Entering Vista Home Premium gives error 0xc004f061

I am trying to help my brother upgrade from Win XP Pro to Vista Home
Premium. Since that doesn't seem to be a choice when upgrading to
Vista, I did a custom install of Vista and expected to enter the Key
at a later point. When I fianlly got around to trying to activate
Windows Vista, Activation complains that the CD-Key is only valid for
an upgrade (which is what I was trying to do) and gives error
0xc004f061

I have read that I can do an upgrade installation of the existing
Vista installation to get around this error. I just want to make sure
that this if I do an upgrade installation I won't lose any of the
existing applications and any other data that he has entered since he
started using his computer after I upgraded hime to Vista.

I will have him mirror his main hard drive before he does the upgrade
but want to anticipate any issues that might come up.

Take Care

Hi ijourneaux,

You are on the right track. However, you need to install Vista again, this
time as an upgrade over itself. This time, it should allow you to activate.
For the best results, I would start the whole procedure again. Backup any
important data to removeable media before you start (check that you can
access this backup correctly). All applications will have to be restored from
the original media. If you follow the instructions in my post 'Clean Install
Windows Vista Using Upgrade Media', also in this newsgroup (dated 9/21/2007),
you should be able to solve your problem.
Dwarf

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...9-5eb74dcf2be7

"ijourneaux" wrote:

> I am trying to help my brother upgrade from Win XP Pro to Vista Home
> Premium. Since that doesn't seem to be a choice when upgrading to
> Vista, I did a custom install of Vista and expected to enter the Key
> at a later point. When I fianlly got around to trying to activate
> Windows Vista, Activation complains that the CD-Key is only valid for
> an upgrade (which is what I was trying to do) and gives error
> 0xc004f061
>
> I have read that I can do an upgrade installation of the existing
> Vista installation to get around this error. I just want to make sure
> that this if I do an upgrade installation I won't lose any of the
> existing applications and any other data that he has entered since he
> started using his computer after I upgraded hime to Vista.
>
> I will have him mirror his main hard drive before he does the upgrade
> but want to anticipate any issues that might come up.
>
> Take Care
>

I really can't easily do a clean install again as some of the
applications were very difficult to get to work correctly under Vista
after we migrated from Win XP Pro.

If I do the upgrade install, if everything works correctly, should all
of the applications work as expected? Is this something I could try to
explain via telephone activation? if so, what is the telephone
activation phone number.



On Jan 12, 4:46*am, Dwarf <Dw...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hi ijourneaux,
>
> You are on the right track. However, you need to install Vista again, this
> time as an upgrade over itself. This time, it should allow you to activate..
> For the best results, I would start the whole procedure again. Backup any
> important data to removeable media before you start (check that you can
> access this backup correctly). All applications will have to be restored from
> the original media. If you follow the instructions in my post 'Clean Install
> Windows Vista Using Upgrade Media', also in this newsgroup (dated 9/21/2007),
> you should be able to solve your problem.
> Dwarf
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/communities...efault.aspx?&l...
>
>
>
> "ijourneaux" wrote:
> > I am trying to help my brother upgrade from Win XP Pro to Vista Home
> > Premium. Since that doesn't seem to be a choice when upgrading to
> > Vista, I did a custom install of Vista and expected to enter the Key
> > at a later point. When I fianlly got around to trying to activate
> > Windows Vista, Activation complains that the CD-Key is only valid for
> > an upgrade (which is what I was trying to do) and gives error
> > 0xc004f061
>
> > I have read that I can do an upgrade installation of the existing
> > Vista installation to get around this error. I just want to make sure
> > that this if I do an upgrade installation I won't lose any of the
> > existing applications and any other data that he has entered since he
> > started using his computer after I upgraded hime to Vista.
>
> > I will have him mirror his main hard drive before he does the upgrade
> > but want to anticipate any issues that might come up.
>
> > Take Care- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -