Vista Anytime Upgrade failing.

Tom · External Since: Jul 22, 2006 Posts: 125

I am trying to upgrade Vista from Home Premium to Ultimate. I have purchased
the Anytime upgrade some time ago and have used it several times without any
issues. Now I am having an issue, Vista Home Premium was reinstalled on my
machine due to partition changes, and have been running it the last 2 weeks
with just Home Premium as the upgrade takes a while to do. I tried to do the
upgrade last night, and I get an error when its at the last step of the
upgrade, error code 0xc00000005, it says that my source media is unavailable,
it tells me to make it available again and to try again. It then does a
system restore to before I attempted the upgrade.

I need to know why this isn't working. My Vista disk is not scratched at
all, it is completely clean, save taking it out to use it, it goes back into
the storage case. I do not really want to have to reinstall Vista again as I
probably am going to have to call India to have it activated again, plus all
the software I need to reinstall (I have 1TB of storage space). If anyone is
familiar of why this would be occuring, or what I could do as a workaround to
fix this, please let me know as I can't find anything specific to this in
internet searches.

Thanks.

Tom · External Since: Jul 22, 2006 Posts: 125

I also want to clarify quickly that I do not believe it is hardware related.
I did run burn-in tests and memory tests without any errors, and besides this
issue, Vista runs without any hitches. I feel it may be software related
with something that is currently installed on my OS conflicting with the
upgrade.

Mark · External Since: Mar 29, 2007 Posts: 47

Did you activate the Home Premium after re-installing it?
Required to perform the Anytime Upgrade.

Is your Home Premium disk in the player during your Anytime upgrade.
Required since it is not really downloaded, it just gets a "better"
product
key and performs an upgrade with your original disk.

"Tom" <Tom.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AF91D1F1-EE6F-430A-92A0-C615618192E4@microsoft.com...
>I am trying to upgrade Vista from Home Premium to Ultimate. I have
>purchased
> the Anytime upgrade some time ago and have used it several times without
> any
> issues. Now I am having an issue, Vista Home Premium was reinstalled on
> my
> machine due to partition changes, and have been running it the last 2
> weeks
> with just Home Premium as the upgrade takes a while to do. I tried to do
> the
> upgrade last night, and I get an error when its at the last step of the
> upgrade, error code 0xc00000005, it says that my source media is
> unavailable,
> it tells me to make it available again and to try again. It then does a
> system restore to before I attempted the upgrade.
>
> I need to know why this isn't working. My Vista disk is not scratched at
> all, it is completely clean, save taking it out to use it, it goes back
> into
> the storage case. I do not really want to have to reinstall Vista again
> as I
> probably am going to have to call India to have it activated again, plus
> all
> the software I need to reinstall (I have 1TB of storage space). If anyone
> is
> familiar of why this would be occuring, or what I could do as a workaround
> to
> fix this, please let me know as I can't find anything specific to this in
> internet searches.
>
> Thanks.

Tom · External Since: Jul 22, 2006 Posts: 125

Yeh, it was activated, I have used the upgrade before. Unfortunately, I came
to the conclusion that something installed on my system must not be
cooperating with my upgrade, and to save me the frustration of uninstalling 1
thing at a time to troubleshoot it, I instead frustrated myself with
reinstalling. Not the outcome I wanted, but with the amount of applications
I had installed it would have been a very time consuming task.

I will note that reinstalling Vista to my PC with Home Prem, activating, and
immediately upgrading prior to driver installation and updates allowed me to
upgrade to Ultimate again. I wish I could offer more information on why it
was failing, but atleast the issue is resolved somewhat.

I appreciate your help.

"Mark" wrote:

> Did you activate the Home Premium after re-installing it?
> Required to perform the Anytime Upgrade.
>
> Is your Home Premium disk in the player during your Anytime upgrade.
> Required since it is not really downloaded, it just gets a "better"
> product
> key and performs an upgrade with your original disk.
>
>
> "Tom" <Tom.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:AF91D1F1-EE6F-430A-92A0-C615618192E4@microsoft.com...
> >I am trying to upgrade Vista from Home Premium to Ultimate. I have
> >purchased
> > the Anytime upgrade some time ago and have used it several times without
> > any
> > issues. Now I am having an issue, Vista Home Premium was reinstalled on
> > my
> > machine due to partition changes, and have been running it the last 2
> > weeks
> > with just Home Premium as the upgrade takes a while to do. I tried to do
> > the
> > upgrade last night, and I get an error when its at the last step of the
> > upgrade, error code 0xc00000005, it says that my source media is
> > unavailable,
> > it tells me to make it available again and to try again. It then does a
> > system restore to before I attempted the upgrade.
> >
> > I need to know why this isn't working. My Vista disk is not scratched at
> > all, it is completely clean, save taking it out to use it, it goes back
> > into
> > the storage case. I do not really want to have to reinstall Vista again
> > as I
> > probably am going to have to call India to have it activated again, plus
> > all
> > the software I need to reinstall (I have 1TB of storage space). If anyone
> > is
> > familiar of why this would be occuring, or what I could do as a workaround
> > to
> > fix this, please let me know as I can't find anything specific to this in
> > internet searches.
> >
> > Thanks.
>
>

Mark · External Since: Mar 29, 2007 Posts: 47

After completing the installation of all programs, make a backup!
Then, if you ever need to re-install, use the backup.
You only do it once, in less than 20 minutes and it's already activated
with all your apps installed.

"Tom" <Tom.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5957355F-582B-4876-A6DF-8E3CAFEEBEDE@microsoft.com...
> Yeh, it was activated, I have used the upgrade before. Unfortunately, I
> came
> to the conclusion that something installed on my system must not be
> cooperating with my upgrade, and to save me the frustration of
> uninstalling 1
> thing at a time to troubleshoot it, I instead frustrated myself with
> reinstalling. Not the outcome I wanted, but with the amount of
> applications
> I had installed it would have been a very time consuming task.
>
> I will note that reinstalling Vista to my PC with Home Prem, activating,
> and
> immediately upgrading prior to driver installation and updates allowed me
> to
> upgrade to Ultimate again. I wish I could offer more information on why
> it
> was failing, but atleast the issue is resolved somewhat.
>
> I appreciate your help.
>
> "Mark" wrote:
>
>> Did you activate the Home Premium after re-installing it?
>> Required to perform the Anytime Upgrade.
>>
>> Is your Home Premium disk in the player during your Anytime upgrade.
>> Required since it is not really downloaded, it just gets a
>> "better"
>> product
>> key and performs an upgrade with your original disk.
>>
>>
>> "Tom" <Tom.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:AF91D1F1-EE6F-430A-92A0-C615618192E4@microsoft.com...
>> >I am trying to upgrade Vista from Home Premium to Ultimate. I have
>> >purchased
>> > the Anytime upgrade some time ago and have used it several times
>> > without
>> > any
>> > issues. Now I am having an issue, Vista Home Premium was reinstalled
>> > on
>> > my
>> > machine due to partition changes, and have been running it the last 2
>> > weeks
>> > with just Home Premium as the upgrade takes a while to do. I tried to
>> > do
>> > the
>> > upgrade last night, and I get an error when its at the last step of the
>> > upgrade, error code 0xc00000005, it says that my source media is
>> > unavailable,
>> > it tells me to make it available again and to try again. It then does
>> > a
>> > system restore to before I attempted the upgrade.
>> >
>> > I need to know why this isn't working. My Vista disk is not scratched
>> > at
>> > all, it is completely clean, save taking it out to use it, it goes back
>> > into
>> > the storage case. I do not really want to have to reinstall Vista
>> > again
>> > as I
>> > probably am going to have to call India to have it activated again,
>> > plus
>> > all
>> > the software I need to reinstall (I have 1TB of storage space). If
>> > anyone
>> > is
>> > familiar of why this would be occuring, or what I could do as a
>> > workaround
>> > to
>> > fix this, please let me know as I can't find anything specific to this
>> > in
>> > internet searches.
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>>
>>

orthocross · Joined: Sep 14, 2007 Posts: 2

Infernal_Hlao · Joined: Feb 09, 2008 Posts: 2

For anyone having problems using the Windows Anytime Upgrade, here are the steps to follow. Please read them carefully. You may want to print this out before you start since you will lose internet connectivity in the process. As always, I recommend performing a full backup of your data before doing any major operating system changes.

1. Make sure your current version of Vista is activated.
2. Go into the control panel and choose "Uninstall a Program" if you are in Control Panel Home or "Programs and Features" if you are using the Classic View.
3. Once here, look on the left and choose "Turn Windows features on or off"
4. Turn off the following windows features:
-Microsoft .NET 3.0 XPS Viewer
-Remote Differential Compression
-Windows DFS Replication Service
5. Hit "OK" and wait for it to finish the uninstall
6. While still in the Program Uninstall window, remove any 3rd party drivers that may be installed (graphics card, network card, printer, sound drivers)
7. Remove any CD/DVD burning software and any antivirus/antispyware programs
8. Once this is done, go to your hardware manager screen
9. Uninstall your display adapter, network adapter and sound adapter (Vista may reinstall them but this is ok)
10. Begin your Windows Anytime Upgrade without restarting your computer

With any luck, you should have an upgraded Vista installation in about 30 minutes. Now you have to reinstall all your drivers but its better than doing a complete format.

FYI: I spent 9 hours straight on the phone with MS Tech Support before they finally told me all of this information. I have done this method with 12 computers now and every one of them has worked.

-Cheers Very Happy