XP To Vista Upgrade Fails During "Gathering Files"

[Zytrex]

Windows XP Pro SP3
Asus A8N-E
AMD 64 X2 4200+
2GB G.SKILL DDR
Creative X-Fi
EVGA GTX 280 SSC

Every time I try to upgrade to the 32 bit version of Vista Ultimate, when it gets to 32% of "Gathering files" it errors out. It says absolutely nothing about what went wrong. It just says it had an error and cannot continue. Can someone tell me exactly what Vista Upgrade is doing during the "Gathering files" step and what kind of issues could cause it to fail there?

I had already uninstalled things like antivirus and defrag software. I did not uninstall the video card and sound card drivers. The compatibility test said there was nothing that could prevent the installation, just that some software/hardware might not work after the upgrade. Here is the entire list:

Sound, video and game controllers: MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
Imagine devices: Lexmark X83 MFP
Imaging devices: Lexmark X83 Scan/Print/Copy
Universal Serial Bus controllers: Sony Camcorder
Universal Serial Bus controllers: UCR USB Sync MSC-400&500

Visual Studio .NET 2003
PowerDVD 6
Windows Messenger 5.1
IntelliType / IntelliPoint
MSN Explorer
Acrobat Reader 7.*
nVidia Display drivers/nView Desktop Manager (NVIDIA Drivers)

I'm considering uninstalling the rest of the software listed along with video and sound drivers, but I don't think I can do much about the hardware. The only one I can find listed in device manager is the MPU-401 device. The rest are nowhere to be found. I don't even have that Lexmark X83 anymore.

I tried to kill every process I could without crashing the computer before my last attempt at upgrading. Here's a screenshot of my list of processes after the upgrade failed (with firefox and taskmanager added). I tried to kill AppleMobileBlaBla but it kept restarting.

 

[BadBigBen]

There might be a fault with the file system, which in turn could cause the installer/setup to crash during the gathering of the information for files...

suggestion: run CHKDSK /F from CLI (dosbox)... since you are running it on C: it will balk and tell you that it can not run but would do so happily upon the next reboot, acknowledge that and reboot...

also run SFC /SCANNOW to make sure that all XP system files are not corrupted...

then try to upgrade to VISTA again...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

What reasons or errors are hidden away in any of the failed Setup logs?

Windows Vista setup log file locations

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927521

Anything in this lot?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Vist...-au&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

[Zytrex]

Well, after doing all you guys suggested and striping out everything I could think of, it still kept erroring out at 32%. By the way, Google searching this topic doesn't help. The only things I ever find are reports of this problem happening when someone was trying to upgrade from XP to Vista RC1 (as in release candidate, as in years ago). In fact, I find the same thing over and over again. Somehow the same thread found its way to multiple sites. Very annoying.

Anyway, since I paid for retail Vista Ultimate, I decided to just call Microsoft for support. At one point in the conversation with customer service, they asked for my product key and the number on the back center of the disc. While my box, cd cover, and everything else say I have the retail version, the little number printed on the back center circle of the disc says it's OEM. So now I'm pissed. I paid full retail for this at Newegg and Microsoft says it's OEM and that I'll have to pay for support. They suggest I contact Newegg and get it replaced. Yay.

The person I was talking to said she was not tech support and simply someone who is supposed to figure out what support I can get and need. But at one point, she suggested that having a number on the back that is OEM while the rest is supposedly retail might have caused some problem. At first that sounds ridiculous, but who knows, maybe Microsoft put all kind of crazy stuff in there to prevent piracy. But still, everything about the discs look 100% legit. The holograms, the printing, everything. Is someone out there stamping professionally pirated Vista discs? And does anyone know if something like this could actually cause an upgrade to fail?

I still think it's highly unlikely this is why the upgrade fails. In other words, when I get this replaced by Newegg and get a proper retail copy, I might end up with the exact same problem. So in preparation for that, does anybody have any new ideas?

 

[linney]

Strange that there is no indication of a problem in any of the logging, what does it say near the end, or does it just leave things unstated and you none the wiser. Did you try searching the logs for words like "failed", "error", or "warning"?

Return Policies (NewEgg)

http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx#9

I wonder if it will go in as a sort of clean install via this procedure seemingly allowed if not condoned by Microsoft?

It's official: upgrade hack included in Vista SP1

http://windowssecrets.com/2008/04/03/01-Its-official-upgrade-hack-included-in-Vista-SP1

Maybe you could test some installs in a Virtual machine to see what happens in a clean version of XP when you try the Vista upgrade?

Virtual PC 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&displaylang=en&tm

 

[BadBigBen]

This might be of interest...

*ATTN: Difference between Vista OEM and Retail License*

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/235074-34-attn-difference-vista-retail-license

and if I paid the RETAIL price and only got the OEM version, then I would be t'd off as well...





Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."