forth stalk all of your posts that involve any sort of "M$", "Microsuxx", or other over-used and immature ways of describing Microsoft. I shall point out all of your failures, and bring other Tom's users attention to your lack of intelligence and horrible writing skills.
Sincerely,
Mitch
 
Status
Not open for further replies.