Some Windows Vista users that have tried to upgrade to Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 7, have been plagued with problems.
According to reports on Microsoft's support forum, some users have seen their PCs crippled by an endless series of reboots.
A Microsoft engineer writing on the same forum said the company was investigating users' problems, but downplayed them as "isolated issues".
Users began posting messages about the endless reboots last week, saying that the Windows 7 installation would hang two-thirds through the upgrade. They reported a message on their machines that claimed the upgrade had been unsuccessful and that Vista would be restored. Instead, their PCs again booted to the Windows 7 setup process, failed, then restarted the cycle.
"My upgrade failed in [the] last step," said a user identified as 'Manjigani' in a thread titled 'Windows 7 - Install Message - Upgrade Unsuccessful' on the Windows 7 support forum. "And now it is in continuous loop. I let it run overnight hoping that it will fix itself, but no luck. I am stuck in limbo."
"All the promises of stability and simplicity, and now there are so many problems with installation," bemoaned another used, 'Derrty', on the same thread. "I can't even access my laptop nor do I have the ability to roll my system back to Vista. All indications are the install removed any trace of Vista."
Other than trying to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, there did not seem to be any common characteristics of the computers or the users' actions. Some said that they had purchased a Windows 7 upgrade electronically from Microsoft's online store, others said they had downloaded the upgrade from Digital River -a US-based company offering the OS to university students for a cut-price, while others said they had bought a retail copy of the new operating system at high-street stores.
Users vented their rage online in scores of messages.
"How on earth is Windows 7 so poorly manufactured that there even NEEDS to be a solution to installation issues?" asked 'Chimaera717', who later reported receiving a marketing message from Microsoft while struggling with the endless reboots.
"I just got an email from Windows, titled 'Windows 7: Your PC, Simplified'. I really want to email them back and say 'Windows 7: My PC, Crippled'."
Microsoft support engineers entered the thread Sunday, asking for information from affected users, such as the version of Vista running before the Windows 7 upgrade attempt, and what, if any, antivirus software was on the machine.
Sunday afternoon, a support engineer named 'Keith' said that some users' problems may be related to the optical drive speed when creating an install DVD from a disk image downloaded from the Microsoft store or through Digital River. "Make sure you are burning the image at the slowest speed possible to avoid corruption on the installation disc," said Keith.
"Digital River and Microsoft are investigating reports of this issue," he added. "This appears to be a series of isolated issues that are often related to the user's Internet provider or installed third-party software."
Students, who have faced other problems with their downloaded Windows 7 upgrades, were told by Microsoft to seek help from Digital River through a special request-help page .
One user pointed others to a document published last July on Microsoft's support site. The document outlined the endless reboot problem.
"When attempting to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 the upgrade attempt may fail with the message 'This version of Windows could not be installed, Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it'," the support document stated.
"However, the next reboot of the machine will launch the upgrade process again only to fail with the same message."
The document included steps users could take to try to regain control of their crippled computers.
This is not the first time that a Windows upgrade has crippled computers with endless reboots. In February 2008, updates meant to prepare PCs for the release of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) brought machines to their knees with reboot after reboot. In May 2008, the upgrade to Windows XP SP3 did the same. Microsoft blamed computer makers for the XP snafu.
See also: Will my PC run Windows 7?
Comments
James Hilton said: I experienced a similar problem when installing 7 on my Samsung NC10 netbook But i must say it was operator error this happened when going through one of the reboot procedures when coming back on you are faced with a message asking to press any button to boot from cd drive which i did this started up the installation procedure again and it seemed to be looping Obviously i shouldnt have pressed that button if you see this message when installing yourself dont do anything just let it do its thing I managed to stop the second install and the first one continued perfectly and its running great now
stim said: when are people going to learn - DO NOT UPGRADE AN OS - backup then clean install is the way
john said: hi why would anyone upgrade over the top of os because when you need to reinstall after some sort of problem you need to put the first os on again just to get your new one on again and it takes for ever in the extra time it takes to reinstall both you could earn enough money to buy full os i speak from experience
Cyteck said: As a very long standing user of windows I avoid OS upgrades like these like a dose of the plague Why because performing an upgrade process from one version of windows to a newer one is fraught with risks amp potential problems It all sounds so simple in theory though The main problem being that if you install a newer version of windows over an existing version its NOT a clean process Meaning you end up with for example bits some components of Vista inside bits components windows 7 and if your fortunate your programs amp settings amp data may just about survive the process Its definitely a much more risky amp complex process with far from guaranteed outcomesMy advise for what it is worth is that when it comes to upgrading from XP or Vista to windows 7 the only certain outcome is if you perform a custom installation which basically means a 100 clean installation wipe the disk re-partition if required amp reformat possibly